Perry Fewell (born September 7, 1962) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach. He currently serves as the senior vice president of officiating administration for the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

's officiating department. Previously, he served as the defensive backs coach or defensive coordinator for eight NFL teams between 1998 and 2019. He also served as the interim

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. ...

in 2009 and for the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

in 2019. Fewell won

Super Bowl XLVI Super Bowl XLVI was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion ...

as the defensive coordinator of the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

, a position he held for five seasons.

Early years

Fewell attended South Point High School in

Belmont, North Carolina Belmont is a small suburban city in Gaston County, North Carolina, United States, located about west of uptown Charlotte and east of Gastonia. The population was 10,076 at the 2010 census. Once known as Garibaldi Station, it was named for th ...

. In 1979, he helped lead the school to a 3-A state football championship.

College

Fewell attended Lenoir-Rhyne College and was a football standout. In football, he was a four-year

letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...

and as a senior, he was named the team's Most Improved Player.

Coaching career

College

Fewell was a college coach for 13 years (1985-1997), working as an assistant at North Carolina, Army, Kent State, and Vanderbilt.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Fewell entered the NFL as the defensive backs coach for

Tom Coughlin Thomas Richard Coughlin ( ; born August 31, 1946) is a former American football coach and executive. He was the head coach for the New York Giants from 2004 to 2015. He led the Giants to victory in Super Bowl XLII and Super Bowl XLVI, both time ...

in 1998 and stayed there through 2002. Jacksonville's pass defense ranked third in the NFL in 1999 and two years later the Jaguars gave up only 13 touchdown passes.

St. Louis Rams

In 2003, Fewell moved to St. Louis, where he was the secondary coach of the Rams.

Chicago Bears

Fewell was a Defensive Backs coach with Chicago from 2004–2005 under Head Coach

Lovie Smith Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 to 2016, he served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a ...

Buffalo Bills

Fewell was hired as defensive coordinator of the Buffalo Bills in 2006. In what was statistically their best season under Fewell, the 2008 Bills defense ranked 2nd in the AFC in negative yardage plays, recorded 7 games of holding opposing offenses to less than 100 yards rushing, finished 4th in the NFL in red zone defense (41.8%), and allowed just 14 passing touchdowns all year. In Week 10 of the 2009 season, the Bills fired head coach

Dick Jauron Richard Manuel Jauron (born October 7, 1950) is a former American football player and coach. He played eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL), five with the Detroit Lions and three with the Cincinnati Bengals. Jauron served as the he ...

after a 3–6 start and Fewell was appointed interim head coach. He led Buffalo to a 3–4 finish. Following the season finale, the Bills fired their entire coaching staff, including Fewell.

New York Giants

On January 14, 2010, Fewell was hired as defensive coordinator of the New York Giants. Fewell served under head coach

, under whom Fewell previously worked during his time with the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

. On February 5, 2012, the Giants defeated the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

21–17 to win

. Under his leadership, the Giants defense was often criticized for being "off and soft", allowing other teams to come back into games they should not have been able to. On January 7, 2015, the Giants and Fewell parted ways after he spent five years in charge of the defense.

Washington Redskins

Fewell served as defensive backs coach for the Washington Redskins for two seasons.

Return to the Jacksonville Jaguars

After

returned to the

as the Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Fewell was brought in to act as the defensive backs coach on

Doug Marrone Douglas Charles Marrone (born July 25, 1964) is an American football coach and former offensive lineman who is the offensive line coach for the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as the head coach at ...

's staff.

Carolina Panthers

Fewell was named the secondary coach of the Carolina Panthers on January 15, 2019. He was named interim head coach on December 3, 2019, following the dismissal of

Ron Rivera Ronald Eugene Rivera (born January 7, 1962), nicknamed "Riverboat Ron", is an American football head coach for the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). He attended the University of California, Berkeley in the early 1980 ...

NFL Officiating

In 2020, Fewell joined the NFL's officiating department as Senior Vice President of Officiating Administration.

Head coaching record

* – Interim head coach

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fewell, Perry 1962 births Living people New York Giants coaches Buffalo Bills coaches Buffalo Bills head coaches Chicago Bears coaches Jacksonville Jaguars coaches Washington Redskins coaches St. Louis Rams coaches Carolina Panthers coaches National Football League defensive coordinators Army Black Knights football coaches Kent State Golden Flashes football coaches Lenoir–Rhyne Bears football players North Carolina Tar Heels football coaches Vanderbilt Commodores football coaches People from Belmont, North Carolina People from Gaston County, North Carolina African-American coaches of American football Players of American football from North Carolina Lenoir–Rhyne University alumni National Football League executives Carolina Panthers head coaches