Hired Feb. 10, 2025, Jamael Lett begins his first season as a defensive quality control coach for the Packers. Lett (first name is pronounced juh-MALL) possesses 10 years of coaching experience at the professional and collegiate levels, including one season with the New England Patriots (2024) as a defensive coaching assistant.
In 2024, Lett was part of a defensive staff that helped New England rank No. 10 in the NFL in passing defense (211.5 ypg). The Patriots finished No. 5 in the league in both explosive plays allowed (103) and explosive passes allowed (68), one of only three teams in the NFL (San Francisco and Philadelphia) to rank in the top five in both categories. New England gave up only one explosive passing play in a league-high four games on the season, the most by the Patriots in a season dating back to 2000.
In 2023, Lett served as a special teams analyst at North Carolina. K Noah Burnette connected on 19 of 20 FGs for the Tar Heels, a 95.0 percentage that ranked No. 4 in the country (min. one att. per game) and No. 1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference as he went on to earn second-team All-ACC honors from the coaches and media. DB Alijah Huzzie posted a 16.0-yard average on seven punt returns, highlighted by a 52-yard TD return at Pittsburgh (Sept. 23).
Lett spent the previous two seasons (2021-22) as special teams coordinator/defensive assistant at South Alabama, helping guide the Jaguars to a 10-3 mark and their first bowl-game win in program history in 2022. The 10 wins were the most by any South Alabama team during FBS play and tied the single-season school record. In 2022, the Jaguars ranked No. 4 in the nation in run defense (93.9 ypg) and No. 25 in the country in both total defense (333.3 ypg) and scoring defense (21.3 ppg).
Lett spent the 2020 season as the secondary coach at Akron, where he helped DB AJ Watts rank tied for No. 2 in the Mid-American Conference in interceptions (two) in a COVID-shortened six-game season. Lett also coached the secondary at Samford for three seasons (2017-19), helping the Bulldogs to back-to-back winning seasons in 2017-18 and an FCS playoff appearance in 2017 after they defeated three top-25 teams that season.
Lett spent the 2016 campaign as a graduate assistant at Ohio, where he worked with the team's defensive line and was part of a staff that helped guide the Bobcats to the MAC East Division title. Lett helped coach DL Tarell Basham, who posted a school-record 11½ sacks on his way to being named the MAC Defensive Player of the Year. Lett's first collegiate coaching experience came at UT Martin in 2015, where he served as an assistant coach and helped the Skyhawks to a 7-4 overall record and a 6-2 mark in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Lett's first coaching experience came at the high-school level, first at Brainerd High School (Chattanooga, Tenn.) in 2013 and then at Davidson High School (Mobile, Ala.) in 2014. He played defensive back at Samford, appearing in 44 games from 2007-10 and posting 110 tackles (91 solo), four INTs, 16 passes defensed and two forced fumbles.
Lett was born March 11, 1988, in Fairfield, Calif., and was raised in Mobile, Ala. He earned his bachelor's degree in sports medicine from Samford in 2011 and his master's degree in curriculum and instruction from Tennessee Tech in 2012. He and his wife, Julia, have a son, David, and a daughter, Madison.
