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COACHING

Tony Dews joins the Patriots in 2025 as running backs coach after holding the same position at the New York Jets for the 2024 season.

Prior to New York, Dews spent six seasons at the Tennessee Titans under Mike Vrabel, coaching running backs from 2018-22 before transitioning to tight ends for 2023. That season, TE Chigoziem Okonkwo set career-highs in receptions (54) and receiving yards (528).

Under Dews' tutelage from 2018-22, the Titans finished in the top five in rushing offense three times (2019, 2020 and 2021). RB Derrick Henry lead the NFL in rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns with 1,464 carries for 7,101 yards and 68 touchdowns. Henry also had a league-high 32 100-yard rushing games during that span. In 2021, the Titans ranked fifth in rushing offense (141.4 rushing yards per game), and Henry still ranked ninth in the NFL in rushing yards despite missing nine games due to injury.

In 2020, the Titans were second in the league in rushing offense (168.1 yards per game), and Henry became the first player since RB LaDainian Tomlinson (2006-07) to lead the NFL in rushing yards in back-to-back years. Henry rushed for a career-high 2,141 yards, good for the eighth 2,000-yard rushing season in NFL history. His 2020 campaign earned him the 2020 Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year award.

Over the final six games of the regular season and the Titans' three playoff games in 2019, Henry had seven 100-yard games and became the first player in NFL history to rush for at least 180 yards in three consecutive regular season and/or postseason games. In Dews' first season as running backs coach in 2018, Henry ranked second in the AFC in rushing yards (1,059) and third in the NFL in rushing touchdowns (12). Additionally, RB Dion Lewis set career-high marks in receptions (59) and receiving yards (400).

Dews has coached every offensive and defensive position besides quarterback throughout his career. He coached in the college ranks at Millersville (1998), West Virginia (1999-01, 2007, 2017), California (PA) (2002), Holy Cross (2003), Central Michigan (2004-05), UNLV (2006), Michigan (2008-10), Pittsburgh (2011), and Arizona (2012-16).

PLAYING

Dews was a four-year letterwinner as a tight end at Liberty from 1992-95. Leading the team in receiving as a junior and senior, he played for legendary coach Sam Rutigliano, who rose through the high school and college ranks to win NFL Coach of the year honors with the Cleveland Browns in 1980. Dews was named a first team All-American in 1995.

PERSONAL

Dews graduated from Liberty where he played from 1992-95 as a tight end. He later earned a master's degree in 2001 from West Virginia. Dews and his wife, Tamika, have four daughters.