5 coaches with Patriots ties who could be candidates for team’s offensive coordinator vacancy
Obviously, the Patriots don't need to hire someone with past ties to replace Bill O'Brien, but there are a handful of notable candidates if they go that route.
The Patriots are on the search for an offensive coordinator again.
Bill O’Brien was officially named Ohio State’s offensive coordinator on Friday, leaving his offensive coordinator job with the Patriots after just one season at the helm. The move means that the Patriots will have to bring in a new offensive play-caller for the third straight offseason. They took an unorthodox approach to replace Josh McDaniels in 2022, making Matt Patricia the offensive play-caller and Joe Judge the quarterbacks coach before hiring O’Brien in 2023.
Of course, the offensive coordinator search this time around is much different than the other two. Jerod Mayo is now the Patriots’ head coach, replacing Bill Belichick after he was the head coach for 24 seasons. Considering his defensive background and the Patriots’ offensive woes in 2023, whatever Mayo decides to do at offensive coordinator this offseason will be the first major decision of his head coaching tenure.
If the Patriots want to go with someone who might be familiar to the organization to replace O’Brien, here are five possible candidates.
Former Patriots OC/Raiders HC Josh McDaniels
Out with the old, in with the old?
McDaniels is searching for a coaching job again after his stint as Raiders head coach ended in the middle of his second season, getting fired following a 3-5 start in 2023.
McDaniels returning to New England for his third stint as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator was already viewed as a possibility even before O’Brien’s departure. He was “expected” to be at the top of the list of possible offensive coordinator candidates if O’Brien left, NFL Media’s Mike Garofolo reported on Jan. 13.
In the days prior to that report, McDaniels was seen at Gillette Stadium on a pair of occasions. First, he attended the Patriots’ regular-season finale against the Jets as a VIP guest. A few days later, McDaniels was present at Belichick’s farewell gathering.
McDaniels helped orchestrate some of the league’s best offenses over his first two stints in New England, including making history in 2007 and helping the Patriots win three Super Bowls. The vast majority of his time as the Patriots’ offensive coordinator though came with Tom Brady at quarterback, which certainly helps boost those stats.
Still, he helped Mac Jones have the best year of his three-year career in 2021, when the quarterback finished second in Offensive Rookie of the Year voting. They also finished sixth in scoring that season even though they only had one Pro Bowler on that side of the ball (Jones).
Seahawks OC Shane Waldron
Another coach with Patriots ties, Waldon earned his stripes working under Sean McVay. After spending time as an offensive quality control coach and tight ends coach from 2008-09, the Tufts grad spent four years on UMass’ staff before joining Washington as an offensive quality control coach in 2016, working under McVay.
When McVay became the Rams’ coach in 2017, he took Waldron with him. Waldron began as the tight ends coach before working as the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach over the next three seasons.
The Seahawks hired Waldron in 2021, partly to appease Russell Wilson. But the hire ended up benefitting his successor, Geno Smith. The journeyman quarterback had a career year in 2022, throwing for 4,282 yards and 30 touchdowns en route to winning Comeback Player of the Year. He had another solid season in 2023 as the Seahawks nearly made it back to the postseason in back-to-back years.
Waldron’s future is in question though following Pete Carroll’s departure as Seahawks head coach. If the Patriots want Waldron, they’ll have some competition as the Bears and Saints have already requested to interview him.
Rams QB coach Zac Robinson
Robinson’s background is very similar to Waldron’s, except he had a brief playing stint with the Patriots instead of a short coaching stint.
The Patriots selected Robinson out of Oklahoma State in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft. The former quarterback only lasted in New England through the end of the preseason that year and his playing career ended following the 2013 season.
Robinson joined McVay’s coaching staff several years later, beginning as an assistant quarterbacks coach in 2019. He’s mostly worked in the passing game during his time in Los Angeles, serving as an assistant wide receivers coach in 2020 before moving back to assistant quarterbacks coach in 2021. He was promoted to quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator after offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell left during the 2022 offseason.
While the Rams haven’t been too bereft of offensive talent or top offensive minds during Robinson’s time in Los Angeles, McVay credited Robinson for helping Matthew Stafford acclimate into the team’s offensive system in 2021.
In the time between the end of his playing career and joining the Rams, Robinson actually worked for Pro Football Focus as a senior analyst, breaking down film such as Justin Herbert’s pre-draft tape.
Rams TEs coach Nick Caley
The third coach with Patriots ties who’s also worked under McVay, Caley has spent almost all of his NFL career in New England. The 40-year-old was with the Patriots’ organization for eight years before joining the Rams in 2023.
Caley was the Patriots’ tight ends coach for most of his time with the team, working in that role from 2017-22. When McDaniels left for Las Vegas in 2022, he was speculated to be the top in-house candidate to become New England’s next offensive coordinator.
“When you coach the tight ends, you’re coaching a position that transcends the entire offense,” former Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia told The Athletic‘s Jeff Howe of Caley’s candidacy in 2022. “He’s involved in the passing game, so Nick has been in every passing-game meeting. And the run game, so he’s been in every run-game meeting. Nick has been in a lot of meetings, as has Joe Judge. They’ve got to get somebody who can mentor the quarterback. Somebody has to oversee the offense.”
It’s unclear how much Caley was involved with the Rams’ run game in 2023. But if he played a role in it, then he certainly did a solid job as second-year back Kyren Williams was third in the league in rushing despite playing in 12 games.
Dolphins WRs coach Wes Welker
The most prominent name on the list, Welker worked as a low-level assistant with the Texans before joining Kyle Shanahan’s staff with the 49ers in 2019. He worked as their wide receivers coach for three seasons, helping develop Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk into standout players.
Welker made a lateral move in 2022, following former 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel to Miami to become the Dolphins’ wide receivers coach. While he didn’t need to help Tyreek Hill become a star player, the top-tier receiver seemed to benefit from Welker’s guidance as he recorded 1,799 receiving yards in 2023. Additionally, Jaylen Waddle emerged as one of the best second-option wideouts under Welker’s tutelage, which in turn helped Tua Tagovailoa become one of the game’s top passers.
Hill actually gave Welker an offensive coordinator endorsement recently, writing in a social media post, “Wes Welker need a job interview, underrated coach.”
Welker said that McDaniel has been his biggest mentor as a coach, sharing that his tapes have been instrumental in learning how to coach and teach.
“You start looking at (Mike’s) tapes, and you see everything, like it’s telling a story,” Welker told reporters in August 2022. “And you’re like, ‘Wow, this is that was like, really cool.’ Like, I’ve never had a coach do something like that. And so it was, it was very different from me.
“I was in league for 12 years, I’ve been coaching for two years already,” Welker added. “Nobody had made tapes like that. And so it opened my eyes like, ‘Oh my gosh, like, yeah, you can, you can really dial it in for these guys.’ If your tape’s on point, and you’re talking the right way, and you’re given the right information, you know, you can really dial stuff in.”
Other possible candidates
Of course, the Patriots aren’t limited to hiring coaches with prior ties with the organization. Even though their last few offensive coordinator hirings have met that requirement and they remained in-house to replace Belichick, the known candidates to be Mayo’s defensive coordinator and special teams coach mostly come from outside of the organization.
If the Patriots do opt to go with someone without prior ties to the organization Seahawks QB coach Greg Olson, Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen, 49ers passing game coordinator Klint Kubiak, Eagles senior offensive assistant Marcus Brady, and Bengals QB coach Dan Pitcher are among those who’ve reportedly been requested to interview for other offensive coordinator vacancies.
49ers tight ends coach Brian Fleury was also mentioned as a possible candidate for the Patriots’ offensive coordinator role by the Monday Morning Quarterback’s Albert Breer. Fleury has experience working on both sides of the ball, serving as a defensive quality control coach before becoming an offensive quality control coach for the 49ers. He’s been their tight ends coach over the last two seasons and Breer wrote in February 2023 that Fleury figures to be the next emerging coordinator from Shanahan tree.
Kliff Kingsbury, who began his NFL playing career with the Patriots, interviewed with the Bears for their offensive coordinator vacancy. But it’s been speculated that the former Cardinals head coach and current USC offensive coordinator might only have interest in the job to possibly continue to work with projected No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.
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