Brian Flores stocks his coaching staff with Patriots' assistants - what sort of impact will this have in New England?

So I guess we can stop calling the Texans’ New England South.


Six of the 16 assistant coaching hires made official by Brian Flores on Friday have ties to the Patriots. That’s in addition to Flores, who made his bones in Foxborough before being hired by the Dolphins as their head coach earlier this offseason.

Both coordinators — Chad O’Shea on offense and Patrick Graham on defense — have deep roots in New England. O’Shea was the Patriots’ receivers coach for the last 10 years, while Graham was with New England from 2009 through 2015 in various capacities, including linebackers coach (2011, 2014-15) and defensive line coach (2012-2013).

“Chad is extremely smart, innovative and hard working. He brings a lot of energy to practice and meetings. Chad has a great rapport with players. He has earned the trust of a lot of guys he has worked with, from Randy Moss to Wes Welker to Julian Edelman. Chad has gotten the most out of his players from the 10 years I have been around him,” Flores said.

“Pat is a Yale guy. He’s extremely bright. He is great with the fundamentals and has very strong leadership ability. I can’t say enough good things about him. We worked together in New England and I know the type of passion he has and the way he works. We have a lot of the same core values and beliefs from a defensive standpoint,” Flores added.

In addition, on the defensive side of the ball, there’s Josh Boyer, New England’s cornerbacks coach from 2012 through 2018. In all, he spent 13 years with the Patriots — now, he’ll be the cornerbacks/defensive passing game coordinator in Miami. On offense, George Godsey (tight ends coach), Jerry Schuplinski (assistant quarterbacks coach) and Tiquan Underwood (quality control) join Flores, and all have ties to New England.

Godsey was with the Patriots from 2011-2013 — his last two seasons with New England, he was the tight ends coach. Schuplinski was with the Patriots the last six years, including the last three as the assistant quarterbacks coach, and had a role in developing backups like Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett. And Underwood played in New England in 2011 before spending last year coaching at Lafayette.

So how do the Patriots move forward? The feeling here is that this represents an opportunity for some of the younger coaches on staff (defensive line coach Brendan Daly, safeties coach Stephen Belichick or tight ends coach Nick Caley in particular) to take a sizable step forward in their own careers. Keeping in mind the fact the franchise can occasionally combine two jobs — for example, Flores was the defensive play-caller and the linebackers coach last season — the following positional coaching jobs are open: linebacker, cornerback, wide receiver, and assistant quarterbacks coach.

Among the young assistants who could be in line for more work?

• Atif Austin, who has been with the Patriots a year after four seasons at North Dakota State. At the collegiate level, he’s also coached the running backs at Stetson (2013).

• Brian Belichick, the son of the head coach who has been a coaching assistant for the last two years in New England.

• DeMarcus Covington, another coaching assistant who joined the franchise in 2017 and has worked at Eastern Illinois (where he was the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach), UT-Martin, Ole Miss, and UAB. Given his background and what we know about him -- he was known to have worked closely with Flores --  he'd likely be a candidate for one of the openings on defense.

• Mike Pellegrino has been a coaching assistant the last four years in Foxborough. A Johns Hopkins product, he starred collegiately in lacrosse before joining the Patriots as a football operations intern in 2015.

• Cole Popovich has been a coaching assistant the last three seasons with the Patriots. Prior to his time with New England, he was offensive line coach/co-offensive coordinator at Minot State, a graduate assistant at Utah State, and an offensive line coach at Fresno City College, and Los Angeles Valley College. His background on offense could make him an option on offense.

One other possibility? The Patriots could lean on personnel guru Nick Caserio, who has experience as a coaching assistant, and spent one year as the receivers' coach (2007).