Patriots finally give Bielema coaching title, but does it help UA’s buyout?

Former Hogs coach Bret Bielema, who’s been hanging around the New England Patriots since being kicked out of his role in Arkansas, was named defensive line coach Friday, according to the team’s website.

Other sources in Boston have been reporting it, too.

Bret Bielema tells us he’ll be working with the defensive line this year. Jerod Mayo will handle inside linebackers. DeMarcus Covington will handle outside linebackers. pic.twitter.com/0Smw2t50F1

— Phil Perry (@PhilAPerry) May 10, 2019

Of course he’s been being paid by the Patriots since assuming the role of assistant to coach Bill Belichick in early 2018, but the amount apparently was slightly below the mitigating number of $150,000 before it started reducing his buyout from the UA.

When he was fired the day after Thanksgiving 2017, the buyout was for just south of $12 million at the tune of over $300,000 a month, although in the last few months you could be questioning if Arkansas should have kept paying him.

The buyout also required him to be actively pursuing another job and his salary above $150,000 a year would mitigate that total a little.

Basketball coach Mike Anderson landed a head coaching job with St. John’s within a few weeks, making the UA’s buyout there meaningless.

Bielema taking a blurry role on an NFL staff could have raised questions with folks back in Arkansas. As a private business, the Patriots have no legal obligation to disclose anything to anybody.

As I said previously, stop sending the checks and make him file a lawsuit … in Washington County, Arkansas, per the terms of the contract. Then you get lawyers involved and you can legally either force to the Patriots to disclose financial information they’d probably rather not get involved with or give Bielema a real job with a title and compensation to match and lower the UA’s obligation.

In case you aren’t aware, being an NFL assistant these days pays pretty good. Coordinators are making over $1 million a year.

Is his role with the Patriots simply as a defensive line coach? There are folks around the Patriots who say he was much more heavily involved last season as just the errand boy for Belichick.

He was rumored to go with Patriots linebackers coach Brian Flores when he got the head coaching job at Miami, but that didn’t happen and some in Boston felt that was because Bielema was going to be coordinating the defense in New England.

As things are playing out, that appears to be a possible scenario.

The Patriots own website had an interesting line in the story on staff announcements:

What remains unclear, however, is who will call defensive signals. Flores did so last season.

Could they be working with Bielema to avoid naming him a coordinator to let Arkansas pay the bulk of his salary while they help him skirt — at a bare minimum — the spirit of his buyout?

It’s just a question you wonder if the smart folks at the UA have as well.

Of course, the answer could just be that nobody thought ol’ Bret was good enough to keep coaching at the big-time college level.

Based on his five years at Arkansas, that’s not a wild leap.