As Mike Vrabel continues building out his coaching staff, he’s done a terrific job of surrounding himself with experienced people.
According to Mark Daniels of MassLive.com, former Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone is set to join New England’s coaching staff.
Marrone was the head coach for the Buffalo Bills from 2013-2014, but he was the one responsible for resurrecting a Jacksonville Jaguars team after becoming their coach in 2016. He initially turned that program around, even guiding them to the AFC Championship game against New England at the end of the 2017 season and nearly beating them.
Had it not been for late-game heroics by Tom Brady and Danny Amendola’s game-winning touchdown in a 24-20 Patriots win, Marrone could have very well gone on to face the Philadelphia Eagles himself that year.
But unfortunately, between the inconsistent play by Bortles and additional issues, the Jaguars ultimately went through a rough patch that Marrone couldn’t survive and he was fired following the 2020 season.
He spent a couple of seasons working in the college ranks, spending last year with Bill O’Brien at Boston College as a Senior Analyst for Football Strategy, and before that he worked Alabama under Nick Saban in 2021 as the offensive line coach for the Crimson Tide.
That seems to be the position he’s been coaching as of late, having spent 2022-2023 coaching the Saints’ offensive line in New Orleans.
While he’s expected to coach the offensive line here, what his official role will be under Vrabel is another question. But either way, the 60-year old brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to what is certainly a much different level of coaches than we saw a year ago.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
This is a great move. Marone was an o-lineman and coached it. Now we have two very experienced guys under McDaniels. One line centric and one passing game. There’s a really good article on BOSTON.COM on this with some more details.