Phins hire Dave DeGuglielmo to help coach OL

Dave DeGuglielmo is returning to the Dolphins’ coaching staff to help fill a void left by offensive line coach Chris Foerster’s resignation, league sources told The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday.

Although DeGuglielmo will help coach the linemen, his title is not expected to be offensive line coach. Those duties could be assumed by Chris Kuper, who had been Foerster’s assistant, possibly offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen or a combination of them.

DeGuglielmo (pronounced “Day-Ghoul-Yell-Mo”) coached the Dolphins’ offensive line from 2009-11, primarily under Tony Sparano, before spending two seasons with the New England Patriots that ended abruptly. He coached on the Chargers’ staff last season.

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During DeGuglielmo’s previous stay in Miami, as offensive line coach, the Dolphins ranked 17th, 21st and 22nd in total offense. They allowed 44 sacks in 2009 (primarily with QBs Chad Henne and Chad Pennington), 39 sacks in 2010 (Henne) and 41 in 2011 (Henne and Matt Moore).

The Dolphins had two 1,000-yard rushers in that span. Ricky Williams ran for 1,121 yards in 2009 and Reggie Bush had 1,086 in 2011.

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His first season in Patriots produced a 12-4 record and a Super Bowl victory over Seattle. Then, things took a turn amid a string of injuries to New England’s offensive line, most notably to a season-ending injury to left tackle Nate Solder.

The Patriots won the AFC East again the next season at 12-4 and “Guge,” as he was known, was credited with patching together a line.

But the Patriots lost the conference championship game to Denver 20-18 as Tom Brady was sacked four times amid a fierce rush by Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. In addition, center Bryan Stork was called for head-butting defensive lineman Vance Walker and two linemen were called for false starts. NFL Research reported that Brady was hit 20 times in the game.

Belichick fired DeGuglielmo the next day.

Brady was sacked 38 times that season, which also led to DeGuglielmo’s firing. The next season, amid changes on the line, the Patriots brought back Scarnecchia and won the Super Bowl. Brady was sacked only 15 times.

The question remains how much blame DeGuglielmo deserved in 2015 and how much credit Scarnecchia deserved for turning it around.

In February, Ron Borges of The Boston Herald wrote, “No one cared that DeGuglielmo had been forced to use 13 different starting lineups, the most of any line since STATS, Inc., began keeping track 22 years ago. No one cared that he was forced to rotate linemen so often he used 39 different combinations. By comparison, this year Scarnecchia used only nine and had the same five guys starting the last 13 games."