“He’s a magnet for people,” said Whaley, who is looking forward to connecting with his pal at their annual Fourth of July party. “People get around him, and they have a good time. He’s always at the center, in a good way. He’s the glue.”
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Make no mistake, Van Pelt is a worker. In an NFL environment where twentysomething offensive coordinators and thirtysomething head coaches are commonplace, Van Pelt, 54, has mastered the long game. He’s been in pro football for almost 30 years as a coach and a player, and without the benefit of serving as a branch on an elite coaching tree, he has crafted an impressive offensive résumé while winning the hearts and minds of just about everyone in the NFL.
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“He’ll find an interest that you have, and then go down the path with you to gain trust and confidence,” Whaley said. “In the end, once enough players believe you’re out to make them better, they’re going to buy in.
“He has a unique ability to gain that trust, and that, combined with the pelts on the wall when it comes to his résumé and football knowledge, he can get guys on board.”
But he also has a lighter side, one he embraces when it comes to his close friends. Van Pelt spent two seasons as a radio analyst with the Bills, building a relationship with play-by-play man John Murphy. After Van Pelt left the booth, he joined the Buffalo coaching staff. Murphy recalled one night a couple of years later when he called Van Pelt after a bad loss to check and see how he was doing.
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“I’m OK, other than the fact that I’m out of Crown Royal,” Van Pelt replied with a laugh.
Van Pelt’s occasionally lighthearted approach, mixed with his ability to quickly forge relationships with players and fellow coaches, has won people over in Foxborough since he took the job Feb. 1.
“He makes you feel comfortable, immediately,” Murphy said. “I also think he works hard, but he doesn’t care if you know he works hard. I think he really likes to work more than anything. He likes the work, and he’s good at it.”
However, it still raises the question: Can that approach help bring success to a New England offense that reached anemic lows last season?
Related: Six things to know about new offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
His old boss thinks so, saying his personality, work ethic, and background as a player will set the stage for success.
“You’re not going to find a better person in this profession,” said Browns coach Kevin Stefanski. “AVP is a great friend of mine. I’m excited for him and that opportunity. Former player, has played in a bunch of systems, coached in a bunch of systems. He’s collaborative. I think the Patriots got a great one.”
From player to coach
Van Pelt was born in Pittsburgh in 1970 and played for Paul Hackett at Pitt. He was the starting quarterback as a freshman, and ended up breaking Dan Marino’s records. His mark of 10,913 passing yards stood as a school record until Kenny Pickett, a first-round pick of the Steelers in 2022, broke it with 12,303.
Van Pelt’s college teammates noticed his cerebral approach in practice.
“When you’re in spring practice, you’re going against people you’ve seen for years, but he would still play us off with a different cadence or a fake check,” Whaley said. “This was before Peyton Manning was doing the ‘Omaha’ thing at the line. Alex was doing that sort of stuff back then in the early 1990s.”
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An eighth-round pick of the Steelers, Van Pelt was cut as a rookie. He bounced from Pittsburgh to Kansas City to Buffalo, where he eventually became the starter in 2001, throwing for 2,056 yards and 12 touchdowns.
Van Pelt, who ended up playing 11 seasons in the NFL, backed up Drew Bledsoe in his last two years with the Bills (2002-03) before retiring. He took a job as a volunteer assistant at the University of Buffalo, and stepped into the broadcast booth soon after that, working with Murphy.
“He could instantly identify what he was looking at,” Murphy said. “He knew what to look for, and was able to diagnose offenses before they got to the line of scrimmage. That was how quick he was.”
Van Pelt pivoted to coaching full time, first working with the Bills before stints in Tampa Bay, Green Bay, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. He built a reputation as a sharp offensive mind, but also as someone who engendered loyalty and trust among a wide swath of signal-callers, including Aaron Rodgers and Baker Mayfield.
“The open communication is pretty essential to what has been our success so far,” Mayfield said in 2021. “AVP is just like that. He wants to talk through it and hear our thoughts as well.”
When he was with the Browns last year, they averaged 23.3 points per game, good for 10th in the league, despite starting five quarterbacks: Deshaun Watson, Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, P.J. Walker, and Jeff Driskel.
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Van Pelt wasn’t the primary play-caller, but his ability to craft multiple game plans for a series of quarterbacks that had a wide skill set was undeniable. In all, Cleveland started nine signal-callers in Van Pelt’s four seasons there: Mayfield, Case Keenum, Nick Mullens, Jacoby Brissett, Watson, Driskel, Walker, Thompson-Robinson, and Flacco.
“It’s about the players, and he understands that,” Brissett said.
After the Browns lost to the Texans in the playoffs in January, a “reassignment” was discussed when it came to the coaching staff. Stefanski said it wasn’t an easy call when it came to letting Van Pelt go.
“Somebody I love as a person, as a coach,” Stefanski said. “We make decisions that are tough sometimes in this league, but that doesn’t change how I feel about him.”
What can we expect?
The Patriots’ hiring of Van Pelt was made official Feb. 1, their fourth offensive coordinator in four years.
“Obviously, he understands the X’s and O’s of the game, but also developing talent,” coach Jerod Mayo said after the move was announced.
“Really, he’s a relationship guy, which I fundamentally believe is very important. Before you really get into X’s and O’s with the guys on the field, they’ve got to know that you care about them. One thing about AVP, which you guys will see here shortly, he is a people person, but also has an extensive knowledge of football.”
As the Patriots’ offensive play-caller for 2024, what sort of philosophy will he ultimately embrace? The overall feeling seems to be that he’ll use some of the elements of the West Coast offense because of his deep connection with Hackett, but those who know him say it would be a mistake to slap that label on the scheme.
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“His roots are really based in the West Coast offense with his time with Paul Hackett,” Whaley said. “Then he took some of the stuff that he learned with Mike McCarthy in Green Bay, and then he throws in some of the K Gun offensive philosophies he picked up as a player in Buffalo.
“He’s got a nice little mix of things, where he can take the best of all those styles, see how they evolve, and then put it all together moving forward.”
As for the rest of it, he has been leaning on the leadership skills that got him to this spot, with a player’s eye for the game and a knack for interpersonal relationships that gets guys to buy in. It’s an approach that is resonating with all of the Patriots’ quarterbacks, including first-round pick Drake Maye.
“He understands it,” Maye said. “He played the position and coached a lot of quarterbacks, so he understands it.
“That’s the best thing you want to see from a coach. He knows it’s going to be a growing side, a mental side to it. So he’s understanding, but also, if you’re not doing a great job, he’s going to tell you. It’s been awesome so far.”
Christopher Price can be reached at christopher.price@globe.com. Follow him @cpriceglobe.
