McAdoo spent 2024 as the Patriots’ senior offensive consultant. He will remain on Vrabel’s staff in a defensive role that will be specified at a later date, according to the Boston Sports Journal. The peculiar move would mark the first year in which McAdoo, a decorated offensive coach, moves to defense.

McAdoo will join Jeremy Springer and Tom Quinn as the only coaches on Jerod Mayo’s staff whom Vrabel intends to keep. Springer, the special teams coordinator, and Quinn, the assistant special teams coach, are expected to remain in the same roles.

Three weeks after accepting the Patriots job, Vrabel has yet to fill out his staff, but he has already named his coordinators. He hired former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels as his offensive coordinator and former Tennessee Titans assistant Terrell Williams as his defensive coordinator.

Both the Patriots and Vrabel notoriously value consistency, as exemplified in the latter’s hiring process. Vrabel has worked with most of the coaches on his growing staff before, with many also returning to the franchise they built their careers with.

Patriots’ Ben McAdoo’s tumultuous coaching career

Throughout his 19-year NFL career, McAdoo rose and fell as a prominent coach with the Giants. From 2014 to 2015, he served as the team’s offensive coordinator under Tom Coughlin, quickly turning New York into one of the highest-scoring teams in the league. His success earned him a promotion to head coach in 2016 following Coughlin’s resignation.

In his first year as the Giants’ head coach, McAdoo led the team to an 11-5 record, its best in nearly a decade. His success resulted in New York’s first playoff appearance in five years.

However, his system fell apart the following year. The Giants went just 3-13 in 2017, and McAdoo was fired after 12 games. He received an avalanche of criticism for benching franchise quarterback Eli Manning for journeyman Geno Smith in Week 13, ending the veteran’s streak of 210 consecutive starts. Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo closed out the year as interim head coach.

Since McAdoo’s firing, the Giants are on their third head coach in the past seven seasons. McAdoo took two years off from coaching before returning to the league in 2020 as the quarterbacks coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.