Justin Mesa enters his second season with the Lions as an offensive quality control coach in 2026, where he will primarily assist the offensive line.

Justin Mesa enters his second season with the Lions as an offensive quality control coach in 2026, where he will primarily assist the offensive line.

In 2025, Mesa helped Detroit's offense rank third in the NFL in yards per play (5.97), third in passing touchdowns (35), third in net passing yards (4,303), fourth in touchdowns scored (57), tied-for-fourth in points scored (481), tied-for-fourth in the fewest giveaways (15) and fifth in total net yards (6,344).

Prior to joining Detroit, Mesa spent a portion of the 2025 offseason as the running backs coach at Montana State. Before his brief tenure with the Bobcats, he spent four seasons at Washington State, serving as the assistant special teams/assistant tight ends coach in 2024, an offensive quality control coach from 2022-23 and as the director of transfer recruiting in 2021.

Mesa's other NCAA experiences include serving as the director of player personnel at Wyoming from 2017-18, serving as the wide receivers coach at Dixie State in 2016 and serving in a variety of administrative and coaching roles at USC from 2006-12.

With the Trojans, he was the team's tight ends coach from 2011-12, an offensive administrative assistant in 2010, a graduate assistant (wide receivers) in 2009 and a recruiting and operations assistant from 2006-08.

He also has extensive work at the high school level, serving as the head coach at San Marino (Calif.) High School from 2019-20 and as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Loyola High School (Los Angeles, Calif.) from 2013-15.

Mesa is married to his wife, Angelina, and they have two sons, Julian and Lucca, and a daughter, Haylie.