Rising in the coaching ranks
Douglas on fast track
Imagine the perfect education for a Patriots coach.
First, you play college ball at a major program like Michigan, where the Pats have drafted nine players under Bill Belichick, most of any school.
Then you kick off your coaching career at a program captained by a Belichick confidant. Say Greg Schiano, who returned to Rutgers after Belichick wanted him as his defensive coordinator in 2019.
Later, you spend your first season in New England working as closely with Belichick as his two sons, defensive coaches Steve and Brian. You break down film, file scouting reports and help coordinate the scout team, like every coaching assistant to come before you.
And after eight months of his grunts, glare and genius, you earn Belichick’s trust. So much so that he promotes you, making you the youngest position coach in the NFL.
Now stop imagining, and meet Ross Douglas.
Douglas is tracking to become the league’s youngest position coach at 27, pending the title he’s given when the team formally updates its coaching staff. League sources describe Douglas as bright coach, someone who connects naturally with players and coaches alike. He’s energetic, engaging and willing to execute a variety of tasks, all traits that point to one thing.
“You can just tell he’s an up-andcoming star in the business,” says Richmond coach Russ Huesman, Douglas’ last boss before New England.
“I don’t think he’s going places — he’s gone places,” added Schiano.
Evidence suggests Douglas has already received the title of wide receivers coach, considering he met with reporters last week, something only lead or co-position coaches do. During one interview, Douglas confirmed he’s coaching wideouts.
The importance of that work isn’t lost on him or fellow wide receivers coach Troy Brown. Because this season, it will be the Patriots’ pass catchers who ultimately allow Mac Jones — a pocket-bound quarterback dependent on his surrounding talent — to either spring for a regular Year 2 leap or soar above all expectations and carry the team.
“We’ve gotta be better at everything that we did last year for our team to be successful,” Brown said last week.
Those are the stakes. This is the new guy.
A Rutgers rise
In the twilight of Douglas’ high school career and dawn of his college days, his coaches could never decide. Did he fit best as a defensive back, receiver or running back?
So in April 2016, having played in just 15 games over three seasons at Michigan, Douglas decided for them. He left Ann Arbor with an undergraduate degree and two years of eligibility that he spent at Rutgers. There, he committed to defense full-time and logged 11 starts between linebacker and safety.
In the spring 2018, his playing career hit a dead end with a failed tryout at Steelers rookie minicamp. But instead of pursuing other opportunities in the CFL or now defunct Alliance of American Football, he U-turned back to New Jersey.
“I didn’t want to keep chasing the dream because I realized I wasn’t an NFL player,” Douglas said.
So, he coached. Douglas returned to work for his old head coach Chris Ash, first in Rutgers’ player development and then later as a graduate assistant. Once Schiano took over in 2020, he took a liking to his youngest defensive assistant.
“There was some potential there,” Schiano said. “And he ended up doing a really, really good job for us.”
Most crucially, Douglas helped Rutgers land high school recruits from his native Ohio, an area the Scarlet Knights competed for talent against Michigan, Ohio State and other elite programs. During the season, he coached defensive backs, signaled play calls during games and cut up film during the week, while constantly building out his knowledge base.
“The thing that impressed me was always thirsting to learn how to do this or do that. He asked a lot of questions,” Schiano said. “You could see he was trying to formulate his own style, and I think he picked up some really good things.”
Eventually, time came to fly the nest.
A defensive backs job at the University of Richmond piqued Douglas’ interest after the 2020 season, so he asked Schiano if he had any contacts in the program. Schiano knew Huesman’s agent, but not Huesman himself, so he picked up the phone.
Forty- eight hours later, Douglas was detailing his drills, concepts and techniques over Zoom to Huesman in Feb. 2021. He was one of three candidates for the vacancy, one he filled almost immediately.
“He was extremely organized, very knowledgeable,” Huesman said. “He was head and shoulders above the other two guys.”
As the Spiders played out their spring season, one postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Richmond players “gravitated” to Douglas, Huesman said. His head coach was thrilled. That is until four months later, when word had trickled north about a precocious young coach with Rutgers pedigree. Douglas called to break the news.
He was leaving.
Ready for more
Twenty-five.
According to the Associated Press, through last season only 25% of the Patriots’ position coaches and coordinators employed by Bill Belichick were minorities. The newest, Douglas, arrived last June via the Bill Walsh Diversity Coaching Fellowship, an NFL initiative to increase diversity in the coaching ranks. Schiano had suggested Douglas to Belichick, who had heard his name pop elsewhere in college circles.
The Patriots extended the invite around the time they expected to lose Cole Popovich, a white assistant who refused to comply with an NFL policy mandating all coaches be vaccinated against COVID-19. So Douglas worked alongside the defensive staff, unaware he was stepping into a three- day interview. He aced it all the same.
Huesman, who had given his blessing for Douglas to attend the camp, similarly had no idea
he could lose his defensive backs coach.
“I was a little disappointed. Not in him, but I think in the process. It sounded like just one of the fellowships, and then next thing you know, it’s (the Patriots) are gonna see what they think about him up there,” Huesman said. “But that’s what the business is. I mean, I take coaches from people all the time.”
The Patriots offered Douglas a low-level job at the end of minicamp. He accepted immediately. The only trouble was he was four months behind.
Most NFL coaching transactions occur in January or February, which offers even young assistants time to master the playbook before they teach it and adjust to a new, demanding lifestyle. Douglas hit no speed bumps while he played catchup.
“I love working with Ross,” said Pats defensive play- caller Steve Belichick. “Him being a hard worker, that was pretty apparent pretty quickly.”
Even after months of working with receivers, Douglas will occasionally slip and self-identify as a defensive coach. It’s how he explained last week why he can transition to coaching offense, where sources say his defensive insights have already impressed the wideouts in meetings.
“I watched wideouts every single day,” he said. “I have an idea of splits, different techniques versus press, off (coverage), certain ways to get out of breaks.”
Douglas is the also rare Patriots assistant who will admit to higher aspirations. He wants to be a head coach, a future that a year ago may have seemed like fantasy, but now feels only logical for the fastest-rising assistant in football.
“That’s the ultimate goal,” Douglas said. “I mean, I’m not gonna get in this business if I don’t want to be the very best at it.”
And then he paused, unaware he was about to quote Bill Walsh, the namesake of the NFL’S oldest diversity program and author of The Score Will Take Care of Itself, a leadership book that’s long shaped Patriots’ philosophy under Belichick and his own.
“But right now, I’m just focused on where I am presently,” he said. “All that other stuff will take care of itself.”