Pats Pulpit
Wilkins spent the 2024 season on Jerod Mayo’s staff in Foxboro.
Drew Wilkins, who spent the 2024 season as an assistant coach with the New England Patriots, has found a new job. The Los Angeles Rams are hiring him as their defensive pass rush coordinator, according to a report by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
Wilkins, 37, originally arrived in New England last offseason to work with the outside linebackers under the team’s new head coach-defensive coordinator combination of Jerod Mayo and DeMarcus Covington. His position group as a whole struggled, however, with near-constant personnel turnover as a major problem.
After entering training camp with Matthew Judon, Anfernee Jennings, Joshua Uche and Oshane Ximines as the top four in the rotation, only Jennings finished the season on the 53-man roster. Judon and Uche were traded to Atlanta and Kansas City, respectively, with Ximines tearing his ACL in September.
After the season, Wilkins was not retained by the Patriots’ new coaching staff led by head coach Mike Vrabel and defensive coordinator Terrell Williams. While no replacement has been announced yet, the belief is that one of Zak Kuhr, Clinton McMillan and Milton Patterson — all of whom getting hired by Vrabel over the last couple of weeks — will work with the outside linebackers in 2025.
Wilkins, meanwhile, will coach on his fourth team in the last five years. He spent the first 12 years of his NFL coaching career with the Baltimore Ravens before moving to the New York Giants alongside DC Wink Martindale in 2022. Two years later, after Martindale left the Giants, Wilkins made the move to New England.
Now, he is headed to L.A. to work alongside head coach Sean McVay and defensive coordinator Chris Shula. The Rams went 10-7 in 2024, including a 28-22 win over the Patriots.
