The Patriots added four members to their coaching staff Monday morning.
Mike Vrabel is set to add a longtime NFL coach to his staff as part of numerous additions.
According to multiple reports, the New England Patriots are hiring former head coach Doug Marrone.
Marrone has two previous stints as a NFL head coach, leading the Buffalo Bills from 2013-14 and then the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2016-20, where he lost to the Patriots in the 2017 AFC Championship Game. Marrone also was the head coach at Syracuse University before being hired by Buffalo.
A former offensive lineman himself, Marrone first entered the NFL coaching ranks working with the position. He worked as the Jaguars offensive line coach before being promoted to head coach and his last stop in the NFL with the New Orleans Saints saw him coach their offensive line from 2022-23.
Marrone has additionally spent two recent seasons at the collegiate level, where he coached the University of Alabama’s offensive line in 2021 before spending this past season on Bill O’Brien’s Boston College staff as a Senior Analyst for Football Strategy.
Now joining New England’s staff, Marrone’s exact role is yet to be known. His experience in the trenches — and with New England losing offensive line coach Scott Petters — is notable, however.
Potentially joining Marrone along the offensive line will be Jason Houghtaling, who is expected to be added to the Patriots staff, according to ESPN’s Mike Reiss.
Houghtaling assisted the offensive line unit on Vrabel’s Tennessee staff from 2021-22 before going on to lead the room in 2023. He spent the last season as an assistant offensive line coach for the Chicago Bears and has nearly 15 years of college coaching experience.
The Patriots will also add Thomas Brown, who interviewed with the team for the offensive coordinator position each of the last two seasons, to their staff as their tight ends coach and pass game coordinator. Beginning his NFL coaching career under Sean McVay in Los Angeles, Brown worked with running backs and tight ends while earning the assistant head coach title from 2021-22.
He was then hired as the Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator in 2023 before joining the Bears last season as their passing game coordinator. With Chicago altering their coaching staff numerous times mid-season, Brown was eventually promoted to offensive coordinator and then interim head coach.
In addition to offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Marrone, Houghtaling, and Brown will reportedly join running backs coach Tony Dews, quarterbacks coach Ashton Grant, and offensive assistant Riley Larkin on the Patriots offensive staff.
On the defensive side of the football, the Patriots are hiring Florida A&M’s defensive coordinator/linebackers coach Milton Patterson, according to Joseph Pasteris and Mass Live’s Mark Daniels.
Patterson was a four-year letterman at Jackson State, where he then went on to start his coaching career in 2012 as an analyst/assistant strength coach. He went on to make stops at four other collegiate programs before landing with Florida A&M in 2021 where he’s worked with their linebackers for the last four seasons before earning the defensive coordinator title in 2024.
Despite his experience coming in college, Patterson has spent time with multiple NFL teams under the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship. That included a stop with Mike Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans in 2023.
Patterson is the second coach hired who has experience with linebackers joining Zak Kuhr, who was Vrabel’s assistant inside linebackers coach in Tennessee from 2021-23.