Michael Wilhoite enters his second season coaching linebackers for the Chargers in 2022. The seven-year NFL linebacker was hired as the team's linebackers coach after two seasons in New Orleans.
Wilhoite tutored a linebackers group in his first season that saw linebacker Kyzir White lead the Chargers and rank third in the AFC with a career-high 144 tackles (90 solo), including seven tackles for loss. White became the first Chargers defender to register at least seven double-digit tackle performances in a single season since 2008. On top of defensive development, Wilhoite helped rookie linebacker Nick Niemann develop in the special teams phase, ultimately leading all rookies with 14 special teams stops on the season and being named All-Rookie by the Professional Football Writers of America.
In his two seasons with the Saints, Wilhoite served as a defensive assistant (2020) and a special teams assistant (2019). The Saints won back-to-back NFC South Division crowns in those seasons. In 2020, Wilhoite assisted a defensive staff that coached the Saints to post a five-game stretch holding the opponent to under 17 points scored. Meanwhile, in 2019, Wilhoite assisted on a special teams staff that coached the units to be ranked No. 1 in writer Rick Gosselin's annual special teams evaluation metric.
Wilhoite entered the coaching profession following a seven-year playing career in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks. He signed to the San Francisco practice squad late in the 2011 NFL season after playing for the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL for the duration of their 2011 season. In 2012, Wilhoite was elevated from the practice squad to the active roster for San Francisco's final five regular season games and the club's Super Bowl XLVII run.
In his five seasons with the 49ers, Wilhoite appeared in 65 games and totaled 185 solo tackles, including 11 tackles for loss, three interceptions, 10 passes defensed and 31 total special teams tackles. He played his final season with the Seahawks in 2017, starting nine of 14 regular-season games played.
Wilhoite played collegiately at Division II Washburn University in Topeka, Kan., where he played multiple defensive positions over his six-year career with the Ichabods. After his senior season, Wilhoite participated in the 2010 Cactus Bowl, a Division II all-star game.
A native of Topeka, Kan., Wilhoite is married to his wife, Jacqueline.
