HEADLINES

Coby Tippett

Patriots Announce 2025 Coaching Staff

February 5th, 2025 at 9:56pm CST by Ely Allen

Along with the hiring of new Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel came the addition of two new coordinators, as well, in offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams. Each coordinator went about building their new staffs, with lots of new names arriving in New England over the past few weeks. ESPN’s Mike Reiss reported the final lineup today.

On offense, we had already heard about the hirings of quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, wide receivers coach Todd Downing, and offensive assistant Riley Larkin. We had also been informed that Thomas Brown, Doug Marrone, and Jason Houghtaling had been hired, but we weren’t yet made aware of their positions. Reiss’ report tells us that Brown will serve as tight ends coach and passing game coordinator, Marrone will be offensive line coach, and Houghtaling will be assistant offensive line coach under Marrone.

New information tells us that, joining Houghtaling as an assistant offensive line coach under Marrone, Robert Kugler has been retained from last year’s staff. Kugler held the same position with the Texans and Panthers before joining the Patriots as an assistant offensive line coach last year. We also learned that Tony Dews has been hired as running backs coach. Dews served the same position under Vrabel during his tenure in Tennessee (including one year as tight ends coach) before spending last year as running backs coach for the Jets. Lastly on offense, Chuckie Keeton‘s coaching journey continues in New England after he debuted for the Seahawks as an offensive assistant last year.

On defense, we had already heard of the hirings of Zak Kuhr, Scott Booker, and Clint McMillan, as well as the retention of Ben McAdoo, but thanks to Reiss, we now know that Kuhr will serve as inside linebackers coach, Booker as safeties coach, and McMillan as defensive line coach. McAdoo served last year as a senior offensive assistant for the team, and in 2025, he will switch sides of the ball as a senior defensive assistant. Reiss also informed us that defensive assistant Vinny DePalma was retained in the same role. Last year was his first year in the NFL — or coaching period — after finishing his collegiate playing career as a linebacker at Boston College.

Reiss also reported four defensive hirings. We had heard that the Patriots were targeting Colts assistant defensive backs coach Justin Hamilton, and Reiss has him listed as the team’s new safeties coach. Hamilton held a defensive quality control coaching role on the Titans during Vrabel’s last year in Tennessee before landing his role in Indianapolis last year. The Patriots have also hired Mike Smith as outside linebackers coach. Smith has held the same role previously with the Chiefs, Packers, and Vikings but spent last year away from coaching. Lastly, the Patriots announced the hirings of Milton Patterson and Kevin Richardson as defensive assistants. Patterson makes his NFL coaching debut after five seasons as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Florida A&M. Richardson is likewise debuting as a coach in the NFL following two seasons as assistant defensive backs coach at Illinois.

Finally, on special teams, we learned that Tom Quinn has been retained as assistant special teams coach. We knew that special teams coordinator Jeremy Springer had been retained, and while we don’t know his exact fate, Coby Tippett, a special teams assistant coach last year, was not included in today’s staff announcements. We also learned that Deron Mayo was retained as strength and conditioning coach despite his brother’s dismissal as head coach.

There you have it: the Patriots 2025 coaching staff. There are lots of areas that need improvement in order for the Patriots to see success next season, but it all starts with the coaching staff. Vrabel returns with head coaching experience under his belt, and he will try to bring some of the success he had as head coach at Tennessee with him to New England.

Patriots Finalize Coaching Staff

February 19th, 2024 at 9:23pm CST by Ely Allen

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.