Former Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower joins Jerod Mayo's New England Patriots coaching staff

Former Alabama linebacker Dont'a Hightower wasn't even out of the NFL for a year before finding himself back on the Patriots sideline.

The top-flight linebacker, who retired after the 2022 season, was named the Patriots linebacker coach Friday, thus filling another position on new head coach Jerod Mayo's staff following the departure of surefire Hall of Famer Bill Belichick.

Hightower, who played at Alabama from 2008 to 2011 before being drafted at No. 25 overall in 2012 by the Patriots — for whom he played his entire NFL career — will get a chance to make his bones under Mayo, who stumped for him to coach as far back as last spring.

"I think Hightower would be a phenomenal coach," Mayo told reporters then, per Patriots.com. "So we'll see. When I get a chance to run my own ship, I'll try to recruit him."

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The recruiting pitch must have been pretty straightforward, because Hightower was announced to New England just under a month after Mayo was named Patriots coach.

Dont'a Hightower college, NFL stats

Hightower was an impact player in both college and the NFL, logging 234 tackles with Alabama and 569 with the Patriots. He is sixth in Patriots history in tackles, trailing only Devin McCourty, Mayo himself, Patrick Chung, Tedy Bruschi, and Mike Vrabel.

• Alabama Crimson Tide career stats: 234 tackles, 21 tackles for loss, one interception, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovered

• New England Patriots career stats: 569 tackles, 43 TFLs, one interception, two forced fumbles, five fumbles recovered

Nick Saban, Bill Belichick on Dont'a Hightower

To say Hightower comes with a strong recommendation would be an understatement. Two coaching legends praised him last year following his retirement: Nick Saban and Bill Belichick. The former, of course, retired after the 2023 college football season. Belichick, meanwhile, was left without a seat on the coaching carousel after parting ways with the Patriots following the regular season.

“You know, Dont’a is one of my favorites. He was an outstanding player here,” Saban said on the Pat McAfee Show in September. “But, you know, I have a special affinity for Dont’a and all the guys — Julio Jones and Mark Barron and all those guys. They all came to Alabama when we weren’t any good, and they really created the legacy and the standard of what we want to try to accomplish in the program.”

Hightower, of course, won national championships with Alabama in 2009 and 2011, then went on to win three Super Bowls in the NFL.

“Dont’a’s blend of intelligence, positional versatility and physicality made him one of the rarest of players that I have ever coached,” Belichick said in a statement following Hightower's retirement, per Patriots.com. “Very few players were capable of as much as Dont’a, who could win from multiple positions with power, athleticism and his mind.

“His skills were most evident in two of the all-time great plays in franchise history, which led directly to two Super Bowl championships, but date back to the start of his decorated college and NFL careers. As a rookie, it was clear that Dont’a was already a mature, highly-competitive player who could make an immediate impact, which he did in his first game and consistently over the course of a decade.”

If Hightower set the blueprint for excellence at Alabama and then went on to become the cerebral player Belichick went on to describe, he should be a perfect fit on Mayo's staff.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Former Alabama LB Dont'a Hightower joins Jerod Mayo's coaching staff