Brendan Nugent, a 16-year coaching veteran, joined the Saints in 2015 and enters his first season as offensive line coach in 2021 after working closely with Run Game Coordinator/Tight Ends Dan Roushar in tutoring the New Orleans front since 2016.
Nugent has assisted with an offensive line that has surrendered only 94 sacks since 2017, tied for the lowest total in the league. During the four seasons, ten Pro Bowl selections have come from the Saints offensive line, including two in 2020. During the 2020 campaign, the Saints produced a pair of Pro Bowl offensive linemen (T Terron Armstead and G Andrus Peat) and the group blocked for the NFL's sixth-ranked running game and an offense that rushed for a franchise-record and league-best 30 touchdowns, tied for the sixth-highest single-season total in NFL record books.
Prior to coming to New Orleans, Nugent served as an offensive quality control coach with the Chicago Bears from 2013-14, following then-Bears Coach Marc Trestman south of the border after serving under him in the CFL in 2012 in Montreal as the Alouettes special teams assistant and offensive quality control coach.
Nugent spent the previous five seasons at William & Mary coaching running backs (2010-2011), tight ends (2007, 2009) and wide receivers (2008). He started in the collegiate coaching ranks in 2005 at Iowa as the Hawkeyes offensive assistant, a position he held for two years. The Hawkeyes participated in the 2005 Outback Bowl and the 2006 Alamo Bowl during that span.
Nugent received his first coaching job at his alma mater Archbishop Stepinac High School in his hometown of White Plains, N.Y., overseeing the linebackers in 2004. He played linebacker for three seasons at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Nugent went on to earn his undergraduate degree in political science from Iowa in 2006.
PLAYING CAREER: Catholic University of America, 2001-03.
COACHING CAREER: Archbishop Stepinac (White Plains, N.Y.) High School; Iowa, 2005-06; William & Mary, 2007-11; Montreal Alouettes (Canadian Football League), 2012; Chicago Bears, 2013-14; New Orleans Saints, 2015-.
