Jonathan Cooley enters his fourth season with the Panthers and third as defensive passing game coordinator. He served as secondary/cornerbacks coach his first season in Carolina (2023).
2025 saw a second-straight Pro Bowl season from cornerback Jaycee Horn, as the Panthers defense forced 21 takeaways, tied for the 10th most in the league. Horn, who tied for the lead among all NFL corners with five, and cornerback Mike Jackson (four) combined for nine of the team's eighth ranked 15 interceptions. The Panthers were one of only six teams to have multiple players with at least four interceptions. Additionally, Jackson tied for the league lead with a single-season high 19 passes defensed.
In his first year as defensive passing game coordinator (2024), Cooley coached Horn to the first Pro Bowl appearance of his career. Along with Jackson, who finished tied for third with 17 passes defensed, the duo combined for the most passes defensed by a cornerback tandem in the NFL (30). Jackson, in his first season with the Panthers, finished with single-season highs in total tackles (76), passes defensed (17) and interceptions (two).
Allowing just 171.5 passing yards per game in 2023, the third lowest in the league, Cooley guided the secondary as they improved both their opponent completion percentage and passer rating from the previous season as well as ranking in the top 10 in touchdown passes allowed (fourth) and yards per attempt allowed (sixth).
While with the Rams for three seasons (2020-22), Cooley was elevated to defensive backs coach in his final season in Los Angeles (2022). That year, the defense finished tied for seventh in the NFL with 16 interceptions and tied for the 10th-lowest opponent touchdown to interception ratio (1.44). Cornerback Jalen Ramsey recorded four interceptions and finished second in passes defensed (18), earning his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl nod.
After being selected by the NFL for the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, Cooley began in the league as a defensive assistant/quality control with the Rams (2020). The next season, he served as assistant to secondary coach Ejiro Evero with the Rams (2021) during the team's Super Bowl LVI Championship run. That year, the secondary ranked fifth in opponents' passer rating (83.8), third in interceptions (19) and second with just 17 passing touchdowns allowed.
Prior to entering the NFL, Cooley spent the 2019 season at the University of Akron as defensive backs coach. Under his guidance, the Zips ranked second in the Mid- American Conference, despite having only one returning starter in the secondary entering the season.
Prior to Akron, Cooley coached the secondary and defensive backs at Kent State (2018) and the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga (2017) and served as a defensive graduate assistant at Kentucky (2015-16).
Cooley spent two seasons as secondaries coach at his alma mater, John Carroll University (2013-14) and coached safeties at Bluffton University (2012), while he also served as the team's equipment manager. His first coaching job came as a defensive backs coach and assistant special teams coordinator at Millikin University (2011).
As a player at John Carroll, he was a four-year letterman and finished in the top-10 in pass breakups for the Blue Streaks. Cooley is also tied for the most pass breakups in a game in school history (five). A Columbus, Ohio native, Cooley earned his bachelor's degree from John Carroll in 2011 and went on to earn an MBA in sports leadership at John Carroll in 2014.
- 2011 | Millikin University - Defensive Backs
- 2012 | Bluffton University - Safeties
- 2013-14 | John Carroll University - Secondary
- 2015-16 | University of Kentucky - Defensive Graduate Assistant
- 2017 | University of Tennessee-Chattanooga - Defensive Backs
- 2018 | Kent State - Secondary
- 2019 | University of Akron - Defensive Backs
- 2020 | Los Angeles Rams - Defensive Assistant/Quality Control
- 2021 | Los Angeles Rams - Assistant Secondary
- 2022 | Los Angeles Rams - Defensive Backs
- 2023 | Carolina Panthers - Secondary/Cornerbacks
- 2024-Pres. | Carolina Panthers - Defensive Passing Game Coordinator
