Patriots reportedly lose WRs coach Ross Douglas to Syracuse for similar role
Douglas has been with the Patriots since 2021 and has been viewed as a coach on the rise.
The Patriots’ 2023 season hasn’t ended yet, but they’re already losing a member of their coaching staff.
Wide receivers coach Ross Douglas is leaving the team for a similar job at Syracuse, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported Saturday. He’s expected to have a “significant role” in Syracuse’s offense under new coach Fran Brown, Thamel added.
Douglas, who just turned 29 last Sunday, has emerged as an enticing young coach over the last couple of years. He was named a “young coach to watch” in NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero’s annual column over the last two years and was one of the three youngest coaches in the 2023 version of the column.
Douglas joined the Patriots in 2021 as a defensive quality control coach through the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship program. After spending the 2021 season on the defensive side of the ball, Douglas flipped to the offensive side at the start of 2022, becoming a wide receivers coach with Troy Brown. He was the youngest position coach in the league at the time of his elevation.
In addition to coaching the Patriots’ receivers, Douglas was the offensive coordinator for the West team in the East-West Shrine Bowl this offseason as the Patriots’ coaching staff worked with the West team.
Prior to joining the Patriots, Douglas was briefly a cornerbacks coach at Richmond. He played college ball at Michigan from 2013-15, playing running back, wide receiver, and cornerback.
Douglas failed to latch onto a position while he was at Michigan though, leading him to transfer to Rutgers ahead of the 2016 season. He started 13 games and played in 22 matchups over his two seasons at Rutgers, finding a role as a linebacker/safety hybrid there.
Following his college playing career, Douglas accepted a role as a graduate assistant on Rutgers’ coaching staff, working there for three seasons.
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