Report: Patriots add ex-Packers DL coach to coaching staff
The Patriots have added former Packers defensive line coach/run game coordinator Jerry Montgomery to their coaching staff, according to ESPN.
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Montgomery, 44, had been the longest-tenured coach on Green Bay’s staff. Following 11 years as a college assistant, he joined the Packers in 2015, and tutored top defensive tackles, including Pro Bowlers Kenny Clark and Mike Daniels. The Packers recently hired ex-Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley to be their new defensive coordinator, and are reshuffling their defensive staff.
Montgomery is an obvious candidate to replace new Patriots defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington as the team’s defensive line coach. Montgomery, like new Pats offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, overlapped with Patriots director of scouting Eliot Wolf in Green Bay from 2015-2018. Wolf also has ties to ex-Giants head coach and two-time offensive coordinator Ben McAdoo, who is reportedly in talks to join the team.
Montgomery started his coaching career as a student assistant at Iowa in 2002, then moved through the high school and community college ranks before working as the defensive line coach at Northern Iowa for two years. He also had brief stints at Michigan, Wyoming and Oklahoma, before joining the Packers as a low-level assistant in 2015 under former defensive coordinator Dom Capers, a one-time Patriots coach.
As a player, Montgomery was a three-year starting defensive tackle at the University of Iowa, He later played in the Arena Football League for the Chicago Rush, Colorado Crush and Las Vegas Gladiators from 2003-2005, while moonlighting as a high school and community college coach.
The Pats’ current defensive staff consists of Covington, Montgomery and holdovers assistants Mike Pellegrino, Keith Jones and Brian Belichick, should they stay under new head coach Jerod Mayo. Belichick has already been offered a spot on the new staff, while his brother, linebackers coach Steve Belichick, reportedly accepted the defensive coordinator job at the University Washington on Monday.