The New England Patriots are far from adding coaches to their staff. News broke Wednesday night that the team had hired former Browns offensive line coach Mike McCarthy as an offensive assistant. To date, McCarthy is the 12th foreign player signed under new coach Jerrod Mayo.What exactly does this move mean for the Patriots? Here’s a quick breakdown of the New England coaching search looking at the big picture.Patriots add another experienced O-line coachMcCarthy has held several jobs since retiring from the game in 2007 and transitioning to an off-field role.
He started primarily in research and video research before adding quality control and position coaching to his resume.He spent most of his career on the offensive line. He was at the University of New Jersey in 2009, Tulane in 2012 and 2013, the Detroit Lions in 2016 and 2017 and Brown the past five years.That makes McCarthy the last coach with significant experience since New England hired Scott Peters and Robert Coogler. Two offensive assistants are now on staff.The Patriots’ offensive staff has had seven coaches, including coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
Two people are listed as assistant coaches: McCarthy and Ben McAdoo. McAdoo, former head coach of the New York Giants, will take on a senior assistant role as offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers. Whether McCarthy receives the same accolade remains to be seen, but it wouldn’t be surprising if his duties are different from McAdoo’s despite his title. After all, as mentioned above, McCarthy has worked with the O-line for most of his coaching career. McAdoo, on the other hand, has worked extensively with quarterbacks, either as a position coach or through head coaching and coordinator roles. New England’s coaching roster is getting deeper, but big questions remain.Although the Patriots have added a new offensive line coach, two key positions still need to be filled.
New England is still without a wide receivers and tight ends coach. Exactly how that position will be filled is anyone’s guess at this point, but a coach with ties to Alex Van Pelt is preferred. If so, former New England wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea would be a name to watch. In fact, the addition of Tyquan Underwood as assistant wide receivers coach could help move in that direction, as the two worked together in Miami in 2019. However, current wide receivers coach Troy Brown was also given the option to stay with the club. Even if he accepts the offer, it’s unclear whether he’ll continue to work with a wide range of people in the future.
There appear to be multiple candidates for the tight end position.Evan Rothstein’s status attracts attention.If you were to draw a straight line from the Patriots to Mike McCarthy, you’d pass Evan Rothstein. The two spent time with the Lions in 2016 and 2017. Rothstein served as an offensive assistant focusing on scouting and analytics for two seasons, while McCarthy was the offensive quality control coach and offensive line assistant. Six years after leaving Detroit, he has a chance to reunite with his former teammates. After all, Rothstein is one of two employees whose status remains active (the other is Troy Brown).
He came to New England in 2021 for a scouting and analytics job, then moved to offensive assistant the following year. In 2023, he was promoted to fourth assistant coach under Bill O’Brien.Despite working together, O’Brien did not bring Rothstein to his new gig at Boston College. Now that McCarthy has been added to the mix, there may be signs that he will stick around.
