Marquand Alexander Manuel (born July 11, 1979) 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 and former

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

who is the

safeties coach Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

for the

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

of 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 ...

(NFL). He previously served as the defensive coordinator for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

and as an assistant coach for the

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

. After playing

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, he was selected in the sixth round of the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

. He played for eight seasons in the NFL for the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

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 ...

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

, and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

. He was the defensive coordinator for the

from 2017 to 2018.

Playing career

Early years

Manuel was born in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

in 1979.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Marquand Manuel
Retrieved March 18, 2011. He attended

Miami Senior High School Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high school in Miami- ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players
Marquand Manuel
. Retrieved March 18, 2011. and he played high school football for the Miami High

Stingaree The Stingaree was a neighborhood of San Diego between the boom of the 1880s and the demolition and vice eradication campaign of 1916. The reason for the neighborhood's fame was its role as the home to the city's "undesirables", including prostitut ...

s.GatorZone.com, Football History, 2001 Roster
Marquand Manuel
. Retrieved March 22, 2011. As a senior safety in 1996, Manuel was a Florida Class 6A all-state selection who made ninety-six tackles, nine interceptions and eight blocked passes. He received high school

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

recognition from National Recruiting Advisor, PrepStar and SuperPrep, and was rated among the top defensive back prospects in the country. Manuel was also a four-year honor roll student, and ran the

100-meter dash The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...

in 10.6 seconds for the Miami Stingarees track team. Manuel accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division of ...

team from

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 19, 85, 99, 125, 153, 183 (2011). Retrieved August 30, 2011. The Gators coaching staff decided to red-shirt him as a true freshman in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, but he played in all eleven regular season games in

. As a sophomore in

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, he totaled 118 tackles, three interceptions, two sacks, one forced fumble and four passes defensed as a sophomore. He started two games at

outside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

, in addition to seeing significant action at

, and led the team in tackles. As a junior in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, Manuel served as a key leader on Florida's 10–2

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) championship team that earned a berth in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed onl ...

. As a senior team captain in

, he helped lead the Gators to a 10–2 record, a 56–23 victory over the

Maryland Terrapins The Maryland Terrapins, commonly referred to as the Terps, consist of 19 men's and women's varsity intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Maryland, College Park in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Divis ...

in the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game in th ...

, and a final No. 3 ranking in both major polls. He played in forty-six games during his collegiate career, and totaled 308 tackles, eight

quarterback sack In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback (or another offensive player acting as a passer) is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in th ...

s, nine tackles for a loss, six fumble recoveries, twenty-two passes defensed and six interceptions. Manuel was a four-year SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree. He earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Florida in December 2000, and finished his college football career as a graduate student working toward a master's degree in education counseling with a special emphasis on mental health.

National Football League

Cincinnati Bengals

The

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The c ...

selected Manuel in the sixth round (181st pick overall) of the

, and he played for the Bengals for two seasons in and .National Football League, Historical Players
Marquand Manuel
Retrieved March 23, 2011. Manuel made his NFL debut against the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

on September 15, 2002, and started for the first time against the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) South division. Since the 2008 ...

and had two tackles. During the 2003 season, Manuel totaled eight tackles (six solo) in thirteen games with one start for the Bengals, and he also added five tackles on special teams. Manuel was waived by Cincinnati on September 5, 2004.

Seattle Seahawks

Manuel was claimed off waivers by the

on September 6, 2004. In his first season with Seattle in , he played in fifteen games, finishing with ten tackles (seven solo) on defense and had nine stops on special teams. In , Manuel was part of the Seahawks team that finished 13–3. In the 2005 NFC Championship Game against the

, he returned an interception thirty-two yards to set up a touchdown. The Seahawks reached

Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

, but lost to the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

21–10. Manuel started the Super Bowl at free safety, but injured his hip in the second quarter, and was replaced by Etric Pruitt.

Green Bay Packers

After Seattle's appearance in the Super Bowl, he was signed by the

as an unrestricted free agent on March 13, 2006. During his only season with the Packers in , Manuel started all sixteen games, totaling a career-high 103 tackles to rank fourth on the team. Memorably, he intercepted a pass deflected by

Ahmad Carroll Ahmad Raheem Carroll (born August 4, 1983) is a former American football cornerback. He played college football at Arkansas and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the 2004 NFL Draft. Carroll was also a member of the Jac ...

and returned it twenty-nine yards for a touchdown against the

on September 24.

Carolina Panthers

The Green Bay Packers released Manuel on September 1, 2007 during the final preseason roster cuts, and he was signed by the Carolina Panthers on September 3. He played for the Panthers for a single season during , playing in sixteen games and starting in two of them.

Denver Broncos

The Denver Broncos signed Manuel as an unrestricted free agent on March 8, 2008, and he played for the Broncos for a single season in . He played in all sixteen regular season games for the Broncos, starting in fourteen of them, and tallying eighty-three tackles and four blocked passes.

Detroit Lions

Manuel was signed by the Lions as a free agent on June 2, 2009, and he played his final season in for the Lions. He played in nine games for the Lions, starting in six of them, and compiling thirty-six tackles. The Lions released him on August 4, 2010, during the 2010 preseason. During his eight seasons in the NFL, Manuel played in 116 games, starting in fifty-seven of them, and compiled 366 tackles; he also had fifteen blocked passes, two interceptions and four forced fumbles.

Coaching career

Seattle Seahawks

On February 14, 2012, the Seattle Seahawks announced that the team had hired Manuel to serve as Seahawks' assistant special teams coach. A year later he was named defensive assistant. where he helped the Seahawks with

Super Bowl XLVIII Super Bowl XLVIII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for th ...

. In 2014 he was promoted to assistant secondaries coach, helping the Seahawks reach

Super Bowl XLIX Super Bowl XLIX was an American football game played to determine the champions of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2014 season. The American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots defeated the National Football Conf ...

, where they lost to the New England Patriots.

Atlanta Falcons

Manuel was hired by the Atlanta Falcons in 2015 as the defensive backs coach, following Dan Quinn from Seattle to Atlanta. After coming under fire for it, During the 2016 offseason, Manuel interviewed for 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 ...

defensive coordinator position, though he did not get the job. In the 2016 season, Manuel and the Falcons reached

Super Bowl LI Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017, to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2016 NFL season, 2016 season. The American Football Confer ...

, where they lost to 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 ...

on February 5, 2017. On February 10, 2017, Manuel was promoted to defensive coordinator of the Falcons. Manuel let his contract expire with the Atlanta Falcons after the 2018 season in which the team finished with a 7–9 record.

Philadelphia Eagles

Manuel was hired by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

as their

defensive backs coach In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

on February 5, 2020.

Personal life

He established the Marquand Manuel Foundation to help kids in his hometown of Miami. His oldest brother, John, was a ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, float (parade), floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually ce ...

'' magazine All-American and played football at

. Marquand is the ninth of nineteen children and has a family of siblings whose ages differ by 25 years from oldest to youngest. Manuel has a daughter, Madison age 15 and son Marquand Manuel II age 11.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Manuel, Marquand 1979 births Living people American football safeties Carolina Panthers players Cincinnati Bengals players Denver Broncos players Detroit Lions players Florida Gators football players Florida Gators men's track and field athletes Green Bay Packers players Players of American football from Miami Seattle Seahawks coaches Seattle Seahawks players Miami Senior High School alumni National Football League defensive coordinators Atlanta Falcons coaches Philadelphia Eagles coaches Sports coaches from Miami New York Jets coaches Ed Block Courage Award recipients

Playing career

Early years

National Football League

Cincinnati Bengals

Seattle Seahawks

Green Bay Packers

Carolina Panthers

Denver Broncos

Detroit Lions

Coaching career

Seattle Seahawks

Atlanta Falcons

Philadelphia Eagles

Personal life

See also

References

Bibliography