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Patriots hired an experienced coach in Rod Ojong, their fourth coaching addition of the offseason

By Justin Trombino

FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - SEPTEMBER 01: Head Coach Bill Belichick talks with Outside Linebackers Coach Stephen Belichick during New England Patriots Training Camp at Gillette Stadium on September 01, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS - SEPTEMBER 01: Head Coach Bill Belichick talks with Outside Linebackers Coach Stephen Belichick during New England Patriots Training Camp at Gillette Stadium on September 01, 2020 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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The New England Patriots added their fourth coach this offseason with the official hiring of Rod Ojong as a defensive backs coach through the Bill Walsh Coaching Fellowship. He will join a defensive staff led by Steve Belichick and Jerrod Mayo.

Ojong joins the Patriots defensive coaching room with plenty of experience. He first got into coaching in 2012 where he served as a student assistant linebacker coach at his alma mater Monmouth College.

A year later, Ojong accepted a job coaching outside linebackers at Lindsey Wilson College in addition to  the team’s strength and conditioning coach. Ojong then bounced around a bit, sharpening his craft in the process, working for West Georgia (2014), Memphis (2015), North Carolina (2016-17), Austin Peavy (2018), and Furman (2019).

In 2020, Ojong landed a gig on Kirby Smart’s staff as a defensive analyst for only one year in Georgia before leaving for a defensive backs position at the University of Buffalo. Last season, Ojong’s secondary unit was top in the MAC with 12 interceptions and held opposing offenses to only 216.2 passing yards per game.

As a defensive backs coach in New England, Ojong will work with cornerbacks coach Mike Pellegrino, safeties coach Brian Belichick, and defensive assistant V’Angelo Bentley.

Ojong joins a defensive squad that was successful last season despite how the offense produced. The Pats defense finished eighth in yards allowed, tied for second with 30 takeaways, and third with 19 interceptions and 54 sacks in 2022.

This will be the first year the Patriots will be without both Dont’a Hightower and Devin McCourty to start the season since 2011, the year before Hightower was drafted. Although Hightower only played in five games in 2017, he still started the season with the team (I don’t count the 2020 COVID-19 opt out season.).

Without Hightower and McCourty, the Patriots are searching for a new defensive identity who can also be franchise pillars similar to how they were during their decade in New England together.

Ojong’s experience as a player and coach is an immediate strength to this coaching staff and an addition I predict to work out for the long-term in New England.

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