Lori Locust is in her sixth season coaching in the NFL and her second season with the Titans as defensive quality control coach. Prior to arriving in Tennessee, she spent four seasons as assistant defensive line coach at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In her first year with the Titans, Locust worked with the outside linebackers and helped Denico Autry lead the team with a career-high 11.5 sacks and a career-best 58 quarterback pressures. Autry's 11.5 sacks tied for 12th in the NFL and tied for the 10th-best number for the franchise since individual sacks became an official statistic in 1982. Also, Harold Landry III returned from a season-ending knee injury during the previous season to appear in all 17 games and tally 10.5 sacks—his second-best career total.

During her four-year tenure in Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers led the NFL in rushing defense, allowing only 92.3 yards per game. Additionally, the team ranked fifth in sacks (187), third in tackles for loss (348), first in quarterback hits (452) and fifth in takeaways (102). During that time, nose tackle Vita Vea's 15 sacks led all NFL nose tackles.

In 2022, Tampa Bay's 45 sacks tied for the seventh-best total in the NFL, including a career-high 6.5 sacks by Vea. The Buccaneers' 89 tackles for loss tied for sixth place in the league.

In 2021, Tampa Bay finished in the top three in the NFL in run defense for the third consecutive season, holding opponents to 92.5 rushing yards per game. The team's 11 rushing touchdowns allowed were tied for the fifth-fewest in the league. In addition, Vea earned the first Pro Bowl selection of his NFL career and defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh finished second on the team with six sacks. Suh recorded 12.0 sacks from 2020-21 – the most in a two-year span of his career since 2014-15.

In 2020, Tampa Bay's defense led the NFL in quarterback hits (123) and ranked tied for fifth in the NFL in takeaways (29), seventh in sacks (47.0) and eighth in tackles for loss (81). Working alongside defensive line coach Kacy Rodgers, the pairing spearheaded a Super Bowl-winning defensive line unit that led the NFL against the run for the second consecutive season, limiting opponents to 80.6 rushing yards per game and 3.6 yards per carry in the regular season. Tampa Bay held its opponents to fewer than 100 rushing yards an NFL-best 12 times in 2020. Additionally, the Buccaneers tallied 48 regular season sacks in 2020—the second-most in team history—and 58 total sacks between the regular season and postseason combined, which tied for the NFL lead. In Super Bowl LV, the Buccaneers defense kept the Chiefs offense out of the end zone, tallying a Super Bowl-record 29 quarterback pressures.

With the Buccaneers' victory in Super Bowl LV, Locust and assistant strength & conditioning coach/physical therapist Maral Javadifar became the first women on an NFL coaching staff to win a Super Bowl.

In 2019, Locust helped coach a defensive line that plugged the gaps for the league's top run defense. Tampa Bay ranked first in the NFL, allowing 73.8 rushing yards per game and 3.26 yards per rush. The defensive line unit also played a critical role in helping the Buccaneers defense post the then-second-highest single-season sack total in franchise history with 47 takedowns.

Locust joined the Buccaneers after working as the assistant defensive line coach for the Birmingham Iron of the Alliance of American Football during the league's 2019 inaugural season. In 2018, she served as a defensive line coaching intern for the Baltimore Ravens during the team's training camp and, from 2016-18, worked as a defensive line/linebackers coach and co-special teams coordinator of the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks of the National Arena League.

A native of Harrisburg, Pa., Locust graduated from Susquehanna Township High School and attended Temple University. She later worked as an assistant coach at her prep alma mater from 2010-2018. She also held roles as an assistant coach with the Central Penn Piranha, a semi-professional team in Harrisburg from 2013-16; the York/Central Penn Capitals arena football team from 2015-17; the DMV Elite semi-professional team from 2016-18; and the Keystone Assault of the Women's Football Alliance from 2008-12 and again from 2017-18. Additionally, she was the defensive line coach for the East Preps Team America Talent Showcase in 2017-18, coaching in the 2017 and 2018 Globe Bowls as well as the 2017 FCS Bowl.

Locust began her coaching career following four years as a player in women's semi-professional football with the Central Penn Vipers.

Locust was an invitee to the annual NFL Women's Careers in Football Forum in both 2017 and 2018 and has been a featured speaker for the last six years, supporting the forum's mission to connect and inspire female candidates with coaches and executives at NFL clubs. During her time in Tampa Bay, she was involved with the Junior Bucs Girls Flag Football League, the first all-girls flag football league in Tampa. In 2021, she attended and spoke with athletes at the Buccaneers Girls Flag Football Preseason Classic—the largest girls flag football tournament in the country—and participated in the coaching portion of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Women's Summit for Careers in Football.

She has two sons, Alex and Bryce.

LORI LOCUST'S COACHING TIMELINE

2023-24: Defensive Quality Control – Tennessee Titans
2019-22: Assistant Defensive Line – Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2019: Assistant Defensive Line – Birmingham Iron
2018: Defensive Coaching Intern – Baltimore Ravens
2017-18: Defensive Line – Lehigh Valley Steelhawks
2017-18: Assistant Coach – Keystone Assault
2016-18: Assistant Coach – DMV Elite
2016: Defensive Line – Central Penn Capitals
2015: Assistant Defensive Line – York Capitals
2013-16: Assistant Coach – Central Penn Piranha
2010-18: Assistant Coach – Susquehanna Township High School
2008-12: Assistant Coach – Keystone Assault