As new Patriots coach Mike Vrabel’s staff takes shape, former New England assistants are moving on.
According to ESPN, the Green Bay Packers are hiring DeMarcus Covington to be their defensive line coach. Last season was Covington’s first as the Patriots defensive coordinator.
This offseason, Covington interviewed with the Cincinnati Bengals for their defensive coordinator job. Now, he heads to Green Bay to work with Packers defensive play caller Jeff Hafley, who previously was Boston College’s head coach.
Covington was hired by Bill Belichick in 2017 as a coaching assistant. He was discovered while coaching at Eastern Illinois. Covington was promoted to linebackers coach in 2019. The next year, he was moved to coach defensive tackles and held that role from 2020-2023.
Covington’s work as an assistant garnered praise from his players and quickly made him a defensive coordinator candidate. In 2023, he interviewed with the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers for their vacant defensive playcaller jobs.
Covington has also been routinely on the NFL Network’s list of future NFL head coaches.
“Definitely thankful for that, but for me, it’s really just about being right here. Being planted where my feet are right here,” Covington said. “Trying to help this football team win games, because that’s where it starts. You’ve gotta win games to even be in that position. So win games, do my job here, do it to the best of my ability, then the rest of that will come.
“So I’m not really focused on that at the moment. Excited to be on that list, but really more excited about trying to help this football team win football games. Then the future will take care of itself.”
It wasn’t a surprise when former Patriots coach Jerod Mayo hired him to be his defensive coordinator last season. The Patriots defense finished 22nd in the NFL in scoring and total defense.
Vrabel has completely revamped the Patriots defensive staff as no positional assistants will return in 2025. Terrell Williams takes over as the team’s new defensive coordinator.
TITANS: Tennessee has given new general manager Mike Borgonzi more help, hiring Dave Ziegler as assistant general manager and Reggie McKenzie as vice president and football adviser.
The Titans announced the additions on Thursday of a pair of former NFL general managers. The franchise holds the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft and approximately $50 million in salary cap space, needing to rebuild after going 16-35 over the past three seasons. McKenzie was among the 10 candidates interviewed in the first round for the job Borgonzi got earlier this month, and he also was in the mix for Tennessee’s GM job in 2008.
Ziegler spent the 2024 season as New Orleans’ senior personnel adviser, and he has 15 NFL seasons of experience that include being general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2022 and 2023. He started in the NFL in 2010 with Denver in the scouting department before joining New England in 2013 as assistant director of pro personnel through 2015. Ziegler was promoted to director of pro personnel in 2016 and stayed in that job through 2019.
He was assistant director of player personnel in 2020 for the Patriots, then director in 2021 as New England won seven division titles and three Super Bowls during his time with the team. The Tallmadge, Ohio, native played at John Carroll University before starting as a high school coach in Arizona, then moving to college coaching at Iona and his alma mater.
JETS: New York agreed to terms with Steve Wilks to be their defensive coordinator, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
Wilks is the first coordinator hired by new head coach Aaron Glenn, who was formally introduced by the Jets on Monday along with new general manager Darren Mougey.
The 55-year-old Wilks was out of the NFL this season and served as a volunteer adviser for University of Charlotte’s football team. He was San Francisco’s defensive coordinator in 2023, but was fired after the 49ers’ loss in the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs.
