Ravens OL Coach Joe D’Alessandris Passes Away

AUGUST 25: D’Alessandris has sadly passed away, the team announced. We at PFR send our condolences to D’Alessandris’ family, friends, and the many players and fellow coaches he has impacted over the course of his career.

AUGUST 14: Baltimore received some unfortunate news this afternoon as it was announced that “offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris was hospitalized over the weekend with an acute illness,” per a statement from the team. No details were given to the nature of his illness, but the Ravens noted that D’Alessandris’ condition would “require ongoing treatment for an extended period of time.” To fill in during the interim, the team has hired George Warhop to their coaching staff.

D’Alessandris, 70, has been with the Ravens as offensive line coach for the past seven seasons, helping the team to become on the team’s top offenses in the league, along with being a perennial rushing powerhouse. His storied history coaching football dates back to the 1970s. He’s spent time on the staffs of nine universities, two teams in the Canadian Football League, and even a team in the short-lived World League of American Football.

After 30 years of coaching football without making it to the NFL, D’Alessandris finally got his big break in 2008 as an assistant offensive line coach with the Chiefs. After following that up with three-year stints as offensive line coach for the Bills and Chargers, D’Alessandris landed in Baltimore, where he’s been ever since.

Warhop has been coaching for nearly as long, working his first job in 1983, five years after D’Alessandris’ first gig. He spent the next 13 years coaching offensive lines with six universities and was, coincidentally, also an offensive line coach in the WLAF. In 1996, Warhop got his first NFL opportunity in St. Louis and has coached offensive lines in the league ever since, spending time with the Rams, Cardinals, Cowboys, 49ers, Browns, Buccaneers, Jaguars, and Texans.

Warhop’s history throughout his tenure in the NFL has been a rocky one. He’s been fired from multiple positions, once even getting let go mid-season. While he has stuck around for an extended time in some jobs, it’s twice been the result of the head coach that hired him getting fired and the newly hired head coach simply retaining his services for a short period. Most recently, Warhop was hired by the Texans in Lovie Smith‘s lone campaign. He was not retained by DeMeco Ryans.

Warhop will have his work cut out for him as the Ravens have been working this offseason to replace three starters on the offensive line. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley and center Tyler Linderbaum return to their roles, and it seems that second-year guard Andrew Vorhees has taken control of the left guard job. At right tackle, the Ravens seem content to start their sixth-man of the offensive line Patrick Mekari until second-round rookie Roger Rosengarten is ready to take over the job. The real work will come with determining the battle at right guard between Daniel Faalele, Ben Cleveland, and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu, though head coach John Harbaugh has been pretty tapped into this position battle and may take the reins on the decision.

Regardless of the work cut out for the Ravens and Warhop, many of their concerns will still be on the treatment and recovery of D’Alessandris. We at PFR send our best wishes and hopes for a speedy and full recovery to Joe and our thoughts to the D’Alessandris family.