Aubrey Pleasant enters his sixth season with the Los Angeles Rams and serves as the team's Pass Game Coordinator and Defensive Backs Coach. Head Coach Sean McVay also added assistant head coach to Pleasant's title leading up to the 2024 season.
Under Pleasant's guidance during the 2023 season, the Rams secondary recorded 10 interceptions, with nine coming from defensive backs. The Rams finished the regular season ranked third in pass breakups and tied for 15th in passes defended. The last time the Rams finished the regular season in the top half of those categories was in 2020 when Pleasant mentored the cornerbacks.
Pleasant also helped former Defensive Back Jordan Fuller record single-season career-highs in pass breakups, forced fumbles, and tied his single-season best with three interceptions. Fuller was one of 11 players in the NFL to force six or more turnovers during the regular season. Pleasant also guided former Defensive Back Ahkello Witherspoon, who led the league in incompletions against as the primary defender for the first time in his career. Witherspoon recorded single-season career-bests in passes defended and pass breakups. He also tied his singleseason career-high with three interceptions.
Before returning for his second coaching stint with the Rams, Pleasant was the defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator for the Detroit Lions for two seasons (2021-22). Pleasant also served an an offensive consultant for the Green Bay Packers during the second half of the 2022 season.
In his first year with the Lions in 2021, Pleasant mentored undrafted rookie cornerbacks A.J. Parker and Jerry Jacobs, who led all NFL undrafted players in snaps played on either offense or defense that season. The young cornerback duo was the only pair of undrafted rookies to play at least 400 snaps on offense or defense and both players saw more than 500 snaps of action in the 2021 campaign.
Additionally, Jacobs and Parker each produced seven passes defended and a forced fumble, becoming the eighth and ninth undrafted rookies in NFL history to produce a season with at least seven passes defended and a forced fumble. They also became the first set of rookie teammates to accomplish this feat.
Pleasant joined the Detroit Lions coaching staff ahead of the 2021 season to serve as the team's defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator after his first coaching stint with the Rams from 2017-20 as the cornerbacks coach.
In that span, Rams cornerbacks ranked second in the NFL in interceptions (28), led the NFL in interception return yards (496), and led the NFL in interceptions returned for touchdowns with five. Pleasant also guided former defensive back Jalen Ramsey to a First-Team AP All-Pro nod in 2020 and worked with cornerback Marcus Peters, who earned First-Team AP All-Pro honors in 2019.
Pleasant also was instrumental in the development of former Rams cornerback Darious Williams, who joined the team in 2018 after originally signing as an undrafted rookie free agent with the Baltimore Ravens. Williams had a strong 2020 campaign in his first full season as a starter with four interceptions and a pick-six in the postseason. During Pleasant's first four seasons in Los Angeles, the Rams earned two NFC West division titles, three postseason appearances and a trip to Super Bowl LIII.
Prior to his stint with the Rams, Pleasant spent four seasons with the Washington Commanders from 2013-16. In his first year with the team he was an offensive assistant and finished his tenure as a defensive quality control coach. Washington won the NFC East his final two seasons and he helped linebacker Ryan Kerrigan earn a Pro Bowl appearance after posting 11.0 sacks.
His first NFL position was as an offensive staff/head coach intern for the Cleveland Browns in 2013.
Prior to arriving in Cleveland, Pleasant spent two seasons at the University of Michigan where he served as a defensive graduate assistant (2011) and the program's assistant defensive backs coach (2012). In 2011, the Michigan defense led the Big Ten in takeaways (29) and tied for first in the FBS with 20 fumble recoveries. The following season, Michigan ranked fifth in the FBS with an average of 169.5 passing yards allowed per game.
Following his collegiate playing career as a safety at Wisconsin from 2005-08, Pleasant coached defensive backs at Grad Blanc (Mich.) High School and was a behavioral specialist/special needs teacher in the Flint Community School District.
A native of Flint, Michigan, Pleasant earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Wisconsin and a master's degree in education from Michigan.
