Entering his first season coaching in the NFL, Noah Pauley begins his first year with the Packers in 2026 as the team's wide receivers coach. Pauley brings 13 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level and comes to Green Bay after spending the last three seasons (2023-25) at Iowa State, where he served as the pass game coordinator/wide receivers coach in 2024-25 and the wide receivers coach in 2023.
In 2025, Pauley helped guide two wide receivers to All-Big 12 honorable mention with Chase Sowell posting 32 receptions for 500 yards (15.6 avg.) and two TDs and Brett Eskildsen finishing with 30 catches for 526 yards (17.5 avg.) and five TDs. Eskildsen ranked No. 23 in the nation in yards per catch and teamed with Sowell to form the only tandem in the Big 12 to both register 30-plus receptions and average 15.5-plus yards per catch on the season, only the second Cyclone duo to accomplish that feat in school history (Lane Danielsen and Lance Young in 2002).
Pauley tutored WRs Jaylin Noel (1,194) and Jayden Higgins (1,183) in 2024, the first duo in school history to both register 1,000-plus yards receiving in the same season and one of only two in the country to do so in 2024. Higgins finished the season with 87 receptions for 1,183 yards (13.6 avg.) and nine TDs while Noel posted 80 catches for 1,194 yards (avg.) and eight TDs, with both players finishing in the top 10 in the country in receiving yards (Noel, No. 9; Higgins, No. 10). Higgins earned third-team All-America honors from The Associated Press and second-team All-Big 12 recognition while Noel took home All-Big 12 honorable mention. For his efforts in 2024, Pauley was named the Wide Receivers Coach of the Year by FootballScoop.com.
Higgins (second round, No. 34 overall) and Noel (third round, No. 79 overall) were both selected by the Houston Texans in the 2025 NFL Draft, just the second time in school history that the Cyclones had two WRs picked in the same draft (Ike Harris and Willie Jones in 1974). Higgins became the highest-drafted WR in school history and only the second to be picked in the first two rounds (WR Otto Stowe, second round in 1971).
In 2024, the Cyclones finished with an 11-3 record as they registered the first double-digit-win season in school history. Iowa State tied for first place in the Big 12 regular-season standings and reached the program's second conference title game as it finished the season ranked No. 15 in the AP Top 25, the second-highest ranking in the final poll in school history. The Cyclones set single-season school marks for points scored (435), total yards (5,827) and first downs (315).
In his first season with the Cyclones, Pauley worked with Higgins, who recorded 53 catches for 983 yards (18.5 avg.) and six TDs, and Noel, who posted 66 receptions for 820 yards (12.4 avg.) and seven TDs. Among players with 50-plus receptions, Higgins ranked No. 3 in the nation in yards per catch and posted the top mark by a Cyclone in a season since WR Hakeem Butler (22.0 avg.) in 2018. Noel earned second-team All-Big 12 recognition while Higgins received All-Big 12 honorable mention.
Prior to joining Iowa State, Pauley spent four seasons as the wide receivers coach at North Dakota State (2019-22), where he helped the Bison win two Division I FCS national titles (2019 and 2021). In his first three seasons, he tutored current Packers WR Christian Watson, who earned second-team AP All-America honors as a senior in 2021 after posting a career-best 43 catches for a career-high 801 yards (18.6 avg.) and seven TDs. Watson finished his career ranked No. 2 in school history (min. 50 rec.) with an average of 20.4 yards per catch.
In 2020, Pauley helped Watson post a team-high 19 catches for 442 yards (23.3 avg.) and a TD. In his first season at NDSU in 2019, Pauley's receiving unit helped the offense record the third-most passing yards (2,911) and touchdowns (29) in school history as the Bison went 16-0 and won the national title with a victory over James Madison. Watson ranked No. 4 in the country in '19 with an average of 21.5 yards per catch (34 receptions for 732 yards).
While at NDSU in 2022, Pauley assisted with Green Bay's wide receivers during OTAs as part of the NFL's Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship.
Pauley coached at his alma mater, Minnesota-Duluth, for six seasons, serving as offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach (2016-18), as a graduate assistant (2013-14) and as a student assistant (2011). During his time with the Bulldogs, he coached six all-conference WRs, including Aaron Roth, who earned third-team All-America recognition in 2014 and ranks No. 8 in school history in career receptions with 151.
Pauley was a four-year starter at wide receiver at Minnesota-Duluth (2007-10), where he was a part of teams that posted a combined 45-8 record (.849) and won two Division II national titles (2008 and 2010).
Pauley was born March 30, 1989, in Duluth, Minn. He and his wife, Hannah, have two daughters, Ada and Lena.
