Special Teams Coach Scott O'Brien to retire from coaching

O'Brien spent 24 years as a coach in the NFL, joining Bill Belichick as special teams coach of the Cleveland Browns in 1991. O'Brien spent his last six seasons with the Patriots.

"I have never worked with a coach better than Scott O'Brien," said head coach Bill Belichick in a statement from the team. "Scott is second to none at preparation, strategy, teaching, techniques, fundamentals, scouting and virtually any other aspect of teambuilding, game planning or player development that exists in football. I thank Scott for making me a better coach, finding and developing countless players and being such a tremendous asset at both organizations we worked together. Scott O'Brien is undoubtedly one of the finest coaches of his generation and he deserves having his final game be a Super Bowl championship. While we will miss his contributions in coaching, we look forward to continuing to work with him in other capacities."

O'Brien also spent time with Baltimore, Carolina, Miami and Denver. In 22 seasons as a special teams coach, O'Brien's teams produced 41 special teams touchdowns.​

Joe Judge was named assistant special teams coach on May 10, 2012. Judge came to the Patriots after a three-year stint at the University of Alabama as a football analyst under coach Nick Saban. While on the Alabama staff, Judge was a member of two National Championship teams in 2009 and 2011 and assisted with the special teams units. With Judge's assistance, Alabama ranked in the top 20 nationally in both punt and kickoff returns in each of his three seasons. While at Alabama, Judge's special teams units were honored with a First-Team All American kicker and Groza Award finalist (Leigh Tiffin, 2009), a First-Team All American return specialist (Javier Arenas, 2009), an SEC All-Freshman team punter (Cody Mandell, 2010) and a returner who finished his career ranked second in all-time in NCAA return yards (Javier Arenas).

Prior to going to Alabama, Judge spent a season at Birmingham-Southern where he served as special teams/linebackers coach in 2008. He began his coaching career at Mississippi State as a graduate assistant under Sylvester Croom from 2005 through the 2007 season. While at Mississippi State, Judge tutored a freshman All-SEC punter, five All-SEC linebackers, and a returner who finished as the SEC leader in career return yards and the all-time SEC leader in kickoff return yards.​