At Monday night's Super Bowl LIII Media Night at State Farm Arena, revered long-time Patriots offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia and long-time running backs coach Ivan Fears both said they plan on being back for the 2019 season.
Outside of a two-year stint with the Colts from 1989-90, and a retirement that only lasted two years before returning in 2016 after the team parted ways with Dave DeGuglielmo, the 70-year-old Scarnecchia has been serving as the Patriots as an assistant coach in various capacities since 1982. Next fall would be his 34th with New England, and 48th season overall as a coach at either the collegiate or professional level.
Long celebrated as one of the NFL's best offensive line coaches ever, the former United States Marine is in the midst of what some are arguing one of his best coaching jobs. As Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel pointed out in a column Monday, no Patriots starting lineman this year had been taken above the third round of the NFL Draft. Going by Spotrac.com's salary data, Wetzel points out that New England's entire starting five (David Andrews, Joe Thuney, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon, Trent Brown) along with backups LaAdrian Waddle, Ted Karras and James Ferentz, combined will make $300,000 less this season than Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith -- one of the league's best blind sides -- will make by himself.
ROAD TO SUPER BOWL LIII
If the Pats' trench can keep Tom Brady upright in the face of Ndamukong Suh and reigning Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald, it will cement all of the glowing dispositions about Scar's ability to coach and develop premier offensive linemen from all shapes and sizes. So far in two playoff games this January, Brady hasn't been sacked and has been hit just once despite facing some of the league's premier pass rushers in Joey Bosa, Melvin Ingram and Dee Ford.
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Fears, 64, first came to the Patriots in 1991, and has been with the team since 1999 after a five-year run with the Chicago Bears. This, too, has been one of his best coaching jobs of his tenure in Foxboro. Earlier in the season, when the Pats were depleted of healthy backs, wide receiver and return specialist Cordarrelle Patterson moved to tailback and thrived for several weeks. In these playoffs, the Patriots have run counter to the pass-happy trend that's captivated this 2018 NFL season, committing hard to the ground game and yielding wild success. In two playoff games, the Patriots running backs have combined for 82 carries for 331 yards and eight touchdowns, including back-to-back 100-yard showings from rookie Sony Michel.
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