Eric Simonelli is in his first season as the Steelers' offensive quality control coach in 2026. He most recently served as the assistant linebackers coach at TCU in 2025.
Simonelli will enter his seventh season in the NFL. He previously spent six seasons in Dallas with varying roles: 2019 football research assistant, 2020 quality control coach, 2021 quality control analytics, 2022 quality control coach and analytics, 2023 quality control coach and 2024 quality control coach/head coach assistant.
In 2023, Simonelli continued to work with the defensive line, a group that ranked fifth in the NFL with 264 pressures. He helped defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa reach career-highs with 53 tackles, six TFL, 36 pressures and 3.0 sacks. He also helped Micah Parsons record a career-high 14.0 sacks and a League-leading 103 pressures.
After spending time on the offense in 2021, Simonelli's duties switched to the defensive side of the ball in 2022, where he assisted defensive line Coach Aden Durde in preparing the defensive line for upcoming opponents and tendencies. Simonelli helped the defensive line establish itself as one of the top pass rushing units in the NFL, as Dallas' 54 sacks tied for third in the League and were the most by a Cowboys team since 2008 (59). Dallas also led the NFL with 271 QB pressures.
In 2021, Simonelli spent time assisting the offense and was part of the operation that helped Dallas lead the NFL in both total offense (407.0 yards/game) and scoring offense (31.2 points/game). He worked closely with the running backs, helping Ezekiel Elliott record his fourth 1,000-yard rushing season (1,002) and Tony Pollard set then career-highs in rushing attempts (130), yards (719) and rushing average (5.5 avg.).
Simonelli's 2020 responsibilities included working with the special teams' units and helping the special teams staff identify League, opponent, and self-scout tendencies. He also assisted the head coach with game management decisions.
Before landing in Dallas, Simonelli was a student assistant coach while attending Wesleyan University. He worked with wide receivers (2017) and defensive line (2018) while also creating statistical reports to evaluate team efficiencies. Simonelli was also charged with the school's football recruiting camps, scouting prospective student athletes, and updating the recruiting database.
Simonelli graduated from Wesleyan with a bachelor's degree in economics and a minor in data analysis in 2019.
