Patriots finalize coaching staff for 2024

Jerod Mayo

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.

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