With former Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia retiring in January, New England is in the market for someone to fill the empty coaching position.
While there's been no formal announcement on who is taking over, Patriots center David Andrews provided some insight on a video conference call with the media on Tuesday. The 27-year-old mentioned that Cole Popovich and Carmen Bricillo have been leading the offensive line in offseason meetings and he seems to be on board with the duo potentially taking over for Scarnecchia.
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"Cole Popovich and Carm [Carmen Bricillo], it’s not like these are someone that they brought in and a lot of us haven’t even met," Andrews said. "Cole’s been there for a while and Carm’s been there since last year. So, pretty much everyone in the room right now, other than the rookies, have a relationship with those guys, are familiar with them, so I think that helps a lot having those guys that we’ve been around for a long time and have been in our system helps a lot because there’s a lot of continuity there."
Popovich, who is in his fifth season with the Patriots, spent three years as a coaching assistant for Scarnecchia and the offensive line before taking over as assistant running backs coach in 2019. Bricillo spent his first season in New England last year as a coaching assistant for the offensive line.
It makes too much sense to let someone already in the Patriots organization take over for Scarnecchia instead of rolling with a potential outside candidate.
While 2020 is going to be extremely different without Tom Brady at the helm of New England's offense, the offensive line is going to need to be especially strong this coming season with Jarrett Stidham likely set to take over at the starting quarterback.