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          New England Patriots

          Patriots special teams coach Scott O'Brien retires; assistant Joe Judge promoted

          • Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 4, 2015, 12:00 AM
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              Mike Reiss is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the New England Patriots. Reiss has covered the Patriots since 1997 and joined ESPN in 2009. In 2019, he was named Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. You can follow Reiss on Twitter at @MikeReiss.
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          FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- In a move that the New England Patriots knew was coming throughout 2014, veteran special teams coach Scott O’Brien has retired from coaching, the club announced Tuesday. O’Brien will remain with the franchise in an undisclosed role.

          O’Brien’s assistant the last three years, Joe Judge, has been promoted to head special teams coach after being groomed for the position.

          “I have never worked with a coach better than Scott O’Brien,” head coach Bill Belichick said in a statement. “Scott is second to none at preparation, strategy, teaching, techniques, fundamentals, scouting and virtually any other aspect of teambuilding, game planning or player development that exists in football. I thank Scott for making me a better coach, finding and developing countless players and being such a tremendous asset at both organizations we worked together. Scott O’Brien is undoubtedly one of the finest coaches of his generation and he deserves having his final game be a Super Bowl championship. While we will miss his contributions in coaching, we look forward to continuing to work with him in other capacities.”

          O’Brien has spent the last six seasons as Patriots special teams coach, and his ties to Belichick go back to 1991 when he coached special teams on Belichick’s Cleveland Browns staff (1991-95) before continuing on with the franchise from 1996-98 when it moved to Baltimore. O’Brien then serves six seasons as Carolina Panthers assistant head coach/special teams coach (1999-2004). O’Brien then spent two seasons with the Miami Dolphins under Nick Saban as coordinator of football operations/assistant to the head coach, before moving on to coach special teams for the Denver Broncos from 2007-2008.

          In 22 seasons as an NFL special teams coach, O’Brien’s units have produced 41 special teams touchdowns, including 22 punt returns for touchdowns, 12 kickoff returns for touchdowns, three blocked field goals returned for touchdowns, two blocked punts returned for a touchdown, one fake field goal turned into a touchdown and one kickoff fumble returned for a touchdown.

          As for Judge, prior to spending the last three seasons as assistant special teams coach he was a football analyst/special teams assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama (2009-2011). He has also coached at Mississippi State (2005-2007) and Birmingham-Southern (2008).

          The Patriots had one of their best seasons on special teams in 2014 in recent memory, ranking No. 3 in the widely respected Dallas Morning News annual rankings. O'Brien's retirement was foreshadowed on Sunday (item No. 7).