Patriots hire Alex Van Pelt to be team's new offensive coordinator

FOXBORO -- Jerod Mayo's coordinators in New England are all in place. The Patriots have hired former Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt to fill the same role, the team announced Thursday.

The Patriots also announced the promotion of DeMarcus Covington to defensive coordinator and the hiring of Jeremy Springer as special teams coordinator, both of which were previously reported.

There were 11 candidates connected to New England's offensive coordinator job ahead of Thursday, but Van Pelt was not one of them. He reportedly interview with the Patriots on Thursday, according to Mark Daniels of Mass Live, and the team moved quickly to hire him.

The 53-year-old is now tasked with revamping a Patriots' offense that is in desperate need of a reset, and he brings plenty of experience with a number of quarterbacks to New England.

The Browns had a roller coaster of a season at quarterback in 2023, with five different players starting at the position: Deshaun Watson, PJ Walker, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Jeff Driskel, and Joe Flacco. Cleveland also lost star running back Nick Chubb in Week 2. 

The team hit its stride with Flacco at quarterback, winning four of five games late in the season to clinch a playoff spot. The Cleveland offense averaged over 27 points per game over that stretch, and 23.3 points per game for the season. But Van Pelt was fired by head coach Kevin Stefanski following Cleveland's playoff loss to the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round. 

Van Pelt was a quarterback himself and played in the NFL for nine seasons, with brief stints with the Steelers and Chiefs before beginning a nine-year run with the Buffalo Bills. He started 11 of the 31 games that he appeared in for the Buffalo, including eight games in 2001, and retired as a player in 2003. 

After a two-year stint in the Bills radio broadcast booth, Van Pelt got his start in coaching. Following a year as the quarterbacks coach for the Frankfurt Galaxy in NFL Europe, Van Pelt rejoined the Bills as a quality control coach in 2006. He became Buffalo's quarterbacks coach in 2008 and the team's offensive coordinator in 2009. 

He also served as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterbacks coach (2010-11), the running backs coach (2012-13) and quarterbacks coach (2014-17) for the Green Bay Packers, and the quarterbacks coach for the Cincinnati Bengals (2018-19). Van Pelt spent the last four seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the Browns, though Stefanski handled play-calling duties for the Cleveland offense.

During his time in the NFL, Van Pelt has worked with quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay and Andy Dalton in Cincinnati. In New England, he'll likely work with a rookie quarterback in his first season with the team, as the Patriots own the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.

The Patriots were tied for last in the NFL at 13.9 points per game in 2023. Van Pelt is replacing Bill O'Brien, who left to become offensive coordinator of Ohio State following New England's 4-13 season.