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Dante Scarnecchia denies that he’s returning to Patriots coaching staff
"I have not been helping out behind the scenes."
The Patriots have a seasoned offensive-line coach in place for the 2025 season in Doug Marrone, who had head-coaching stints with both the Bills and Jaguars.
But with New England’s porous O-line in need of an overhaul this offseason, could Marrone receive some help in Foxborough from a Patriots Hall of Fame coach?
Former Patriots offensive coordinator and current Boston College football coach Bill O’Brien seemed to map out such a scenario this week — with the Eagles coach noting on his podcast that former New England offensive-line coach Dante Scarnecchia was returning to the team in some capacity to assist Marrone.
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“Dante has already met with him a few times, which is good,” O’Brien said on his podcast. “Like you said, Dante’s back involved with the program, just, you know, helping out as an advisor and things like that. And that’ll help Doug, and Doug will do a great job with Josh [McDaniels]. And it’s a good staff – a very, very strong coaching staff.”
The return of an O-line expert like Scarnecchia to New England in any capacity would be a welcome sight. The 76-year-old coach won five Super Bowls with the Patriots.
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But during an appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Thursday morning, Scarnecchia denied any talk of returning to Foxborough in 2025.
“[O’Brien] has informed the world that you’re going to be consulting with the New England Patriots next season,” Hill asked Scarnecchia. “Can you talk about that, or not?”
“It’s not true,” Scarnecchia replied.
Fellow WEEI host Courtney Cox noted that O’Brien did revisit some of his initial comments about Scarnecchia during his weekly WEEI radio spot earlier Thursday morning.
“Well, he did kind of walk it back this morning, Dante,” Cox said. “He said, ‘Well, you’ve been doing this the last couple of seasons, and you’ve always kind of been in this role. So is that true, that you have been helping out, kind of, behind the scenes, and you’re gonna continue to do so?”
“I have not been helping out behind the scenes,” Scarnecchia replied. “I’m not involved over there.”
Scarnecchia, who was a member of New England’s coaching staff for 34 years, announced his second retirement from coaching in 2020. Based on his comments, there doesn’t appear to be an appetite for another return to the football field moving forward in 2025 and beyond.
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Scarnecchia was not listed on the Patriots’ press release on Wednesday, which mapped out Mike Vrabel’s revamped coaching staff. As expected, Marrone will serve as the team’s O-line coach this upcoming season, while Jason Houghtaling and Robert Kugler will be assistant offensive-line coaches.
“The goal in filling out the 2025 Patriots coaching staff was to identify loyal, trustworthy coaches who are diverse in background, ideas, experiences and systems,” Vrabel said in the release. “We will be aligned in our vision to teach and develop our players with creativity, consistency and an attention to detail with the major goal of developing relationships that stretch beyond the field and meeting rooms.”
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