Pats Pulpit
New England added three new coaches to its staff on Thursday.
The New England Patriots are in the process of building their coaching staff, with three new members added to it on Thursday. Ashton Grant will reportedly be joining the team of new head coach Mike Vrabel as its quarterbacks coach, with Zak Kuhr and John Streicher arriving in Foxboro in as-of-yet unknown roles.
Given the information available, let’s find out what the three hirings mean for the Patriots in the grand scheme of things.
Diverse background: Grant is joining the Patriots from the Cleveland Browns, where he spent the last two seasons as an offensive assistant focused on working with the quarterbacks. His background, however, is significantly more diverse than that one particular position group: a wide receiver at Assumption, he started his career in quality control at Holy Cross and with the Browns.
He also spent three seasons in Cleveland in a fellowship role. All in all, Grant was given access to several position groups.
“I would catch a dive down more into the run game when I was in the running back room. There was more focus on protections and learning that, the footwork,” he told Cleveland Browns Daily in 2023.
“Moving to the receiver room, it was more so about the pass game. Moving into the tight end room, it was a mixture of both. You are involved in the protections, really involved in the run and the pass game. Just seeing it all come together into one was pretty neat.”
Brand-new support staff around Drake Maye? In 2024, the Patriots used a collaborative effort to work with their quarterbacks. Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt was part of it, as were quarterbacks coach T.C. McCartney, senior offensive assistant Ben McAdoo, and assistant quarterbacks coach Evan Rothstein. Van Pelt has already been confirmed to be departing the team, while the futures of McAdoo and especially McCartney and Rothstein — more on him in a second — are uncertain as well in light of the Grant hire.
As of Friday morning, it therefore appears that the support staff around starting quarterback Drake Maye and fellow sophomore QB Joe Milton will look entirely different. Instead of Van Pelt, McCartney and McAdoo being responsible for developing the two youngsters — something they seemingly did a good job of — the task will now fall on Grant as well as incoming offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels.
No double-duty for Josh McDaniels: In his previous two stints as Patriots OC, McDaniels also coached the quarterbacks. The lone exception was 2020, when Jedd Fisch held that role; his other 12 years as offensive coordinator in New England saw McDaniels pull double-duty.
With Grant joining the team as quarterbacks coach, that will not be the case in 2025. Obviously, though, McDaniels will still be heavily involved given his role and expertise in that area, particularly compared to the less experienced Grant.
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