The New England Patriots have already secured one college assistant/former Patriot on their revamped offensive staff, and could be in the process of plucking another.
According to both NFL Media and Sports Illustrated, the Patriots are speaking with Oregon offensive line coach Adrian Klemm about their offensive line position.
SI's Albert Breer reported Tuesday that the two sides will have a second interview.
Another meeting is anticipated between the Patriots and Oregon run-game coordinator/OL coach Adrian Klemm. Klemm interviewed for the Pats OC job last week and, with Bill O'Brien in place, New England could bring him in under O'Brien.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 24, 2023
Klemm coached for the Steelers from 2019-21.
Klemm recently completed his first season on Dan Lanning's new Oregon staff, where he serves as associate head coach and run game coordinator in addition to offensive line coach.
Oregon was off-the-charts good in pass protection this season. The Ducks surrendered 0.39 sacks per game, which not only led the nation, it was the fewest by a non-Academy team (2020 excluded) since 2015.
Klemm is a former Patriot offensive lineman who won three Super Bowls from 2000-04. He spent 2005 with the Green Bay Packers before entering coaching as a GA at SMU in 2008. Klemm received a two-year show-cause penalty in 2016 and spent 2017-18 out of football before joining the Pittsburgh Steelers as assistant offensive line coach in 2019.
Mike Tomlin promoted him to offensive line coach for the 2021 season, and Lanning paid $1 million a year to get Klemm to Eugene, so Bill Belichick will presumably have to pay a similar number to get him back in the NFL.
Needless to say, Klemm would represent a big loss for an Oregon offensive staff room that already lost coordinator Kenny Dillingham to Arizona State.
Matt Patricia coached the Patriots' offensive line as part of Belichick's OC-by-committee, figure-it-out-on-the-fly approach to his offensive staff in 2022. Belichick is going for a much more traditional approach in 2023.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.