The Cleveland Browns wasted no time in finding their next offensive line coach as they officially announced their hire of former Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren to replace Andy Dickerson.
Bloomgren spent the last seven seasons as head coach of Rice before being fired in late October after a 24-52 record and two bowl game appearances. He’s been a football coach for 25 years, spending time both in the college ranks as well as four seasons as a member of the New York Jets from 2007-10.
In 2007, the Jets hired him as an offensive quality control coach where he spent two seasons in that role under then offensive coordinators Brian Schottenheimer and Bill Callahan. In 2009 when the Jets hired Rex Ryan as the head coach, Bloomgren served as an offensive assistant and then was promoted to assistant offensive coordinator for the 2010 season.
After leaving the Jets, Bloomgren joined David Shaw’s staff at Stanford, first as a run game coordinator and offensive line coach for two seasons before being promoted to offensive coordinator in the 2013 season and in 2014, he added assistant head coach to his job duties.
During his tenure in Stanford, he coached Andrew Luck and Christian McCaffery, who were both Heisman finalists in 2011 and 2015 respectively. Bloomgren also coached three offensive lineman who eventually became first-round picks in the NFL Draft (David DeCastro, Andrus Peat, Joshua Garnett).
It’s unclear how his coaching success in the past will translate to the NFL level but he’s walking into an interesting situation with the Browns offensive line which could be going through a transition this offseason with Joel Bitonio considering retirement, Jack Conklin could be a potential cap casualty, and the team is looking for the future at left tackle with Jedrick Wills becoming an unrestricted free agent.

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