 Parmalee as aMiami Dolphins assistant coach in 2003 | |||||||||||||
| Carolina Panthers | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Title | Running backs coach | ||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||
| Born | (1967-09-16)September 16, 1967 (age 58) Jersey City, New Jersey, U.S. | ||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) | ||||||||||||
| Weight | 201 lb (91 kg) | ||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||
| High school | Lincoln(Jersey City, New Jersey) | ||||||||||||
| College | Ball State | ||||||||||||
| NFL draft | 1992: undrafted | ||||||||||||
| Position | Running back, No. 30, 34 | ||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||
Playing | |||||||||||||
Coaching | |||||||||||||
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| Awards and highlights | |||||||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||
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Bernard Parmalee (born September 16, 1967) is an Americanfootball coach and formerrunning back who is therunning backs coach for theCarolina Panthers of theNational Football League (NFL). He previously served as the running backs coach for theJacksonville Jaguars from 2021 to 2023 and also served as an assistant coach forOakland Raiders,Kansas City Chiefs andMiami Dolphins.
Parmalee playedcollege football for theBall State Cardinals, where he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001, and was signed by theMiami Dolphins as anundrafted free agent in 1992. Playing for nine seasons in the NFL, Parmalee also played for theNew York Jets.
Parmalee played high school football atLincoln High School inJersey City, New Jersey.[1] Parmalee played in college at Ball State University, where he is the 3rd leading rusher all-time and was named MAC Freshman of the Year in 1987.
Parmalee played running back for theMiami Dolphins and theNew York Jets from 1992 to 2000. Parmalee's professional opportunity came when he tried out for theMiami Dolphins after working forUPS. He played seven seasons with the Dolphins (1992–98) in 104 games, scoring fifteen rushing touchdowns and three receiving touchdowns while rushing for 1,959 yards and amassing 1,306 receiving yards. In 1999, he went to the Jets and played two seasons in 30 games with two rushing touchdowns, 220 rushing yards, and 179 receiving yards.
Parmalee coached bothspecial teams andtight ends for theMiami Dolphins from 2002 to 2004.
Parmalee coached both special teams and tight ends for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from 2005 to 2009. Irish tight ends did well under Parmalee's tutelage having produced multipleJohn Mackey Award finalists during his tenure (Anthony Fasano andJohn Carlson).
The Chiefs announced him as their Tight Ends coach on February 1, 2010.[2]
He was hired by the Raiders as their new running backs coach on January 25, 2015. In Parmalee's first season in Oakland,Latavius Murray made the Pro Bowl, running for 1066 yards — the team's first 1000-yard rusher in five years. In Parmalee's second season in Oakland, the Raiders had the league's 6th ranked rushing attack. AsJon Gruden took over as head coach of the Raiders after the 2017 season, Parmalee was ousted with most of the Raiders coaching staff.[3]
In 2018, Parmalee was hired to be the running backs coach for the Falcons. He coachedIto Smith in his first season where he tallied four rushing touchdowns, the most rushing touchdowns by a Falcons rookie since 2002.[4] After working as an offensive assistant and assistant special teams coach to start the 2019 season, he returned to being the running backs coach on November 4.[5]
On October 12, 2020, Parmalee was shifted from running backs coach to special teams coordinator, as part of a midseason shakeup of the coaching staff.
On February 10, 2021, Parmalee was hired by theJacksonville Jaguars as their running backs coach under head coachUrban Meyer.
On February 17, 2022, he was retained under new head coachDoug Pederson.[6]