HEADLINES

Carmen Bricillo

Chargers Block Giants From Interviewing ST Coordinator; New York Hires O-Line Coach

January 11th, 2024 at 4:31pm CST by Sam Robinson

A few teams have blocked assistants from interviewing contracted staffers this week. The Chargers are now one of them. Despite firing head coach Brandon Staley and GM Tom Telesco, the Bolts are not giving all their assistants permission to explore opportunities.

The Giants sought an interview with Bolts special teams coordinator Ryan Ficken, but NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo notes the AFC West team prevented that meeting from taking place. The Giants fired longtime ST coordinator Thomas McGaughey earlier this week.

Ficken worked as the Chargers’ ST coordinator for the past two seasons. With this block taking place, he would be under contract — and likely in consideration to stay in Los Angeles under the next HC. Ficken, 43, has been an NFL staffer since 2007. Not a special teams lifer, Ficken spent 15 years with the Vikings coaching several positions. Though, he has concentrated on special teams for the past 11 years.

Additionally, the Giants have hired their next offensive line coach. Former Raiders O-line coach Carmen Bricillo will take over. The Giants moved fast to replace Bobby Johnson, whose unit allowed a staggering number of sacks this season. Collectively, Daniel Jones, Tyrod Taylor and Tommy DeVito (along with wideout Parris Campbell) took 85 sacks. Only the 1986 Eagles (104) have allowed more in a season.

Bricillo most recently followed Josh McDaniels to Las Vegas. While the 47-year-old assistant coached on the Patriots’ staff, he did not overlap with Brian Daboll. Bricillo coached on Bill Belichick‘s staff from 2019-21, working as the team’s O-line coach over the final two seasons. Prior to Bricillo’s New England stay, he spent over a decade in the college ranks, much of it at Division I-FCS Youngstown State.

While the Raiders fired McDaniels and Dave Ziegler this season, an O-line that featured unremarkable pieces powered Josh Jacobs to a rushing title in 2022. With the Raiders moving on from their brief Patriot Way experiment, The Athletic’s Vic Tafur notes Bricillo was unlikely to return.

AFC Notes: Raiders, Chiefs, Dupree, Weddle

February 19th, 2022 at 10:52pm CST by Ely Allen

First-round draft pick Alex Leatherwood had an up-and-down rookie season in Las Vegas. After struggling a bit at right tackle, Leatherwood was moved to guard to fill in after injuries to starters Richie Incognito and Denzelle Good. According to Vic Tafur of The Athletic, the Raiders’ former staff intended to move Leatherwood back to his drafted position next season.

The decision is now out of their hands and in the hands of new offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo. With Kolton Miller set at left tackle and Andre James filling in admirably this season with the loss of center Rodney Hudson in a trade to the Cardinals last year, the Raiders have three offensive line spots with which to play around. Bricillo’s placement of Leatherwood will likely depend on how they choose to address those open positions.

Here are a few more notes from around the AFC, starting with another note from the West:

Raiders Hire Mick Lombardi As OC

February 13th, 2022 at 11:47am CST by Rory Parks

The Raiders have hired Mick Lombardi as their new offensive coordinator, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Lombardi, who spent the 2019 season as the Patriots’ assistant quarterbacks coach and the past two years as New England’s wide receivers coach, will join Josh McDaniels on the trek from Foxborough to Las Vegas.

McDaniels, the longtime Patriots OC who was hired as the Raiders’ new head coach at the end of January, is expected to serve as the team’s offensive play-caller. Still, this represents quite a promotion for Lombardi, the 33-year-old son of former NFL exec Michael Lombardi. As Schefter writes, the younger Lombardi handled the Pats’ red zone game plan in 2021, and he and McDaniels are aligned in their offensive philosophies.

Lombardi will replace Greg Olson, who worked as the Raiders’ OC from 2018-21 (we recently heard that Olson is expected to rejoin the Rams’ staff in some capacity in 2022). He will inherit a unit that finished 11th in the league in total offense last season and that features a quality starting QB in Derek Carr (assuming, of course, that Las Vegas elects to retain Carr, who is entering a contract year).

Schefter adds that Patriots offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo will join the Raiders in the same capacity. With the departures of McDaniels, Lombardi, Bricillo, and Bo Hardegree — who was recently hired as Las Vegas’ new QB coach — New England is experiencing quite a brain drain on the offensive side of the ball. That is to say nothing of the expected retirement of RB coach Ivan Fears, who has been in his post since 2002. Of course, the club did recently reunite with Joe Judge, who is returning as an offensive assistant.

In related news, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that the Raiders are adding longtime NFL scout Andy Dengler to their college scouting department. Dengler had served as the Jaguars’ assistant director of player personnel from 2013-20. As part of the continuing transition under new GM Dave Ziegler, the Raiders are also parting ways with assistant director of player personnel Trey Scott, who had been with the team for a decade (Twitter link via Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network).

Aaron Wilson of Pro Football Network offers more details on Las Vegas’ front office overhaul.

Patriots Co-Offensive Line Coach Off Staff Due To COVID-19 Policy

July 23rd, 2021 at 3:25pm CST by Sam Robinson

Following Rick Dennison‘s departure from the Vikings due to a COVID-19 vaccine refusal, the Patriots will also part ways with one of their offensive line coaches.

Co-offensive line coach Cole Popovich is off the Patriots’ staff, Jim McBride of the Boston Globe reports. Popovich is gone due to his refusal to comply with the NFL’s vaccine policy, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com adds (on Twitter). Popovich and Carmen Bricillo worked as co-O-line coaches in New England last season, but McBride adds the latter will helm the position solo this year.

Popovich, 36, has been with the Patriots since 2016. He broke into the NFL on Bill Belichick‘s staff and moved up to assistant running backs coach in 2019. In 2020, the Pats promoted he and Bricillo to fill the void created by famed O-line coach Dante Scarnecchia‘s retirement. Popovich’s NFL career is now in limbo.

In order to work with players, coaches must be vaccinated. The NFL has not required players to be vaccinated, but staffers — in order to qualify for Tier 1 or Tier 2 status — must either do so or provide medical or religious grounds for refusing. Teams are not permitted to cut players because of their refusal to be vaccinated, though they can jettison unvaccinated players for other reasons. However, no such rule is in place for coaches. NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills said Friday nearly 100% of NFL staffs are vaccinated, so it will be interesting to see if any additional coaches are moved off staff in the coming days.

Extra Points: Beckham Jr., Giants, Lions, Patriots

February 15th, 2019 at 10:04pm CST by Andrew Ortenberg

Odell Beckham Jr. signed a mega-deal this past Summer that seemed to put all of the trade rumors surrounding the young wideout to rest. But the Giants’ superstar is starting to pop up in trade buzz yet again, after another drama-filled season. The team reiterated that they were committed to Beckham longterm at their year-end press conference, but Jay Glazer of The Athletic predicts that he’ll end up getting traded this offseason.

Beckham made headlines this past season for his thinly veiled criticism of Eli Manning, and yet again for his sideline antics during games. Beckham had health issues for the second straight season, missing four games with a quad injury. If the Giants were to put him on the trade block, there’d be no shortage of trade suitors. He’s still only 26, and would likely fetch multiple early draft picks if New York finally decided to pull the trigger.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • Lions general manager Bob Quinn said the tight end position “is definitely a priority” for the team this offseason, according to Dave Birkett of the Detroit Free Press. Quinn further emphasized it was a “position of need” and said they’re deep into scouting the tight end’s available in this year’s draft. Detroit got pretty much nothing out of their tight ends this year, so this isn’t a surprise. The team drafted Eric Ebron tenth overall back in 2014 but let him walk in free agency this past year, only to watch him have a career year with the Colts and make the Pro Bowl. Adding a real tight end would be a massive boost to the Lions’ offense.
  • Speaking of the Lions, they lost an assistant coach. Assistant special teams coach Devin Fitzsimmons is leaving to take a job at Vanderbilt, according to Justin Rogers of The Detroit News (Twitter link). Fitzsimmons had been with Detroit for the past five seasons. After the Lions fired Joe Marciano midway through last season, Fitzsimmons served as the team’s interim special teams coordinator for the final eight games.
  • The Lions aren’t the only team who made an assistant coaching change. The Patriots are hiring Youngstown State offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo to be their new assistant offensive line coach, according to Brian Dzenis of The Vindicate. Dzenis writes that Patriots coach Bill Belichick called Youngstown State coach Bo Pelini earlier this week, and Belichick has some connections to the area.