Entering his 10th season coaching in the NFL, DeMarcus Covington begins his second year with the Packers and his first as OLBs/run game coordinator/assistant head coach - defense after being promoted in 2026. He served as the team's defensive line coach/run game coordinator in 2025. Covington came to Green Bay after spending eight seasons with the New England Patriots, including five seasons (2019-23) as a position coach and one season as defensive coordinator (2024).
In 2025, Covington worked with DL Micah Parsons, who ranked No. 3 in the NFL in Next Gen Stats QB pressures with 83 and was tied for No. 7 in the league with a team-high 12½ sacks despite missing the final three games of the season due to a knee injury. Parsons averaged 5.93 QB pressures per game, the top single-season mark by an NFL player since NGS started tracking the statistic in 2016. The Packers were one of only six teams in the league with 220-plus pressures (222, No. 10) and a pressure rate of 36-plus percent (36.4, No. 9) in 2025. Green Bay's 222 pressures were its second most in a season dating back to 2016 (244 in 2023).
In his six seasons with the Patriots as a position coach or coordinator (2019-24), Covington was part of a defensive staff that helped New England rank No. 3 in the NFL over that span in total defense (317.9 ypg) and passing defense (204.4 ypg) and No. 2 in INTs (102), INT percentage (3.1), yards allowed per play (5.1), first downs allowed per game (18.8) and third-down percentage (37.0).
As the defensive coordinator for the Patriots in 2024, Covington helped guide New England to a No. 10 ranking in the NFL in passing defense with an average of 211.5 yards allowed per game. The Patriots finished No. 5 in the league in both explosive plays allowed (103) and explosive passes allowed (68), one of only three teams in the league (San Francisco and Philadelphia) to rank in the top five in both categories. New England gave up only one explosive passing play in a league-high four games on the season, the most by the Patriots in a season dating back to 2000.
In 2023, Covington's defensive line helped the Patriots lead the NFL in rushing yards allowed per attempt (3.30), New England's top single-season mark since 1967 (3.24). The Patriots ranked No. 7 in the NFL in total defense (301.6 ypg) and No. 4 in rushing defense (93.2 ypg), allowing fewer than 100 yards on the ground in 11 games on the season (tied for No. 2 in the league). DT Christian Barmore led the team with a career-high 8½ sacks and a career-best 16 QB hits and was No. 2 on the team with a career-high 13 tackles for a loss.
In 2022, New England's defensive line helped the team finish in the top 10 in the NFL in both total defense (No. 8, 322.0 ypg) and run defense (No. 6, 105.5 ypg) while tying for No. 3 in the league in sacks (54), the most by the Patriots in a season since 1984 (55). LB Matthew Judon was tied for No. 4 in the NFL with a career-high 15½ sacks, the third most in a season in team history, while LB Josh Uche (11½) and DE Deatrich Wise Jr. (7½) posted career-high sack totals. Following the season, Covington was selected to serve as the defensive coordinator for the Senior Bowl's American team.
Covington's line helped the Patriots rank No. 2 in the league in passing defense (187.1 ypg) and scoring defense (17.8 ppg) in 2021 while also checking in at No. 4 in the NFL in total defense (310.8 ypg). Judon led the Patriots in both sacks (12½) and QB hits (25). In his first season coaching New England's defensive line in 2020, Covington helped the Patriots rank No. 7 in the NFL in scoring defense (22.1 ppg) and No. 8 in passing defense (222.3 ypg).
Covington's first season as a position coach in the NFL came in 2019 when he tutored the Patriots' outside linebackers. Under his direction, LB Jamie Collins Sr. recorded a career-high seven sacks and a career-best three INTs, the only player in franchise history to hit both of those marks in a single season and the lone NFL player to do so in 2019. New England led the league in both total defense (275.9 ypg) and scoring defense (14.1 ppg) for the first time in team history and became the first team since the 2008 Pittsburgh Steelers to allow 225 or fewer points and 4,500 or fewer total yards in a season.
Covington joined the Patriots in 2017, spending his first two seasons with the club (2017-18) as a coaching assistant and working with the inside linebackers in 2018. He was part of a staff that helped New England rank No. 5 in the NFL in 2017 (18.5 ppg) and No. 7 in 2018 (20.3 ppg) in points allowed. The Patriots made back-to-back Super Bowl appearances in 2017-18, highlighted by a 13-3 victory over the L.A. Rams in Super Bowl LIII as New England tied the record for the fewest points allowed in a Super Bowl.
Prior to joining the Patriots, Covington spent five seasons coaching at the collegiate level. In 2016, Covington served as the co-defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Eastern Illinois. He coached the defensive line at UT Martin in 2015 and served as a graduate assistant at Ole Miss (2013-14) and UAB (2012).
Covington played wide receiver at Samford University (2007-10), posting 62 receptions for 586 yards (9.5 avg.) and two TDs. He was born March 30, 1989, in Birmingham, Ala. Covington and his wife, Natasha, have two sons, Cassius and Cayman.
