Northwestern is continuing to shake up its offensive staff after hiring Chip Kelly as its offensive coordinator last week. Today, the program officially announced new tight ends coach Bob Bicknell via a post on X. The long-time NFL and college coach was most recently with the Las Vegas Raiders, coaching under Kelly.
In 2025, Bicknell was a "senior offensive assistant" for the Raiders. Prior to that, he was with the New England Patriots as a tight ends coach in 2023.
Over the course of a 30+ year career as a position coach, Bicknell has worked for NFL Teams, FBS teams, FCS teams and NFL Europe. His journey began at Boston University, and he's also coached in the college ranks at Temple and Baylor -- where he was standout receiver Denzel Mims' position coach.
Bicknell's hiring isn't surprising given his connection to Kelly and Northwestern's clear goal to get more experienced on the offensive side of the ball. David Braun and the Wildcats made the decision to move on from Zach Lujan at offensive coordinator at the end of this season. Lujan is a young, exciting offensive mind, but Northwestern simply wasn't getting enough production on offense to complement its defense.
Now, the 'Cats have some veteran coaches in the building in Kelly and Bicknell. The latter will be tasked with helping develop some solid, over-the-middle threats to help next year's quarterback succeed.
Last season, Hunter Welcing led the way for NU in the tight end room. He finished the year with 296 yards receiving and two touchdowns. As a whole, Northwestern's tight end group was solid in the blocking game, but it's been a while since the 'Cats got high-level production in the receiving game.
With his background as a receivers coach in addition to his experience working with tight ends, Bicknell seems like a prime candidate to help reverse that trend. But Welcing was a senior this season, so it's unclear exactly what he'll be working with.
Presumably, younger players will step up, but watch for Northwestern to be active in the tight end market during transfer portal season. It would make sense for the 'Cats to add to the room and give their new staff more to work with.
So far, Northwestern has hired Kelly, Bicknell, Tim Drevno (offensive line) and Jerry Neuheisel (quarterbacks). Drevno is another long-time coach while Neuheisel is a younger offensive coach who was the interim OC for UCLA this season.
The hope is that these hirings will help improve the on-field product, as well as Northwestern's standing in the recruiting/portal world.