Just In: Patriots Just Lost Their Defensive Coordinator

The New England Patriots are off to hiring a defensive coordinator. Again. De facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores left the team to become a head coach for the Miami Dolphins. New England brought former Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano to fill the position.

But, the defensive coordinator decided to leave the coaching staff. He released a statement to confirm his decision.

“I have informed Mr. Kraft and Coach Belichick that I am stepping down from my position at the Patriots,” his statement reads. “This is not the result of any one event, but rather a realization that I need to spend more time on my faith and family. I don’t want to look back years from now and wish I had done things differently. Therefore, I am taking time away from the game to recalibrate my priorities.”

Head coach Bill Belichick responded to his decision, and said, “I respect coach Schiano greately and appreciate his contributions to our staff and team. he is a friend who we support completely.”

This is not the first time Belichick shares words of praise for the defensive coordinator.

“I think Greg’s a tremendous coach,” he said in 2017. “I’ve learned an awful lot from him and had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with him when he was at Rutgers and Stephen [Belichick] was at Rutgers and I’d go down there. The lacrosse and the football programs are in the same building. Then at Tampa and the couple of years after Tampa was really even better for, I would say, my relationship with him because he had those last two years in the NFL and I’ve learned an awful lot from him. He’s given me a lot of – we talk about things that they did in their program, that he did in Tampa, that really had a lot of relevance to what we do. So did Rutgers, but it’s a little bit different in the NFL. He’s done a great job at Ohio State.

“He’s one of the very best coaches I think in our profession. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Greg and the way he runs his program and the job that he does. I would say the most impressive thing for me is the way that our players, which we’ve had a lot of Rutgers players come through here, the loyalty and the I would say love of the program, the college program that they were in at Rutgers when he was there, how they maintained that for years and years after they had left. Not taking anything away from any other school, but I would just say that it’s extremely strong. I think the relationship that he has with his kids, with his players and how well prepared his players are to come into this league is exceptional.”