NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Saints Head Coach Dennis Allen announced today that the team has hired Bob Bicknell as Senior Offensive Assistant, Matt Clapp as Strength Coach and Sterling Moore as a Defensive Assistant
Bicknell (pronounced “bick-NELL”), comes to New Orleans with 13 years of National Football League experience in the coaching ranks and 28 years of college and professional coaching experience. The Holliston, Mass. native possesses extensive experience on both the offensive line and at the skill positions.
From 2018-20, Bicknell served as wide receivers coach of the Cincinnati Bengals, where he was instrumental in the development of a pair of young wideouts in Tyler Boyd and Tee Higgins. Bicknell’s tutelage in his first season in Cincinnati in 2018 helped Boyd make a big jump in his third NFL campaign, when he finished with 76 receptions for 1,028 yards and seven touchdowns. In each of his three seasons tutoring Boyd, the wideout posted at least 76 receptions. A second round draft pick out of Clemson in 2020, Higgins finished his rookie season under Bicknell’s tutelage with 67 receptions for 908 yards and six touchdowns, with his catch total tying a Bengals rookie record at the time.
Bicknell served as wide receivers coach at Baylor University and previously tutored the wideouts under Chip Kelly with the Philadelphia Eagles (2013-15) and San Francisco 49ers (2016). During his Eagles tenure, Bicknell helped guide DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Jordan Matthews to career-high receiving yardage and receiving touchdown totals.
From 2010-12, Bicknell was on the Buffalo Bills’ coaching staff, serving as tight ends coach from 2010-11 and wide receivers coach in 2012, when he helped Stevie Johnson to his third consecutive 1,000-yard receiving season.
Bicknell broke into the NFL coaching ranks in 2007 with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he initially served as assistant offensive line coach before being promoted to offensive line coach (2008) and then moving to tight ends coach (2009). In 2008, Bicknell helped the Chiefs’ offensive line support a powerful running attack that tied for the AFC lead in rushing, at 4.8 yards per carry.
Before joining NFL coaching, Bicknell served as the offensive line coach at Temple University in 2006. Prior to his time at Temple, he spent eight years in NFL Europe (1998-2005), including stints as the offensive coordinator/offensive line coach for the Cologne Centurions (2004-05) and Berlin Thunder (2001-03). During his time in Europe, Bicknell won three consecutive World Bowls as part of the coaching staff of the Thunder (2000-01) and Frankfurt Galaxy (1999). Bicknell began his coaching career at Boston University, where he coached safeties, running backs and linebackers from 1993-97.
Bicknell was a three-year letterman at tight end at Boston College from 1989-91. He comes from a football family, as his father, Jack, was the head coach at BC from 1981-90 and spent 13 seasons as a head coach for three teams in NFL Europe before retiring in 2007. His brother, Jack, Jr., is currently the offensive line coach at the University of North Carolina, having previously served as an NFL assistant with several teams and also was head coach at Louisiana Tech for eight seasons (1999-2006).
Clapp comes to New Orleans having played in the NFL for two seasons (2010-11) and serving as a strength and conditioning coach in the college ranks for the past eight seasons. He joins the Saints after serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Alabama from 2020-21, where he was part of a strength staff that helped the Crimson Tide capture the 2020 College Football Playoff Championship and featured six consensus All-Americans and six NFL first round draft picks and in the 2021 season reached the title game and featured four consensus All-Americans, as well as the Heisman Trophy winner each of the past two seasons.
Clapp came to Tuscaloosa after serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Indiana University from 2015-19 and on the strength staff at University of Akron (2014-15) and University of Arizona (2013-14). Following a standout college career at Oklahoma, the Phoenix, Ariz. native was originally signed as a free agent by the Detroit Lions following the 2010 NFL Draft and had practice squad stints with the Saints (2010), Indianapolis Colts (2010), Lions (2011) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2011).
Moore enters his first full season as a member of the Saints coaching staff after serving as a defensive intern in 2021. The Antioch, Calif. native enjoyed a seven-year NFL career with the Saints (2016-17), Buccaneers (2015), Dallas Cowboys (2012-14) and New England Patriots (2011-12), starting 31-of-75 career games, while accumulating 185 tackles, six interceptions, 41 passes defensed, eight forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. In his first season in New Orleans in 2016, Moore appeared in 13 games with 12 starts and registered a career-best 55 tackles (47 solo), two interceptions, a team-leading and career-high 14 passes defensed and a forced fumble. Moore appeared in 19 games in two seasons at Southern Methodist (2009-10), where he recorded 59 tackles, 18 passes defensed, two interceptions with one returned for a touchdown and one fumble recovery in the end zone for a score. He closed out his professional football playing career with the Alliance of American Football’s Arizona Hotshots in 2019.
{Courtesy: release from the New Orleans Saints}