Timothy Chase McCartney (born April 24, 1989) is an American professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach who was most recently the

quarterbacks coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, associate and assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordina ...

for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He previously served as the tight ends coach for the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

from 2022 to 2023. McCartney played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

LSU Tigers The LSU Tigers and Lady Tigers (also known as the Fighting Tigers) are the athletic teams representing Louisiana State University (LSU), a state university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU competes in Division I of the National Collegiat ...

and began his coaching career there in 2011. He has also previously served as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns,

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

Playing career

McCartney was expected to take a spot on the roster at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...

offered by Buffaloes head coach and former assistant of his grandfather,

Gary Barnett Gary Lee Barnett (born May 23, 1946) is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005) ...

. However, Barnett was forced to resign in 2005 and the deal fell through when

Dan Hawkins Dan, Danny or Daniel Hawkins may refer to: * Dan Hawkins (American football) (born 1960), American football coach and former player and sportscaster * Daniel Hawkins (politician) (born 1960), American politician in the Kansas House of Representat ...

was hired. He then walked on to play

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

in 2007, playing for

Les Miles Leslie Edwin Miles (born November 10, 1953) is a former American football coach. He most recently served as the head coach at Kansas. His head coaching career began with the Oklahoma State Cowboys, where he coached from 2001 to 2004. Following t ...

, another former Colorado assistant under the elder McCartney and the coach who recruited his father. He was redshirted his freshman year in 2007, the year the Tigers won a national championship. Despite this, McCartney still received a championship ring as a member of the team. He was the quarterback for the scout team for three years before turning to coaching in 2011.

Coaching career

Early career

After his graduation from LSU, he spent the 2011 season as a graduate assistant with the Tigers that won the

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the Eastern Division regular season champion again ...

and earned a berth in the

BCS national championship game The BCS National Championship Game was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college football season as one of four des ...

. He joined the coaching staff at

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

in 2012 as a graduate assistant. He was hired to be an offensive assistant for the

in 2014, before joining the coaching staff of the

as an offensive assistant/quality control coach in 2015. He rejoined his alma mater

in 2016 as a graduate assistant.

San Francisco 49ers (second stint)

In 2017, McCartney was re-hired as an offensive assistant & quality control coach for the 49ers. He reunited with head coach

Kyle Shanahan Kyle Michael Shanahan (born December 14, 1979) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He came to prominence as the offensive coordinator for the Atlanta ...

, who served as offensive coordinator of the

in 2014 while McCartney was an offensive assistant.

Denver Broncos

After then-49ers quarterbacks coach Rich Scangarello was hired as the offensive coordinator for the

in 2019, McCartney followed Scangarello to Denver to serve as quarterbacks coach. McCartney was the only offensive assistant brought over by Scangarello from San Francisco. He was fired after Scangarello was terminated in January 2020.

Cleveland Browns (second stint)

In 2020, McCartney re-joined the Browns' coaching staff as an offensive assistant. In 2022, McCartney was promoted to Tight Ends coach, replacing new Quarterbacks coach Drew Petzing. On January 17, 2024, days after a Wild Card loss to the Houston Texans, head coach

Kevin Stefanski Kevin Lawrence Stefanski (born May 8, 1982) is an American professional American football, football coach who is the head coach of the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He began his NFL career as an assistant coach for the ...

fired McCartney.

New England Patriots

On February 19, 2024, McCartney was hired by the

as their quarterbacks coach under head coach

Jerod Mayo Jerod Andrew Mayo Sr. (born February 23, 1986) is an American professional football coach and former linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons with the New England Patriots. He also served as the head coach ...

. On January 24, 2025, it was announced that McCartney and the Patriots were parting ways.

Personal life

McCartney is the son of Kristy McCartney, the daughter of former Colorado head coach

Bill McCartney William Paul McCartney (August 22, 1940 – January 10, 2025) was an American college football coach who was the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes for 13 seasons ( 1982–1994). He compiled a record, and won three consecutive Big Eight Co ...

; and Sal Aunese, a quarterback for Colorado. His parents had already broken up shortly after he was conceived, and he carried his mother's last name; Aunese died of cancer shortly after T. C. McCartney was born.ESPN OTL: Full Circle
/ref>

References

External links

Cleveland Browns profile

Colorado Buffaloes profile

LSU Tigers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCartney, T. C. 1984 births Living people American football quarterbacks Cleveland Browns coaches Colorado Buffaloes football coaches Denver Broncos coaches LSU Tigers football coaches LSU Tigers football players New England Patriots coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches Players of American football from Boulder, Colorado Coaches of American football from Colorado