Former Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line coach Adrian Klemm will interview for the New England Patriots’ vacant offensive coordinator position, per a report from ESPN’s Mike Reis.
Klemm served as the Steelers’ assistant offensive line coach from 2019-2020 before being promoted to offensive line coach after the team parted ways with Shaun Sarrett. He’s familiar with New England, as Reis noted, being the first-ever draft pick by Bill Belichick with the Patriots and spending five years there as a player.
Klemm left the Steelers towards the end of the 2021 season to take over as the run game coordinator/associate head coach/offensive line coach at his alma mater Oregon. In his lone year with the Ducks, Klemm oversaw a group that rushed for 215.8 yards per game and had three players surpass 500 yards on the ground, including leading rusher Bucky Irving with 1,058 yards. Quarterback Bo Nix also ran for 510 yards and 14 touchdowns. He also has experience coaching in the college ranks at SMU and UCLA prior to his stop in Pittsburgh.
Given how much Belichick seems to enjoy familiarity when it comes to his coaching staff, it’s not a huge surprise that Klem is at least getting a look. It’s surprising in the sense that he’s never called plays, but he had a successful year at Oregon and was decent in his short time with the Steelers. It would be a little bit of an unorthodox hire, but he’s a guy Belichick knows and he clearly appreciated his approach to the game as a player if he’s giving him a chance to join his coaching staff now.
Klemm’s hire would also quell some of the talk about how Mike Tomlin has yet to really establish a coaching tree. He plucked Klemm from the college ranks and while he eventually left the Steelers, they’re the only NFL team he has coaching experience with. If the Patriots do hire him as their offensive coordinator, Tomlin deserves some credit for identifying Klemm and introducing him to the NFL ranks.
The Patriots have a number of candidates, including their former offensive coordinator and former Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien, as well as their current tight ends coach in Nick Caley. It’ll be a fun process to follow now though to see if Klemm winds up landing the job.
