Lions have smaller coaching staff than most NFL teams

From high school to college to the NFL, most football teams have a head coach, offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and position coaches to provide guidance for players. You can find the same basic components in each team's coaching staff.

In the NFL, though, certain teams go way beyond the basic make-up of a coaching staff, as evidenced by the piece Field Yates put together for ESPN Boston this week. He ranked the 32 NFL teams by the size of their coaching staff, revealing in the process that the Philadelphia Eagles and Seattle Seahawks have the most coaches in the league with 24 people on staff.

To find the Detroit Lions, you have to go all the way down to 26th in the rankings. The Lions, which have 19 people on their coaching staff, actually aren't all that far off from the teams in the top 25. Quite honestly, there's not a huge gap between the top of the list and where the Lions slotted in the rankings.

There is a pretty large margin between the Eagles/Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Steelers, though. The Steelers, with only 15 coaches, have the smallest staff in all of the NFL. In terms of what roles they feel a need to have, the Steelers keep it pretty simple. That's a stark contrast to the Eagles and Seahawks, which have numerous additional roles. (The Eagles, for example, have a sports science coordinator.)

What does the breakdown look like for the Lions' 19 coaches? In addition to Schwartz, the head coach, the Lions have eight offensive coaches, six defensive coaches, two special teams coaches and two strength and conditioning coaches.