Report: Dante Scarnecchia To Retire, Creating New Hole On Pats Coaching Staff

The New England Patriots lost the wild-card game to the Tennessee Titans, and missed the chance to win another Lombardi Trophy. Their season was brought to an end, and the team made a lot of changes. The coaching staff won’t be the same in September. Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia is leaving the organization.

The longtime Patriots offensive line coach was considering his retirement this offseason as confirmed by a report Tuesday from WEEI’s Christian Fauria.

Scarnecchia will turn 72 later this month, and he is one of the best position coaches in the league. He finished his 34th season as a Patriots assistant. Scarnecchia first joined the New England Patriots as a special teams/tight ends coach in 1982.

He is one of the two assistants whose time with the Patriots predates head coach Bill Belichick’s arrival in 2000. Running back coach Ivan Fears is the other assistant. Scarnecchia first retired after the 2013 season. However, he decided to come back two years later. He was a coach in all but one of the team’s 11 Super Bowls, including five of its six titles.

Dante Scarnecchia is leaving

Scarnecchia’s retirement makes another hole for the Patriots to fill on the coaching staff. The team works without wide receivers coach/special teams coordinator Joe Judge and defensive line coach Bret Bielema. Judge and Bielema joined the New York Giants.

Fauria reported that New England is expected to promote from within to replace the offensive line coordinator. Carmen Bricillo and Cole Popovich are top candidates for the position.

The Patriots will have to make a few changes to enter the new season with a successful squad. They missed the chance to bring another trophy home, and that will give them a bigger motivation. Tom Brady’s contract is also an issue at the moment. The quarterback is set to become a free agent in March. Hopefully, the team will offer him a contract before the start of the free agency period. It’s a big offseason for the team, and they are about to witness some major changes. Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks. Who is staying?

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