Moses Cabrera

Patriots Finalize Coaching Staff

With new head coach Jerod Mayo taking over after over two decades of Bill Belichick at the helm, the Patriots have solidified the entirety of their new coaching staff.

We already knew about the hires of offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney, running backs coach Taylor Embree, offensive line coach Scott Peters, and senior offensive assistant Ben McAdoo on the offensive side of the ball and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington, defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, outside linebackers coach Drew Wilkins, and inside linebackers coach Dont’a Hightower, as well as the retention of cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino and safeties coach Brian Belichick., on the defensive side, but below is the update on the rest of next season’s staff.

We were aware that former Rams assistant special teams coach Jeremy Springer had been going through an interview process, interviewing twice for the special teams coordinator position, but now we know that he will be heading special teams going forward in New England, replacing Cameron Achord in that role. He will be backed up by new special teams assistant coach Tom Quinn and special teams assistant and quality control coach Coby Tippett, after former assistant Joe Houston departed for the University of Florida. Quinn, a former long-time coordinator for the Giants, more recently spent last year on the Titans’ staff. Tippett was a coaching assistant in New England’s 2023 training camp and spent last season coaching cornerbacks at Tufts University.

On the defensive side of the ball, a few familiar faces stuck around and a few more were hired or promoted. The only new names here were defensive coaching assistants and quality control coaches Vinny DePalma and Jamael Lett. DePalma just finished his sixth year of playing linebacker for the Eagles at Boston College. He makes an extremely quick jump from playing in college to his first coaching position in the NFL. Lett most recently spent 2023 as a special teams analyst at the University of North Carolina. He has a litany of experience at other schools like South Alabama, Akron, Samford, Ohio, and Tennessee-Martin, but this will be his first NFL opportunity, as well. Last year, V’Angelo Bentley and Keith Jones held similar roles on the defense as fellows, but neither seems to have been retained.

Most of the new faces here are on the offensive staff. First, with former tight ends coach Will Lawing taking the offensive coordinator job at Boston College, former Saints senior offensive assistant Bob Bicknell will take his place. Bicknell’s extensive experience coaching the wide receiver, offensive line, and tight end positions sets him up well for his new role, though he hasn’t coached tight ends since 2011. Joining Bicknell in coaching receiving targets will be new wide receivers coach Tyler Hughes and assistant wide receivers coach Tiquan Underwood.

Hughes returns to the Patriots after a year as an offensive quality control coach at the University of Washington. Before that he had spent three years as an offensive assistant with New England. Underwood’s first NFL job came as an offensive quality control coach for the Dolphins back in 2019. Since then, he’s been coaching receivers at Rutgers and Pitt. The two replace the last two coaches for the position, Ross Douglas, who will coach the same position at Syracuse, and Troy Brown, who was not retained on the new staff.

Now, we did know that Robert Kugler would be joining the staff in some capacity about ten days ago, but now we have confirmation that he will come into the assistant offensive line coach position, the same one he held with the Panthers last year. This seems to indicate that last year’s assistant offensive line coach, Billy Yates, has not been retained after essentially taking over the position last year. Lastly on offense, the team will add Michael McCarthy to the staff as an offensive coaching assistant and quality control coach. McCarthy used to be an NFL assistant coach with the Browns and Lions but has spent the last five years as offensive line coach at Brown.

Finally, with Mayo’s younger brother, Deron Mayo, being promoted to the head of strength and conditioning, meaning that the former head, Moses Cabrera, will not be returning, the Patriots have hired Brian McDonough to fill his place as assistant strength and conditioning coach. McDonough has been a consultant for the team for over 20 years, but he’ll now accept his first full-time role with New England.

There you have it: the Patriots 2024 coaching staff. The last few years of regression following Tom Brady‘s departure are now the last chapters of a previous book. It will be up to Mayo and company to write the first chapter of a new one in the 2024 NFL season.

Patriots Notes: Gronk, Jones, FAs, Staff

Ending their season after the AFC championship game for the third time in four seasons, the Patriots have experienced some staff turnover and now face decisions on who to prioritize in the long-term.

Here is the latest on how the Patriots plan to go about this.

  • Chandler Jones enters the final season of his rookie deal and stands to play out 2016 on his fifth-year option, which is worth $7.79MM. Although the Patriots could extend their explosive defensive end, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe notes the more likely scenario would be for the team to be cut, traded or play his season on this one-year extension of sorts rather than receive a lucrative long-term offer from the team. Jones led the Pats with 12.5 sacks this season, his second with double-digit sacks, but the troublesome incident involving police toward the end of the season could put the brakes on New England offering the 25-year-old a long-term deal soon. Volin views fellow 2012 first-rounder Dont’a Hightower as a likelier extension choice. Also set for a fifth-year option season, the inside linebacker is set to earn $7.75MM next season.
  • Danny Amendola and Sebastian Vollmer are players in danger of being released before the new league year begins, Volin writes. Both struggled in 2015 and can each create just more than $4MM in cap savings by being jettisoned.
  • The Patriots almost certainly will release the injury-prone Jerod Mayo rather than pay him the $4MM roster bonus he’s due March 9, Volin offers. A Mayo release saves the team $7MM on next year’s cap. The former first-team All-Pro missed 10 games in the 2013 and 2014 seasons before being used sparingly in 2015, his sixth with the Patriots. Mayo’s due to occupy the second-highest cap figure on the team next season at $11.4MM.
  • Rob Gronkowski‘s six-year, $54MM deal he signed in June 2012 includes a $10MM option bonus. The Patriots paid $4MM of that last year, Volin reports, and paying the additional $6MM of this bonus before March 9 will trigger the rest of Gronkowski’s extension, which has four more seasons and $34MM on it. The superstar tight end will only carry cap numbers worth $6.6MM and $7MM the next two seasons before those figures vault to $11MM and $12MM in 2018 and ’19.
  • Nate Ebner will be the likeliest of the Patriots’ expiring contracts to re-up with the team, Volin writes, with LeGarrette Blount potentially coming back but only on a near-league-minimum accord. The Patriots reporter expects Akiem Hicks, who will net the Pats a compensatory pick, to depart.
  • Of the Patriots’ RFAs, only fullback James Develin looks to receive a tender, Volin notes. Sealver Siliga, Brian Tyms and LaAdrian Waddle comprise the remainder of the Patriots’ restricted free agency contingent.
  • Lions GM Bob Quinn hired former co-worker Harold Nash to be the team’s strength and conditioning coach, Volin reports. Nash served in that capacity with the Patriots for five years. Assistant strength coach Moses Cabrera is ready to fill Nash’s post, team sources tell Volin. Nash’s contract wasn’t renewed with the expectation he’d receive a head strength job elsewhere.
  • The recent departures among Patriots staffers and front office personnel were more about greater opportunities elsewhere than the organization’s dissatisfaction, Volin reports. New Chargers offensive line assistant Dave DeGuglielmo was viewed internally as a short-term option rather than a cornerstone assistant, Volin reports, and new Giants defensive line coach Patrick Graham probably had more room for upward mobility in New York than in New England given Matt Patricia‘s entrenchment as the Pats’ DC.