Who is Jerry Montgomery, and why is he the Patriots’ new defensive line coach?

Montgomery will take over the position left vacant when DeMarcus Covington was promoted to defensive coordinator.

The New England Patriots have started filling the vacancies on their coaching staff beyond the coordinator level. The first domino to fall is Jerry Montgomery, who the team hired as its new defensive line coach on Monday — filling a spot that was previously occupied by new defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington.

Despite being only 44 years old, Montgomery has seen quite a bit of football both as a player and as a coach. His dual experience is not everything he brings to New England, though, even though it might be a primary reason behind the addition.

With that said, let’s take a closer look at the Patriots’ latest coaching hire.

Who is Jerry Montgomery?

Most recent position: Green Bay Packers defensive line coach and running game coordinator (not retained)

Age: 44

Playing background: A two-sport athlete during his time at Virgin Valley High School in Mesquite, Nevada, Montgomery was a standout defensive tackle for the Bulldogs. He was named All-American two straight years to close out his high school career, and was the Nevada Player of the Year in 1997. In total, he recorded 38 career sacks, including 16 as a senior, and scored 10 touchdowns.

Montgomery moved on to the University of Iowa, where he started in three of his four years. When he left the Hawkeyes, he had registered 135 tackles, five sacks, six pass breakups, and three fumble recoveries.

Despite a solid track record, Montgomery did not hear his name called in the 2002 NFL Draft. Instead, he joined the New Orleans Saints as a rookie free agent but lasted only through training camp. While he continued playing in the Arena Football League for the next three years — playing for the Chicago Rush, Colorado Crush, and Las Vegas Gladiators — he already began shifting his focus to coaching at that time in his career.

Coaching background: After his window of opportunity in the NFL was closed, Montgomery returned to Iowa as a student assistant coach under Kirk Ferentz in 2003. He also worked as an assistant at Iowa City West High School for two years before moving on to work as defensive coordinator at North Iowa Community College.

He moved to the University of Northern Iowa in 2006, where he would spend the next three years as a graduate assistant, defensive tackles coach, and defensive line coach. In 2009, he joined Wyoming as its D-line coach under Dave Christensen. Two years later, he was briefly hired as Indiana’s defensive tackles coach by Kevin Wilson.

However, just one month later he moved across the Big Ten to join Brady Hoke’s staff at the University of Michigan. Montgomery coached the Wolverines’ defensive line for two years and also helped recruit five-star prospects Derrick Green and Ondre Pipkins to Ann Arbor, but he left in 2013 to an offer from Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops.

Stoops made him the Sooners’ co-defensive coordinator two years later, but he never coached a game in that capacity: shortly after the promotion, the Mike McCarthy-led Packers hired him as a defensive front assistant — the first of multiple roles he would fill in Green Bay over the next nine years.

After three seasons in this initial role working under defensive coordinator Dom Capers, he received an offer from Texas A&M to coach the defensive line and serve as a assistant head coach under Jimbo Fischer. Montgomery initially agreed to join the Aggies, but eventually returned to Green Bay shortly thereafter when the Packers promoted him to defensive line coach under coordinator Mike Pettine.

He held that role for the next six years even through changes as head coach (to Matt LaFleur) and defensive coordinator (to Joe Barry) in 2019. He also added running game coordinator responsibilities in 2022, but was eventually not retained following the 2023 season — despite still remaining under contract for another year.

This, in turn, opened the door for him to join the Patriots.

Why will he be the Patriots’ next defensive line coach?

In order to answer this question, we touched base with Justis Mosqueda of SB Nation’s Packers blog, Acme Packing Company. Here is what he told us about the Patriots’ new offensive coordinator.

How would you assess Montgomery’s performance in Green Bay? Aside from Kenny Clark, who was drafted before Montgomery was made the full-time defensive line coach, he never had a true breakout player at his position. The team didn’t spend too many high draft choices on players at his group, but the 2022 unit (with Jarran Reed and Dean Lowry starting at defensive end over Devonte Wyatt) was particularly poor. Over the last couple of years, Montgomery was a coach who was highlighted by a lot of Packers fans who wondered why he was the longest-tenured coach on the staff, as he was hired by Dom Capers’ defense and stuck around for the Mike Pettine era and the Joe Barry era.

What do you think led to his departure from the Packers? I think the coaching staff change is really big for the Packers’ defensive assistants right now. The way I see it, they just want different voices in the room because the last coaching staff simply did not get enough out of eight first-round picks on the defensive side of the ball. I bet if Barry was back, Montgomery would have been back. I don’t think Montgomery will be the only Packers defensive assistant who will be moved on from.

Why do you believe the Patriots have made him their new defensive line coach? I assume it’s because of the experience. He’s done this for a good amount of time and assistant coaches seem to be getting younger and younger in the NFL. Before he joined the Packers, he was the defensive line coach of the Michigan Wolverines and Oklahoma Sooners. He took three years working in the background in Green Bay before he was promoted to the full-time defensive line coach, a role he held from 2018 to 2023.