Foxborough, Mass. – The New England Patriots announced today three new additions to Jerod Mayo's staff. DeMarcus Covington has been promoted to defensive coordinator, Jeremy Springer will serve as special teams coordinator and Alex Van Pelt will serve as offensive coordinator.
DeMarcus Covington
Covington is entering his eighth season overall with New England in 2024 after serving as the defensive line coach for the last four seasons (2020-23). He served as outside linebackers coach in 2019 after two seasons as a coaching assistant (2017-18). The Patriots defense finished in the top 10 in four of his five seasons as a position coach. Last season, the Patriots defense finished fourth against the run, allowing 93.2 yards per game, the team's best finish since allowing 88.6 yards per game in 2016. The Patriots defense allowed 3.3 yards per rush, the lowest in the NFL in 2023 and the lowest mark for the Patriots since the 1970 merger.
Covington originally joined New England in 2017 after spending the 2016 season as co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Eastern Illinois. Prior to his time at Eastern Illinois, Covington coached the defensive line at University of Tennessee-Martin in 2015. He spent two seasons (2013-14) as a defensive graduate assistant at Ole Miss, and in 2012, he served as a defensive graduate assistant at the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
Following the 2022 season, Covington was selected to serve as the defensive coordinator for the Senior Bowl's American team. Covington played collegiately as a wide receiver for Samford University, where he registered 62 receptions for 586 yards and two touchdowns.
Jeremy Springer
Springer joins the New England Patriots after spending the last two seasons as a special teams assistant with the Los Angeles Rams. Prior to entering the NFL in 2022 with the Rams, Springer spent eight seasons coaching at the collegiate level.
Following his college career (2007-11) as a standout linebacker at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Springer began his career as a football operations assistant at UTEP for two seasons (2011-12) before serving two seasons (2015-14) at the school as a graduate assistant coach where he worked with the defensive line and special teams units.
Springer spent three seasons at Texas A&M as a special teams quality control coach (2015-17), three seasons at Arizona as special teams coordinator (2018-20) and one season at Marshall as special teams coordinator (2021) before joining the Rams.
Springer is a native of Los Fresnos, Texas.
Alex Van Pelt
Van Pelt will enter his 29th season in the NFL and his 20th as an assistant coach. He played nine seasons as a quarterback in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs (1993) and the Buffalo Bills (1994-03) after originally being drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the eighth-round of the 1993 NFL Draft after a standout career at Pittsburgh.
Van Pelt was the offensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns over the last four seasons (2020-23). During his time in Cleveland, Van Pelt helped the offense to some of its best numbers with the Browns generating 408 total points in 2020 for the second-most points in team history and 396 points in 2023, the team's fifth-most points scored in a season in team history. Under Van Pelt, the Browns rushing game finished in the top-10 in the NFL in three of his four seasons, including finishing with third in 2016 and in first in rushing average in 2021 with 5.1-yards per rush. The 2022 Cleveland team had the second-most scrimmage yards in franchise history with 6,200 yards.
Upon his retirement as a player, Van Pelt began his coaching career in NFL Europe as the Frankfurt Galaxy's quarterbacks coach in 2005. Van Pelt started his NFL career as a volunteer offensive quality coach with Buffalo in 2005. He then served two seasons as an offensive quality control coach (2006-07), two seasons as a quarterback coach (2008-09) and was promoted in early September of 2009 to offensive coordinator.
Van Pelt served as the quarterback coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for two seasons (2010-11) and then spent six seasons with the Green Bay Packers as running backs coach (2012-13), quarterbacks coach (2014), quarterbacks/wide receivers coach (2015) and quarterbacks coach (2016-17). He spent two seasons (2018-19) as quarterbacks coach with the Cincinnati Bengals prior to joining Cleveland.
Van Pelt was a four-year starter at the University of Pittsburgh (1989-92), where he set school records for most passing yards (11,267), completions (867) and attempts (1,503).
