Off Field

The Patriots coaching carousel, whilst still moving, is definitely getting filled up! And whilst the most recent episode of our YouTube show Pats Procrastination (link below) covered some of the recent hirings, we were still speculating at that stage who the NEP’s offensive coordinator might be. So, to that end, I thought I would bring you lovely lot a round up of so far, so… good?

Officially we all know that the big chief is Jerod Mayo at head coach, but what about the other guys named so far?

To go in order, DeMarcus Covington was a generally expected promotion from defensive line coach to full blown defensive coordinator. Covington is said to be widely respected and felt like a natural progression under the new, first time head coach. 

Covington joined the Patriots in 2017, named outside line backers coach in 2019 and has spent the last four years as the defensive line coach. 

And just for fun because you lot all know how I like my measurables, the 34 year old comes in at a neat 6 feet. 

The next hire, a less expected one and perhaps to the dismay of some, was Jeremy Springer, assistant special team coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, now named New England’s special teams coordinator. 

Springer coached special teams for eight years at college before entering the NFL with the Rams and has spent two seasons as the special teams assistant coordinator. 

Now, I mention dismay as when you look up the details for Springer, the stats are not good. The Rams special teams performance has been rather poor lately. However, it has been said that Springer was a very “behind the scenes” guy, which could of course mean a lot of things, but a big one could be that his voice was never really heard. And whilst I am not telling you how to feel, or how to fan, maybe Springer just needs a chance in a new location to shine and create his own success. 

You’ll never know unless you try, and the one thing that Mayo seems to be looking at is building a future for the NEP, and I’m guessing he saw something in this 6 foot 3, 34 year old that he felt could do that. Time will tell. 

Finally, last night, as I write this on the morning of Friday 2nd February 2024, it was reported that the Patriots have hired 53 year old, 6 foot 1, Alex Van Pelt as their offensive coordinator. 

Van Pelt has a resumé full of experience, and as the young, new head coach brought in youthful exuberance at the defensive and special teams positions, he delved into the more seasoned market for a coach to work with the weakest link of the Patriots. 

Van Pelt, or AVP as he is already being coined by some media, started his NFL career as an 8th round pick quarterback to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1993. Fast forward a little bit, okay a lot, and AVP rose through the coaching ranks, spending time at Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Cincinnati and Buffalo. Whilst in Green Bay he worked with the current Patriots director of scouting, Eliot Wolf.

AVP’s most recent position was with the Cleveland Browns, where he spent four years as offensive coordinator. Now, it is becoming well known, and discussed that AVP has not been a play caller, that was a role Kevin Stefanski kept to himself. But, AVP did step into the position for a game in 2020 with a playoff win against the Steelers when Stefanski was on the injury report. 

Van Pelt has had 29 seasons in the NFL, 20 as an assistant coach, has coached quarterbacks and running backs and has been OC on two occasions, Buffalo in 2009 and the stint in Cleveland that lasted 4 years. 

Within that, Van Pelt has spent 14 years as a quarterbacks coach, working with the likes of Aaron Rodgers, Baker Mayfield, Joe Flacco and perhaps most interestingly to some Patriots fans, Jacoby Brissett. 

So as we move towards free agency, the combine, and of course the draft, we can at least feel a little relieved that the big coordinator roles are filled. Now, don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciate people are still saying “Van who?”, are concerned over the Rams special teams past performance and have a tonne of other reasons not to be happy for these signings. However, I wrote this piece just to give you a little bit of fun insight into the new staff at Foxborough and perhaps, hopefully, add a small air of optimism too. 

Go Pats!

As many of you may or may not have heard, the NFL has uploaded 96 games as voted by fans, three per team, to Youtube. Every team obviously has a minimum of three games, some have many more, some have many less. The Patriots have the third most games available, a total of 10 (the Packers and Cowboys are tied with thirteen each).

Many of the games voted for show quite a recency bias, and also who teams are VERY excited to beat. The other fans hate our Patriots. You already knew that and so did I.

Let’s take a look at the seven games voted by other teams fans and relive them a little, ranked by heartbreak, and also ranked by what we learned:

7: Monday night football at Carolina, November 18 2013

This game had the lowest stakes of all the games, it barely puts up a fight. It has distinctiveness for several reasons: The Patriots were beaten after a bye week, which is quite a rarity around Belichick coached teams. This was the game that it became clear that Aqib Talib wasn’t a big subscriber to “The Patriot Way”, losing his cool because of some personal nonsense with Steve Smith.

Finally, and most importantly, it was a national stage for the (un)official unveiling of the “Shaq Rules” for Gronk, where he gets officiated differently both for and against due to him being so much bigger and so much stronger than anyone that is tasked with covering him.

6: Super Bowl XX vs Chicago Bears, 1985 season

The Patriots were just incredibly overmatched (as would have been basically anyone in that game), and it took no time for that to become evident. All stories seem to reflect a very “happy to be there” attitude for the fanbase, as it showed hope for future versus a not so great pastfor the Patriots at that point.

This was also the “not quite” decade for Boston/New England sports. The Celtics won titles in 1981, 1984 and 1986, The Bruins made Stanley Cup appearances 1988 and 1990, the Red Sox made the World Series in 1986, and the Patriots were in this Super Bowl in 1986. Growing up in the 90s and barely remembering 80s sports, my dad always mentioned how everything was so close to great. Glad we got to see that fully come to fruition twenty years later.

5: AFCCG vs Ravens, 2012 season

This game was uglier than it showed on the scoreboard, and it was quite a frustrating game to watch. Talib goes down in an AFC Championship game, Gronk rebroke his arm the week before versus the Texans, Edelman was stuck covering an Anquan Boldin that was playing out of his mind, perhaps accidentally inhaling some deer antler spray owned by Ray Lewis in the locker room. We can’t prove whether that did or did not happen, so let’s launch and investiga……..nah.

4: Superbowl XXXI vs Green Bay, 1996 season

This one felt so close, yet so far. Everyone could smell the potential comeback when the Patriots scored to be down seven before Desmond Howard returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown. In hindsight, we all know if it was close and there was a potential comeback, Drew was throwing a 4th quarter pick. Drew Bledsoe, if you’re reading this, I apologize for that dig. Please send me a bottle of Doubleback (free plug for your wine. We good?).

3: AFCCG at Colts, 2006 season

HOW DID THEY LOSE THIS GAME. Period, not question mark. The first half had all the makings of a complete and total rout, and it’s almost as if they convinced themselves it was all over after the Asante Samuel pick-6. They were absolutely winning the Super Bowl if they hung on here. Despite the loss, this game holds a special place in my heart because of the amount of offensive lineman touchdowns (Logan Mankins and Jeff Saturday). Unfortunately, this also officially kicked off the “Peyton Manning can beat Brady!” train, which made for a great rivalry but also was the beginning of the end of being able to really poke fun at Peyton without recourse, and who among us Patriot fans didn’t love those days?

2: AFCDG vs Jets, 2010

Six weeks earlier, the Patriots absolutely destroyed the Jets on national television. This time, the Jets defense came in like bullies, and the Pats D allowed Mark Sanchez to look like a god in this game. Gross. Kudos to Rex Ryan for having a plan and executing it perfectly, let’s all hope that this game is his crowning jewel, and never to be matched, replicated, or topped.

1: Super Bowl XLII

Okay, we all know that this game is the helmet catch. The Eighteen-and-one. This one still stings. What did we learn? How to cope with having it all and losing it. I’m sure for other fan bases, this season echoed every superhero movie that exists: “That menacing villain is so powerful! How can they be stopped?! Save us, hero!”, and somehow, in the final battle, it all went to hell.

To end this on a happy note, the three games selected by Patriots fans were Superbowl 36, Superbowl 49, and The Snow Game vs the Raiders. We’re lucky to have many great memories, as is obvious by the healthy amount of respect shown to the Patriots from other fanbases.