For 21 years New England Patriots legendary coach Bill Belichick had his own right-hand man, whose official title was “Director of Football Research,” but who advised Belichick closely on every aspect of football from in-game management to roster construction. His name was Ernie Adams and more often than not, when television cameras caught Belichick stalking the sidelines wearing his headset, it was Adams’ voice coming into his ears through that headset.
Now, thanks to an announcement on Thursday by Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay, the Patriots new head coach Mike Vrabel has what NFL Network football insider journalist Ian Rapoport called “his Ernie Adams.”
The announcement, McVay said, left the Rams coach with a broken heart. That’s because it was less than one year ago — on February 14, 2024 — that McVay announced he had hired John Streicher, known by the nickname “Stretch,” to a job with the title “coordinator of football strategy.”
Streicher: Using NFL Rules to Team’s Advantage
McVay credited Streicher with improving the Rams’ overall game management and strategic decision-making, especially usage of timeouts and coach’s challenges. That’s why when McVay revealed that Streicher would be departing Los Angeles for the frostier climes of Foxborough, Massachusetts, after just one season, he — albeit laughingly — said that Streicher broke his heart.
“There’s an innate understanding of the rules and how to use those to your advantage, clock management, some of the situational things that do end up coming up,” McVay said of Streicher last year. “He’s done a lot of different things for Tennessee.”
But it did not come as a shock that Vrabel would hire Streicher away from SoFi Stadium. The pair were together during Vrabel’s six-year tenure as head coach of the Tennessee Titans, where Streicher served in a close advisory role to the head coach, under the title “director of football administration.”
“Just as Bill Belichick had football research director Ernie Adams to assist him with game management, Vrabel had John Streicher in that role with the Titans,” wrote ESPN Patriots reporter Mike Reiss, prior to the announcemnet of Streicher’s hiring. “Now, Streicher is expected to follow Vrabel to New England. Streicher, who like Vrabel is an Ohio State alum, spent the 2024 season with the Rams.”
Vrabel and Streicher Collaborated With Tennessee Titans
Streicher, however, is 35 years old. Vrabel will turn 50 in August before the 2025 NFL season gets underway. Vrabel was drafted in the third round, 91st overall, by the Pittsburgh Steelers out of Ohio State in 1997.
Streicher graduated from Ohio State in 2012 and received a Master’s Degree from the same university, in the field of “organizational leadership,” in 2014, according to his LinkedIn page. Streicher served as a student assistant coach for the Buckeyes football team during the two years he studied for his Master’s degree.
How can Streicher help Vrabel? Reporter Darren Hartwell of NBC Sports Boston gave one noteworthy example.
“With Streicher by his side, Vrabel was viewed as a strong game manager during his Titans tenure with a Belichick-like ability to use the rules to his advantage,” Hartwell explained. “The most famous example actually came against Belichick in the Titans’ upset of the Patriots in the 2019 AFC Wild Card Round, when Vrabel — with Streicher in his ear — ran nearly two minutes off the clock without running a single play by calling for an intentional delay of game and an intentional false start during a punt situation in the fourth quarter.”
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Rams Announcement Brings Sean McVay ‘Broken Heart’ But Good News For Mike Vrabel