As part of the New England Patriots reorganizing their defensive coaching staff this offseason, they also opted to give Vinny DePalma a promotion. After spending the previous two years as a defensive assistant, he was named inside linebackers coach in February
For DePalma, this meant that his meteoric rise continued. Less than three years ago, after all, he was still a starting linebacker at Boston College. Now, he is coaching that position group in the NFL.
It is a dream come true.
“I try to keep perspective
every day. Wake up, get to go to work in the NFL — it’s a blessing,” DePalma told reporters at the Patriots’ mandatory minicamp last week. “As a kid who grew up loving football, the son of a high school football coach, to wake up every morning and coaching the NFL is a dream. I’m trying to keep that in perspective every day, how lucky we are that we get to work here.”
DePalma arrived in Chestnut Hill in 2018 as a three-star linebacker recruit out of De Paul Catholic in Wayne, NJ. He spent two of his first three seasons as an Eagle in a redshirt capacity, but by 2021 had become a mainstay at the heart of the team’s defense.
When his college career came to an end, he had therefore appeared in 53 games with 33 starts and was twice named a captain. He also earned All-ACC recognition in both of his final two seasons at BC, once as an honorable mention (2022) and once as a third-teamer (2023).
Despite a solid college career, DePalma knew that playing in the NFL was not in his future. And so, less than two months after his final college game, he joined the Patriots under then-head coach Jerod Mayo as a defensive assistant and quality control coach.
Despite working what is a fairly anonymous position in the public eye, DePalma convinced Mayo’s successor, Mike Vrabel, to keep him around in 2025. He was one of only a handful of assistants to be retained by Vrabel upon his arrival in Foxborough.
“He’s a great teacher,” Vrabel said about DePalma last week when discussing his recent promotion. “You start to evaluate young coaches and their ability to use the technology, the excitement of the PowerPoint, the presentation and all these different things. But how quickly he learned our system and his knowledge, that was an easy move and well deserved for Vinny.”
DePalma entered 2025 in the same basic position he was in under Mayo, but the circumstances forced him to expand his role. With defensive coordinator Terrell Williams missing virtually the entire season following a prostate cancer diagnosis and nominal inside linebackers coach Zak Kuhr taking over as play caller, somebody needed to step up and work with the inside linebackers.
That somebody was DePalma. So, when Kuhr was officially named DC earlier this year, the follow-up move was only natural.
“Shortly after the Super Bowl, just trying to figure out what the role would be going forward,” DePalma recalled the process of being promoted. “Talked to a bunch of guys on the staff, and obviously Coach Vrabel then told me it would be official. Just exciting. Exciting for my fiancee, my family, her family, just super exciting. Like I said, you get to wake up, come to work in the NFL whether you’re a defensive assistant or as inside linebackers coach, whatever it is, you’re super grateful and you’re super excited.”
