Here’s why the Patriots have a bigger coaching staff than previous years
Jan 17, 2024; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo addresses media with owner Robert Kraft (not pictured) at a press conference at Gillette Stadium. Credit: Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports
Until the team actually takes the field for practices starting this spring, there’s no way of knowing what kind of X’s and O’s impact the new New England Patriots coaching staff will have in 2024. However, early differences between this year’s staff and last year’s staff are apparent.
One big difference that is immediately clear is the outright size of the group. In 2023 the Patriots had 17 coaches at the quality control level or higher. That was the smallest staff in the league, and the number ended up dipping as low as 15 late in the season when offensive line coach Adrian Klemm had to take a leave of absence due to a health issue, and assistant wide receivers coach Ross Douglas left to take another job at the college level.
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As the Patriots’ new coordinators were introduced on Wednesday, the staff sits at 22 coaches. That includes 10 coaches on offense, eight on defense, and three on special teams.
During the introductory press conferences on Wednesday, new head coach Jerod Mayo was asked about the increased coaching staff. “One thing we wanted to make sure of was that we weren’t duplicating roles,” Mayo explained. “For us, we were thinking about ‘what value does this role bring to the team?”
At the same time, he did reference the size of previous staffs later in his answer. “Historically, we’ve always had small staffs. It’s hard to get things done that way in today’s NFL,” Mayo noted. “We weren’t really thinking about the size. We were just thinking about, ‘how can we make this staff as good as it can be?’. Honestly, after talking to a lot of coaches, your first year coaching, you hope you put together the best staff, but realistically, it’s a process.”
While the Patriots’ coaching staff is certainly now ‘bigger,’ it’s hardly a ‘big’ staff by NFL standards. In 2023 the average number of coaches on an NFL staff was 23, up from 21.7 the year before. A staff of 22 coaches would have ranked tied for 22nd last year, with most teams having 23 or 24 on staff. The Miami Dolphins led the league with 27 coaches on staff, followed by the Jacksonville Jaguars 26-person staff. So, it’s less that the Patriots put a massive staff together, and more they began playing catch-up with the growing staff sizes around the league.
While the Patriots still could add coaches, that doesn’t sound like the plan right now. “I would say it’s still a process. We’re still working through it. There are some roles that we’re thinking about, but at the same time, we’re pretty set,” Mayo said when asked if there are any more coaching additions on the way.
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List of new Patriots hires fills out positional coaches, adds more assistants
January 1, 2017; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receivers coach Bob Bicknell before the game against the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium. The Seahawks defeated the 49ers 25-23. Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
On Monday evening the New England Patriots announced 17 ‘new’ hires to their coaching staff. Most of those were of coaches who had already been reported to be joining the team, such as offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt and inside linebackers coach Dont’a Hightower.
Seven of the 17 coaches though were truly new, previously-unreported hires. That included filling in the final two positional coaching roles – wide receivers and tight ends.
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In addition the Patriots announced the hiring of five general assistants. Those five include some NFL veterans as well as first-time coaches, familiar names with and new names.
Who was added to the list as the staff is now mostly filled out? Let’s take a look at the newest Patriots coaches…
Final positional coaches
August 26, 2016; Santa Clara, CA, USA; San Francisco 49ers wide receivers coach Bob Bicknell before the game against the Green Bay Packers at Levi’s Stadium. The Packers defeated the 49ers 21-10. Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The final two pieces of the Patriots’ positional coaching puzzle ended up being tight ends coach Bob Bicknell and wide receivers coach Tyler Hughes. Both have previous ties to the team or New England area.
Bicknell, from Holliston, MA, has been coaching football for 30 years, and coaching in the NFL for 14 of the previous 16 seasons. Most recently he was a senior offensive assistant for the New Orleans Saints, a job he held each of the last two seasons. Prior to that he served as a wide receivers coach for the Cincinnati Bengals (2018-2020), San Francisco 49ers (2016), Philadelphia Eagles (2013-2015), and Buffalo Bills (2012), as well as a stop at Baylor University in 2017 in the same role.
Despite his recent experience with wide receivers the Patriots have Bicknell coaching tight ends, the position he played at Boston College where he lettered in 1989 and 1990. Bicknell has coached tight ends before, for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2009 and then the Bills in 2010 and 2011. Bicknell also coached the Chiefs’ offensive line in 2007 and 2008.
Prior to reaching the NFL Bicknell coached both at the college level and in NFL Europe. Most of that time saw him coach the offensive line, but he also coached safeties, running backs, linebackers, and defensive linemen, and was an offensive coordinator in NFLE from 2001 to 2005.
Hughes previously spent three seasons with the Patriots, from 2020 to 2022 as a general offensive assistant. Last year he left New England to join the University of Washington staff in the same role. With the Huskies he worked with an offense that ranked 13th in the nation averaging 36 points per game, and is projected to have six players drafted in the top 150 including three wide receivers – Rome Odunze, Ja’Lynn Polk, and Jalen McMillan.
Positional assistants
Aug 3, 2014; Canton, OH, USA; New York Giants special teams coordinator Tom Quinn during the 2014 Hall of Fame game against the Buffalo Bills at Fawcett Stadium. Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
In total, five new assistant-level coaches were announced on Monday – all general assistants (not assigned to any specific position). That group is Vinny DePalma and Jamael Lett on defense, Tom Quinn and Coby Tippett on special teams, and Brian McDonough in the strength and conditioning department.
DePalma joins the Patriots after a six-year career as a linebacker at Boston College. This will be his first coaching job.
Lett most recently worked as a special teams analyst at North Carolina. Prior to his one-year stint with the Tar Heels he was both the special teams coordinator and a defensive assistant at the University of South Alabama, with stops at Akron, Ohio, and Tennessee-Martin as well. He’s also worked at Samford, where he played defensive back from 2006-2010.
Quinn is one of the most experienced coaches added to the staff. He’s been coaching special teams in the NFL since 2006 – including an 11-year stint as the New York Giants’ special teams coordinator – and before that 14 years at the college level.
Last year, Quinn started as a special teams assistant with the Tennessee Titans, and was later promoted to interim special teams coordinator. The Titans finished the season as the eighth-ranked special teams unit per PFF. Quinn should be a valuable asset for Jeremy Springer, who is running his own special teams unit for the first time.
Joining Quinn and Springer is Tippett, who is the son of Patriots legend Andre Tippett. Tippett joined the Patriots as a player for rookie minicamp in 2022, then returned as a coaching assistant for training camp in 2023 before joining the defensive staff at Tufts. As a player Tippett was All-CAA as a safety and punt returner while at URI.
McDonough previously worked with the Patriots – as well as the Boston Bruins – as a strength and conditioning consultant while running his own strength and conditioning program. “He’s a dude that has great training around here, great resources,” former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman said of McDonough in a 2019 interview. “B is the guy who puts all that together. He’s an unbelievable dude, who I appreciate.”
