HEADLINES

Jeremy Springer

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.

Patriots To Conduct Second OC Interview With Rams’ Nick Caley

January 28th, 2024 at 10:59am CST by Sam Robinson

JANUARY 28: With Robinson now off the market, the Patriots are narrowing their OC search. Per Breer, Caley is flying from Los Angeles for a second interview with the club. Joining Caley is fellow Rams staffer Jeremy Springer, who will sit for a second interview for the Pats’ ST coordinator position. The two men will have dinner with New England brass tonight and will interview tomorrow.

JANUARY 21, 11:25am: Sean McVay‘s staff continues to generate interest; the Patriots are now scheduled to meet with two Rams assistants. Zac Robinson will also interview for the job, per SI.com’s Albert Breer, who notes the Robinson-Patriots meeting is scheduled for Tuesday. Robinson has been the Rams’ QBs coach for the past two seasons.

The Patriots have company with Robinson. The Bears and Saints have sent out requests to meet with the 37-year-old assistant, whom the Rams retained last year despite shuffling their coaching staff. If neither Caley nor Robinson lands a job, each is expected back in L.A. McVay said recently the team is not planning to shake up its staff this year.

8:18am: For a second straight year, Nick Caley is set to interview for the Patriots’ offensive coordinator post. A failure to land this gig in 2023 led Caley to the Rams, but with Bill O’Brien returning to the college ranks, the job is open again.

Jerod Mayo still has the former Patriots assistant on his radar, with ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter indicating Caley will interview for the position Monday. Caley, 40, spent this season as the Rams’ tight ends coach, the same title he held in New England previously. O’Brien became OC at Ohio State this week; he was far from certain to stay on with the Patriots under Mayo.

Caley coached Pats tight ends from 2017-22 and spent eight years in New England, arriving back in 2015. This timing gave Caley two Super Bowl rings and provided him an opportunity to work with Rob Gronkowski during his final years with the team. The Patriots’ view of Caley back in 2022 led to a responsibility increase following Josh McDaniels‘ Las Vegas exit, but they passed on him for O’Brien — a staffer Robert Kraft helped bring back to Foxborough.

Both the Jets and Texans also met with Caley about their OC post last year as well, but each team went with familiarity. The Jets were able to convince Aaron Rodgers to put off retirement by hiring Nathaniel Hackett, a move that led Mike LaFleur to Los Angeles, and DeMeco Ryans brought ex-49ers assistant Bobby Slowik with him to Houston. Slowik’s performance in his first season calling plays could well open the Houston OC gig once again, as HC interest has come his way.

This would obviously be a major opportunity for Caley, who is the Pats’ first known OC interview during this cycle. With O’Brien leaving, the team will feature a different play-caller for a fourth straight season.

Patriots Interviewing Candidates For Coordinator Positions

January 19th, 2024 at 7:45pm CST by Ely Allen

New Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo has been on the job for a week now and is starting to look into filling out his coaching staff. A report from Jonathan Jones of NFL on CBS informed of the team’s plan to interview their current defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington for their open defensive coordinator position. In addition, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported that New England would interview Rams assistant special teams coach Jeremy Springer for a special teams coaching job.

Covington has been in New England since 2017, when he earned his first NFL job as a coaching assistant. Before coming to the NFL, Covington worked as a defensive graduate assistant at UAB and Ole Miss. He followed that up with a defensive line coaching job at UT Martin and co-defensive coordinator position while coaching the defensive line at Eastern Illinois. Covington was promoted from coaching assistant to outside linebackers coach of the Patriots in 2019, the year Mayo was hired to coach inside linebackers. He transitioned to defensive line coach in 2020, where he’s remained ever since.

Since allowing Matt Patricia to depart for a head coaching gig in Detroit in 2018, the Patriots have not traditionally staffed a defensive coordinator. They’ve had defensive position coaches who delivered play calls to the wearer of the green helmet sticker, like Brian Flores and Steve Belichick after him, and people have speculated that Bill Belichick, a former defensive coordinator himself, was the one determining what plays to call, but much like 2022’s offensive play-calling mystery in New England, the team claims defensive play-calling to be the culmination of many different inputs. While that method may continue into 2024, it appears Mayo interviewing Covington displays a willingness to actually award the coordinator title to someone on staff for the first time since 2017.

Special teams, on the other hand, has been the responsibility of special teams coordinator Cameron Achord since 2020. Rapoport didn’t specify that the position Springer was expected to interview for would be a coordinator position, but Springer is considered one of the rising young coaches in the NFL, so it’s hard to imagine him changing teams for another assistant job. If that’s the case, it could point towards Achord either being an unlikely holdover candidate on Mayo’s new staff or being a likely special teams coordinator candidate wherever Belichick ends up. Springer has been with the Rams for the past two seasons after eight years coaching in at the collegiate level.

Whether or not Covington or Springer end up on Mayo’s 2024 Patriots staff, both interviews underline the start of the new regime in New England. No longer are the Patriots under the watchful eye of a multi-role head coach/coordinator/general manager. Mayo is establishing a new norm in New England, one subscribed to by most other teams in the NFL.

NFL Coaching Notes: Rams Complete Staff, Colts Hire QC

April 17th, 2022 at 7:31pm CST by Ely Allen

The Rams put the finishing touches on their 2022 coaching staff, announcing the completion earlier this month. Along with many other promotions and hires that we’ve already reported on this site, the following staff changes were unveiled:

  • Thad Bogardus, who served last season as the assistant linebackers coach, was promoted to outside linebackers coach. He previously spent the 2020 season as assistant defensive line coach, a promotion after serving previously as assistant defensive line/defensive quality control coach.
  • Lance Schulters, who spent last season as a coaching fellow, earned a promotion to defensive assistant for the upcoming season. Schulters is a former NFL safety with 19 career interceptions to his name. He started his coaching career as a defensive assistant for the Falcons in 2020.
  • Chris Shula, who oversaw linebackers last year, will now serve as pass game coordinator/defensive backs coach for Los Angeles. Shula has worked with the Rams’ linebackers in some capacity since 2017, debuting in the NFL as a defensive quality control coach in San Diego after bouncing around a few college jobs.
  • Chris Beake was hired as the Rams’ new inside linebackers coach after nine seasons in Denver. After holding a variety of roles on the Broncos staff, he spent his final season there as the defensive pass game specialist.
  • Kenneth Black was brought on as a coaching fellow for the Rams this season. Black spent the last two years as co-offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for Florida A&M.
  • Skyler Jones was hired as assistant defensive line coach. Jones spent seven seasons coaching at the college level, most recently in the role of defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Norfolk State.
  • Jeremy Springer was brought on in the role of special teams assistant. Springer has been a special teams coordinator at the college football level for the last four years, spending last year at Marshall and the previous three seasons with Arizona.

The Colts also announced a hire at the end of the month from the college level: