Retired longtime defensive coordinator Richie Petitbon and current Philadelphia Eagles run game coordinator/offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland have been selected as the 2025 Paul “Dr. Z” Zimmerman Award winners by the Professional Football Writers of America (PFWA).
Petitbon and Stoutland are the 26th and 27th recipients of the Dr. Z Award, which was instituted by the PFWA in 2014.
The Dr. Z Award is given for lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL. The award is named for Zimmerman, who covered the NFL for 29 years as Sports Illustrated’s lead pro football writer. His impact on the writing and football industries was profound. Zimmerman is widely considered one of the best football writers of all time, and his 1970 “A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football” and revised 1984 “The New Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football” are textbooks to this day for young football writers trying to learn the game and trying to learn to write about the game. He started to cover the NFL in 1966, and he started at Sports Illustrated in 1979. Zimmerman stayed at SI until his writing career was cut short by a series of strokes in November 2008. He served as PFWA president during the 1982 season.
Other 2025 finalists for the Dr. Z Award were the late defensive coordinator Floyd Peters, the late defensive coordinator Thomas Catlin, the late defensive coordinator Floyd Peters, retired offensive position coach/coordinator Terry Robiskie and the late defensive line coach John Teerlinck.
After a 14-year NFL career as a safety in which he was voted to the Pro Bowl four times and had 48 career interceptions, Petitbon moved into the coaching ranks with the Houston Oilers (1974-77) as a defensive backs coach under Sid Gillman and Bum Phillips. He moved on to Washington in 1978 as the defensive backs coach, and in 1981, Petitbon was promoted to defensive coordinator under new head coach Joe Gibbs. He served as defensive coordinator/assistant head coach through 1992, during a time when Washington won three Super Bowls (XVII, XXII and XXVI). In a strike-shortened 1982 season, Petitbon’s defensive unit allowed the fewest points and the fourth fewest yards of any team in the NFL despite having just one defensive Pro Bowler. The 1991 team allowed the second fewest points and the third fewest yards on the way to the Super Bowl XXVI title. He succeeded Gibbs as head coach and served one season (1993) as Washington’s head coach. Petitbon is one of only three people to have participated in all five of Washington’s Super Bowl appearances as either a player or coach, and he was inducted into the franchise’s Ring of Fame in 2015.
Stoutland completed his 12th season with Philadelphia and his 42nd as a pro or college coach in 2024. The Eagles’ run game coordinator/offensive line coach has developed some of the NFL’s best offensive lines, tutoring Pro Bowl players during each of his 12 seasons with the Eagles – becoming the first O-line coach since the 1970 merger to produce Pro Bowlers in 12 consecutive seasons. Stoutland has assisted five players to 15 All-Pro honors – Lane Johnson (2017, ’21-24), Jason Kelce (2017-19, ’21-23), Jordan Mailata (2024), Mathis (2013) and Jason Peters (2013-14). Under Stoutland’s tutelage, Kelce became the first center in NFL history to win a Super Bowl Championship and collect six first-team All-Pro accolades during their career. His lines have helped set numerous Eagles team records including rushing TDs (32 in 2022; tied-fourth in NFL history), rushing yards (3,048 in 2021), and the line blocked for two NFL-leading rushers – LeSean McCoy (2013) and Saquon Barkley (2024). Prior to his time in Philadelphia, Stoutland coached in college at Alabama, Miami (Fla.), Michigan State, Syracuse, Cornell and Southern Connecticut State.
PAUL “DR. Z” ZIMMERMAN AWARD WINNERS (For lifetime achievement as an assistant coach in the NFL): 2014 – Jim Johnson, Howard Mudd, Fritz Shurmur and Ernie Zampese; 2015 – Dick LeBeau, Tom Moore and Dante Scarnecchia; 2016 – Monte Kiffin and Wade Phillips; 2017 – Bud Carson; 2018 – Joe Bugel and Emmitt Thomas; 2019 – Gunther Cunningham and Mike Westhoff; 2020 – Bill Arnsparger and Romeo Crennel; 2021 – Rod Marinelli and Bobby Turner; 2022 – Leslie Frazier and Greg Knapp; 2023 – Don “Wink” Martindale, Bobb McKittrick and John Mitchell; 2024 – Bill Callahan and Steve Spagnuolo; 2025 – Richie Petitbon and Jeff Stoutland
