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Just a few days on the job and Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo is “cooking”, or at least busy looking to assemble his staff, searching for coordinators of all kinds. He’s conducted several defensive coordinator interviews, will have to find a new offensive coordinator with Bill O’Brien having left for the same position at Ohio State. And now another special teams coordinator interview, this one also from the NFC.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Patriots are set to interview Los Angeles Rams Assistant Special Teams Coach Jeremy Springer for their vacant Special Teams Coordinator position. While a relative unknown to many at the pro level, Springer, who’s been with the Rams for two seasons, has almost a decade of experience at the collegiate level.
A native of Los Fresnos, Texas, Springer has coached special teams at Marshall, the University of Arizona, Texas A&M and UTEP before making the leap to the pros in 2022. Of local note, at Arizona he worked in 2018-19 with Patriots running back JJ Taylor as his primary kickoff returner, and his Texas A&M special teams led the nation in blocked punts and blocked kicks in 2017. Springer played his college ball at UTEP from 2007-2011 before quickly making the transition to coaching.
This marks the second special teams coordinator interview for Mayo and the Patriots thus far. The team previously interviewed Marquice Williams, the special teams coordinator who worked under Arthur Smith with the Atlanta Falcons from 2021-2023 before Smith's dismissal on January 8th.
The Patriots finished with the 32nd or worst ranked special teams in the NFL in 2023. Coaches Cam Achord and Joe Judge are not being retained, and there’s much work to do obviously with the likely retirement of special teams leader and team captain Matthew Slater, plus a rookie kicker in Chad Ryland who missed 9 kicks (16/25) last season.
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