Gregory Alexander Van Pelt (born May 1, 1970) 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 and former

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 ...

who currently serves as a senior offensive assistant with the

Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Greater Los Angeles, Greater Los Angeles area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West ...

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 ...

. He played in the NFL primarily with the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East div ...

. Van Pelt previously served as an assistant coach for the Bills,

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They ar ...

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

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 ...

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 ...

Playing career

College

Van Pelt attended the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

, where he was a 4-year starting quarterback for the Panthers. When he graduated, Van Pelt broke school career passing records previously set by

Dan Marino Daniel Constantine Marino Jr. ( ; born September 15, 1961) is an American former professional American football, football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He played college f ...

, holding records for most career passing yards, completions, and attempts in Pitt history. His single-season mark of 3,163 passing yards in 1992 was broken in 2003 by Rod Rutherford. *1989: 192/347 for 2,881 yards with 17 touchdowns vs 12 interceptions. Ran for 4 touchdowns. *1990: 201/351 for 2,427 yards with 14 touchdowns vs 17 interceptions. Ran for 2 touchdowns. *1991: 227/398 for 2,796 yards with 15 touchdowns vs 14 interceptions. Ran for 1 touchdown. *1992: 245/407 for 3,163 yards with 20 touchdowns vs 17 interceptions.

Professional

Van Pelt was an eighth round draft pick of his hometown franchise

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. Founded in 1933 P ...

, but was released during

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events ...

. Van Pelt spent three games with the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...

late in the

1993 NFL season The 1993 NFL season was the 74th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). It was the only season in league history where all NFL teams were originally scheduled to play their 16-game schedule over a span of 18 weeks and did so (the ...

following a hamstring injury to

Joe Montana Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Co ...

. He was re-signed by the Chiefs prior to the

1994 NFL season The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League (NFL). To honor the NFL's 75th season, a special anniversary logo was designed, and each player wore a patch on their jerseys with this logo throughout the season. ...

, but was released during training camp. He was signed by the

later in the 1994 season following a knee injury sustained by

Jim Kelly James Edward Kelly (born February 14, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the Buffalo Bills. He also spent two seasons with the Houston Gamblers o ...

and spent the remainder of his career as a backup with the Bills. Van Pelt's first NFL win as a starter would come on November 2, 1997, against

and the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Dolphins compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team ...

. In

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, he started eight games, going 2–6, and playing well enough to justify a contract extension that would allow the Bills to release failed

successor Todd Collins. Van Pelt would not start any games after 2001 due to a Bills trade with the

for

Drew Bledsoe Drew McQueen Bledsoe (born February 14, 1972) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football for Washi ...

, who became the full-time starting quarterback. Van Pelt remained with the team as Bledsoe's backup for the next two seasons before retiring. In his eleven-year career, Van Pelt totaled 16

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s and 24

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

s on 477 pass attempts in 31 career appearances and 11 starts.

Broadcasting career

After retiring from football in 2004, Van Pelt was John Murphy's partner on Bills Radio Network broadcasts. He did color commentary for the

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

broadcast of all Bills games during the 2004 season.

Coaching career

Frankfurt Galaxy

Van Pelt began his coaching career in 2005 as the quarterbacks coach for the Frankfurt Galaxy of

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

, the NFL's developmental league, where he was also responsible for all offensive play calling.

University at Buffalo

After the end of the NFL Europe season, Van Pelt returned to Buffalo, spending the 2005 college football season as a volunteer quarterbacks coach for the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

Buffalo Bills

On February 13, 2006, Van Pelt returned to the Bills, this time being hired by head coach

Dick Jauron Richard Manual Jauron (; October 7, 1950February 8, 2025) was an American professional football player and coach in the National Football League (NFL). He played eight seasons in the NFL as a safety, five with the Detroit Lions and three with t ...

as an offensive quality control coach. On January 16, 2008, the Bills promoted him to quarterbacks coach. On September 4, 2009, he was promoted again to

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

after Turk Schonert was abruptly fired just 10 days prior to the season opener. On January 4, 2010, Van Pelt, along with the rest of the Bills coaching staff, was fired following a 6–10 season.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Van Pelt was hired by the

as the quarterbacks coach on February 1, 2010. When Buccaneers head coach Raheem Morris was fired on January 2, 2012, the whole staff was let go as well.

Green Bay Packers

Van Pelt was hired by the Packers as the running backs coach, reuniting him with his longtime friend, head coach

Mike McCarthy Michael John McCarthy (born November 10, 1963) is an American professional American football, football coach who most recently was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) from 2020 Dallas Cowboys season, 2020 t ...

, on February 13, 2012. On February 7, 2014, Van Pelt was promoted to quarterbacks coach. He left the team when his contract expired on January 3, 2018.

Cincinnati Bengals

On January 12, 2018, Van Pelt was hired by the

as their quarterbacks coach.

Cleveland Browns

On January 29, 2020, Van Pelt was hired by the

as their offensive coordinator under head coach Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski missed the team's wild card playoff game against the

on January 10, 2021, and Van Pelt took over as offensive play caller for the game. On February 26, 2023, Van Pelt added the role of quarterbacks coach to his title. On January 17, 2024, Van Pelt was fired by the Browns following the team's 45–14 loss to the

Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team plays its home games at N ...

in the AFC playoffs.

New England Patriots

On February 1, 2024, Van Pelt was named the new offensive coordinator for the

under new 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 ...

. However, Mayo was fired after a 4-13 season in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, and Van Pelt was not retained by the Patriots upon the hiring of new head coach

Mike Vrabel Michael George Vrabel ( ; born August 14, 1975) is an American professional American football, football coach and former linebacker who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He played college footba ...

Los Angeles Rams

On February 24, 2025, the Rams franchise announced the hiring of Van Pelt as a senior offensive assistant for head coach Sean McVay.

Personal life

Van Pelt lives in Cleveland, Ohio with his wife Brooke and their three children.

References

External links

New England Patriots profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Pelt, Alex 1970 births Living people American football quarterbacks American radio sports announcers Buffalo Bills announcers Buffalo Bills coaches Buffalo Bills players Cleveland Browns coaches Frankfurt Galaxy coaches NFL announcers NFL offensive coordinators New England Patriots coaches Pittsburgh Panthers football players Players of American football from Pittsburgh Players of American football from San Antonio Sportspeople from San Antonio Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaches Coaches of American football from Pennsylvania