Brian Belichick

Brian Belichick To Stay With Patriots; Team To Hire T.C. McCartney

February 8th, 2024 at 8:56am CST by Sam Robinson

While a coordinator opportunity lured Steve Belichick to the college ranks for the first time, the Patriots will not lose all the Belichicks from their staff. Brian Belichick will stay with the team, ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss notes.

The team moved on from six-time Super Bowl-winning HC Bill Belichick days after the season, but successor Jerod Mayo extended an offer for both of Belichick’s sons to stay on. Steve is now officially in place as the DC at the University of Washington, but Brian will continue with the Patriots.

Brian Belichick has worked as the Pats’ safeties coach since 2020. This marked his first gig coaching a position under his father, who brought him aboard in 2016 as a scouting assistant. Steve had been with the team 12 years, moving from safeties coach — making a place for Brian — to outside linebackers assistant.

Additionally, the Patriots are set to hire T.C. McCartney as their next QBs coach, Reiss adds. Fired from the Browns on the same day the team axed Alex Van Pelt, McCartney will rejoin his previous boss in Foxborough. The Patriots named Van Pelt their new play-caller last week. McCartney, 34, spent the past two seasons as the Browns’ tight ends coach but has a past in charge of QBs. In 2019, McCartney served as the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach. The team moved on after one season, leading McCartney to Cleveland as an offensive assistant. CBS Sports’ Jonathan Jones reported Wednesday a McCartney hire was close.

The Patriots are also hiring Browns assistant offensive line coach Scott Peters as their offensive line coach, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson adds. Peters will serve as the team’s next O-line coach, per ProFootballNetwork.com’s Adam Caplan. This will strip the Browns of their top two O-line coaches, with Peters’ exit coming days after the team allowed well-regarded O-line coach Bill Callahan to join son Brian on the Titans’ staff. A two-time jiu jitsu world champion, Peters saw brief NFL action in 2003 before spending time on practice squads. Peters was part of Kevin Stefanski‘s initial Browns staff back in 2020.

As the Browns transition to OC Ken Dorsey, they are starting over at most of their offensive staff positions. Firing Van Pelt, McCartney and running backs coach Stump Mitchell, Cleveland will also lose its O-line contingent.

Patriots Notes: Steve Belichick, Mayo, Front Office, ST Coordinator

January 15th, 2024 at 6:11pm CST by Ben Levine

While Bill Belichick‘s iconic stint with the Patriots has come to an end, there’s a chance his sons stick with the organization. According to Albert Breer of SI.com, both Steve Belichick and Brian Belichick have been offered opportunities to stay on the staff for 2024.

Steve Belichick has worked his way up through New England’s coaching ranks, culminating in him earning the roles of defensive play-caller and linebackers coach. New head coach Jerod Mayo worked closely with Steve, as the two effectively served as New England’s defensive coordinator over the past few years. While the elder Belichick could recruit his son to his next destination, the younger Belichick still has a strong connection to Mayo and the Patriots.

Brian Belichick joined the organization as a scouting assistant in 2016 and eventually earned a promotion to coaching assistant. After three years in that role, he was promoted to safeties coach, a gig he’s held since the 2020 campaign.

More notes out of New England…

The Patriots quick decision to promote Mayo wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction, a fact we already partly knew considering the outlined succession plan in the coach’s contract. However, Breer notes that Robert Kraft has been touting Mayo as his next head coach for two years, with the owner telling others that Mayo would earn the promotion if Belichick left the organization.
Belichick’s exit didn’t only open a hole on the sideline. Belichick also had full control over personnel, meaning the Patriots now have a GM-sized hole in their front office. We previously heard the organization was expected to lean on their current staff, a grouping that includes director of player personnel Matt Groh and director of scouting Eliot Wolf. If that configuration doesn’t work out, Breer says Kraft could end up looking to hire a GM, although the owner won’t be rushed into any decision. Breer also notes that the Patriots will better empower their scouting a department, a group that was becoming increasingly “frustrated that they weren’t being heard in the final decision-making process.”
The Patriots have requested permission to interview Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams for the same job, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Williams got his NFL coaching start via the Bill Walsh NFL diversity coaching fellowship, and he worked his way up with the Bears, Lions, and Chargers before joining the Lions as the assistant ST coordinator in 2019. After two years in that role, he earned the top ST gig in Atlanta in 2021.
Before the team’s season finale, the Patriots converted Lawrence Guy‘s $500K playing-time incentive into a bonus, guaranteeing the veteran’s money regardless of his snap count in Week 18. Guy would have earned the incentive had he appeared in 45 percent of his team’s defensive snaps, and he entered Week 18 having played in 45.57 percent. Guy ended up clinching that mark during the loss to the Jets.
During that season finale, most signs pointed to it being special teams ace Matthew Slater‘s final NFL game. ESPN’s Mike Reiss writes that there were “strong hints” that the captain would be hanging up his cleats, with the Patriots wearing custom, Slater-themed hoodies and the player’s family being in attendance.

Extra Points: Sproles, Patriots, Browns, Snee

June 5th, 2017 at 9:26pm CST by Sam Robinson

Darren Sproles may now be reconsidering retirement. The 13th-year passing-down back said in December that this season was likely going to be his last, but on Monday, the soon-to-be 34-year-old Eagles running back wasn’t quite ready to go that far. “We’re going to see,” Sproles said about retirement (via Zach Berman of Philly.com), adding “right after we make the playoffs, come back and ask me.” Sproles totaled the most carries of his career last year with 94, and he caught 52 passes. The 965 yards were the diminutive runner’s third-most in his career. Philadelphia drafted 2016 Division I-FBS rushing leader Donnel Pumphrey in the fourth round and signed LeGarrette Blount, but the team is likely to cut Ryan Mathews. Berman notes Sproles is still expected to play a big role for the Eagles this season, which is the last year of his contract.

Here’s more from around the league.

Vance Walker is expected to be medically cleared by next week and ready for training camp after tearing an ACL during his most recent camp experience, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Walker remains a free agent, but a cleaner bill of health should bring back interest in the 30-year-old interior defender. His last healthy season involved a role as a rotational defensive end on 2015’s Super Bowl champion Broncos defense.
Former All-Pro guard Chris Snee will be working with his father-in-law again, with the Jaguars hiring the ex-Giants guard as an area scout, Neil Stratton of Inside the League reports (on Twitter). Snee was Tom Coughlin‘s first Giants draft pick that actually played for the team, with Philip Rivers being the then-coach’s first selection in New York, and the four-time Pro Bowler played 10 years with the Giants. The 35-year-old Snee’s been out of the league since 2014 but will work with the Jags, who hired Coughlin as their executive VP of football operations in January.
Desmond Bryant returned to the practice field for the Browns last week after missing the 2016 season with a torn pectoral muscle sustained away from the team’s facilities. Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com notes the veteran defensive lineman, who also played for Hue Jackson on the 2011 Raiders, will stay at defensive end in Gregg Williams‘ 4-3 after playing end in the Browns’ 3-4 looks previously. The 2017 Browns are in position to have Bryant and Myles Garrett at end, joining 2016 Day 2 picks Emmanuel Ogbah and Carl Nassib.
Stedman Bailey will undergo an upcoming procedure he believes can increase his chances of returning to football, the former wide receiver told TMZ. The website does not specify what type of procedure the former Rams wideout will undergo, but the 26-year-old Bailey said if it doctors tell him after it’s over that he shouldn’t play football again he will move on in a quest to return to the sport. Sustaining two gunshot wounds to the head in December of 2015 ended Bailey’s Rams run. Bailey returned to his alma mater, West Virginia, as a student assistant in 2016. The Rams officially waived Bailey in April.
Bill Belichick will have both of his sons coaching under him this season. The Patriots coach’s youngest son, Brian Belichick, is set to rise from scouting assistant to coaching assistant, according to Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald (on Twitter). A 2016 college graduate, Brian Belichick will join older brother — the Patriots’ second-year safeties coach — on the sideline in an as-of-yet unspecified capacity.