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Redskins hire Brian Angelichio as tight ends coach, Wes Phillips gone

By Jacob Camenker

TAMPA, FL - NOVEMBER 25: The helmet of a Washington Redskins player rests on the field during warm ups against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Raymond James Stadium on November 25, 2007 in Tampa, Florida. The Bucs won 19-13. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FL - NOVEMBER 25: The helmet of a Washington Redskins player rests on the field during warm ups against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Raymond James Stadium on November 25, 2007 in Tampa, Florida. The Bucs won 19-13. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images) /
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Another Redskins coach has disappeared. Wes Phillips is out as tight ends coach after his contract expired and Brian Angelichio will take over for him.

The Redskins’ offseason changes to their coaching staff continued late on Friday night. The team announced via their official Twitter that they had a new tight ends coach, Brian Angelichio. In a corresponding move, it seems that previous tight ends coach Wes Phillips is no longer with the team, as his name has been removed from the coaching staff on the team’s official site.

This is certainly an odd move, to say the least.

Starting with Angelichio, he does come to the Redskins with a lot of NFL experience under his belt. Since 2007, he has been a tight ends coach in the NFL — with the lone exception of the 2011 season which he spent at Rutgers. Most recently, Angelichio spent three years with the Packers, but his biggest claim to fame came in 2015. That was the year that he helped turn Browns TE Gary Barnidge into a Pro-Bowl player.

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Frankly speaking, Barnidge is just about Angelichio’s only real claim to fame in terms of player development. Aside from him, he hasn’t done much. He has had tight ends produce under him, but most recently, he struggled to really get Jared Cook and Jimmy Graham to mesh in the Green Bay offenses over the course of the past couple seasons. So, that certainly isn’t exactly inspiring.

The weirder part of this move is that the team is, apparently, moving on from Phillips. The younger son of Rams defensive coordinator Wade Phillips had been with the team for the past five seasons. He helped to develop Jordan Reed into one of the league’s better tight ends (when healthy) while also helping Vernon Davis to resurrect his career in the nation’s capital.

According to NBC Sports Washington’s JP Finlay, Phillips’ contract had expired. So, either the Redskins didn’t want to bring back Phillips or Phillips wanted to move on from the squad. The latter could certainly be possible, especially given Phillips’ ties to the Los Angeles Rams.

Wade Phillips, Wes’ father and Rams defensive coordinator, recently joked that his son could be a head coach for any team that wanted him because, after all, he knows Sean McVay from their time together in Washington. Phillips was just being facetious, but the larger point is that Wes Phillips is a young, smart, and well-regarded assistant. Teams will want his services, and surely, Wade Phillips would love to coach with his son.

A reunion with his former colleague McVay certainly makes sense — especially considering that the Rams will have an offensive opening once their QB coach Zac Taylor accepts the Bengals head coaching job, as pointed out by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

If Phillips was definitely going to leave, then adding Angelichio, who has experience, was a decent option. However, this still has to be viewed as a downgrade and the fact that the team lost a talented, young assistant is going to be hard to stomach.

Next. Redskins Senior Bowl mock draft. dark

So far this offseason, the Redskins coaching staff has gotten older and more experienced. We’ll see how that ends up impacting the team in 2019.

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