Joe D’Alessandris

Ravens OL Coach Joe D’Alessandris Passes Away

August 25th, 2024 at 12:43pm CST by Ely Allen

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.

Two More Ravens COVID-19 Positives Emerge

December 1st, 2020 at 6:35pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Ravens are currently en route to Pittsburgh, but after an earlier report indicated the team did not see additional positive COVID-19 tests emerge Tuesday, it appears the team still has cases spawning.

One Ravens player and one staffer tested positive, according to ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter (on Twitter). The Ravens previously identified these two individuals as “potential positives,” Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets.

These latest cases notwithstanding, the Ravens’ 2:40pm CT Wednesday game against the Steelers remains a go. All players and staffers will undergo another coronavirus test Wednesday. The Ravens have now had a positive COVID test for 10 straight days. More than 15 players still reside on Baltimore’s reserve/COVID list.

While the Ravens did bring four players off their virus list Tuesday, they left two assistant coaches — offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris and running backs coach Matt Weiss — in Baltimore prior to takeoff. The unnamed staffer who submitted a positive virus test, however, is not believed to be a coach, per Albert Breer of SI.com (on Twitter). It is not known which Raven player is the franchise’s latest positive test, though Breer notes the player is a backup. Neither the staffer nor the player obviously traveled with the team Tuesday night.

No NFL team placed any players on the reserve/COVID list Tuesday, marking an encouraging and somewhat surprising — considering recent events — development for the league. Wednesday’s game will commence without several key players — including Lamar Jackson, Mark Andrews and James Conner — but the NFL has been dead-set against using one of its end-of-season contingency plans and postponed this game three times in order to keep it on the Week 12 docket.

AFC North Notes: Osweiler, Steelers, Ravens

June 10th, 2017 at 5:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

The Browns and Texans’ historic trade did send a second-round pick to Cleveland, but Brock Osweiler remains on the payroll after the team tried to trade him for more draft picks. This leaves Osweiler in an uncertain place despite the sixth-year quarterback working with the Browns at OTAs. However, one NFL executive believes the team will still find a way to unload Osweiler.

“I think they still will flip him,” the anonymous exec said, via Mike Sando of ESPN.com (Insider link). “I think they are going to pay even more of his salary where he is only, say, a $2MM player, and then they will trade him for something. This is Plan B. Plan A was to take his salary down to $8MM and trade him right away. Plan C is that he is on their team or they just outright cut him. That could very much happen.”

This exec paints a grim portrait of Osweiler’s future in northeast Ohio. The Browns have been impressed with their unique trade acquisition so far, and Osweiler is competing for the starting job with Cody Kessler and DeShone Kizer. But Cleveland still was keen on unloading the 26-year-old passer, and taking on plenty of Osweiler’s $16MM salary to do it. The Browns have been unable to do so yet but have more than $60MM in cap space, so a prospective deal wouldn’t be out of the question this year. But one could well depend on a team’s injury situation at quarterback come training camp, along with the portion of the quarterback’s salary the Browns would agree to pay and what kind of draft compensation they now want.

Here’s the latest coming out of the AFC North as minicamps approach.

In the same Sando piece, an NFL personnel director questioned the Steelers‘ hesitance at trying to keep up with the Patriots this offseason. Perhaps the top AFC challenger to New England, Pittsburgh did not make moves in free agency or on the trade market, calling this anonymous exec to question the franchise’s traditional, build-from-within approach. “Pittsburgh never seems to make the big impact move,” the exec said. “They seem to just keep trying to get guys who fit into their locker room or fit into their scheme. It is almost like they are a little bit of plug-and-play and not really willing to stretch out and put themselves out there.” The Steelers did add wideout weaponry but did so through the draft (second-rounder JuJu Smith-Schuster) and via Martavis Bryant‘s reinstatement. Otherwise, the team is similar to its 2016 edition.
The costs to keep the trio of Le’Veon Bell, Stephon Tuitt and Alejandro Villanueva could cost the Steelers well north of $100MM collectively, Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com writes. The Pittsburgh-based reporter slots Bell’s deal as the highest priority, Tuitt’s as the player who wouldn’t need to be re-signed right away, and Villanueva as the wild card in this equation in being an ERFA that could hold out after a months-long negotiation. The Steelers have the July 15 franchise tag deadline with Bell but could let Tuitt’s talks slip into August, Fowler notes. The fourth-year defensive end is under contract at $1.47MM for 2017 before his rookie deal expires. Tuitt wants to stay in Pittsburgh but will be a costly cog to retain. The Steelers possess $16.3MM in cap space.
The Ravens are shifting to a more power-based run scheme under new offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Edward Lee. Baltimore used zone principles under Juan Castillo, who is now working as the Bills’ O-line coach.

NFC West Notes: 49ers, Mangini, Rams

January 4th, 2016 at 10:23pm CST by Zachary Links

The 49ers have not interviewed any candidates yet nor scheduled any, GM Trent Baalke told reporters, including Cam Inman of the Bay Area News Group (on Twitter). He added that there are no in-house candidates at this time which is interesting given the presence of defensive coordinator Eric Mangini. Geep Chryst, the team’s offensive coordinator, has had head coaching buzz in the past, but his stock isn’t terribly high after a dismal 2015 season in San Francisco.

Here’s more from the NFC West:

While keeping option open at the position, Rams head coach Jeff Fisher said that quarterback Case Keenum will enter the 2016 season as the starter at quarterback, Jim Thomas of the Post-Dispatch tweets.
Fisher also said that team intends to bring in competition for kicker Greg Zuerlein, Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com tweets. Zuerlein is an unrestricted free agent this offseason.
Fisher liked the job Rob Boras did as offensive coordinator, but has not made a decision yet on whether Boras will keep the job, Thomas tweets. Fisher indicated that there could be coaching staff changes made this offseason.
In addition to offensive coordinator Frank Reich, the Chargers announced that offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, wide receiver coach Fred Graves, defensive line coach Don Johnson, and tight end coach Pete Metzelaars have been let go.