T. C. McCartney

Timothy Chase "T. C." McCartney (born April 24, 1989) is an American football coach who is the quarterbacks coach for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the tight ends coach for the Cleveland Browns from 2022 to 2023.

McCartney played college football at LSU and began his coaching career there in 2011. He has also previously served as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, San Francisco 49ers and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Playing career
McCartney was expected to take a spot on the roster at Colorado offered by Buffaloes head coach and former assistant of his grandfather, Gary Barnett. However, Barnett was forced to resign in 2005 and the deal fell through when Dan Hawkins was hired. He then walked on to play quarterback at LSU in 2007, playing for Les Miles, 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.

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 and earned a berth in the BCS national championship game. He joined the coaching staff at Colorado in 2012 as a graduate assistant. He was hired to be an offensive assistant for the Cleveland Browns in 2014, before joining the coaching staff of the San Francisco 49ers as an offensive assistant/quality control coach in 2015. He rejoined his alma mater LSU 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, who served as offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns 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 Denver Broncos 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 fired McCartney.

New England Patriots
On February 19, 2024, McCartney was hired by the New England Patriots as their quarterbacks coach under head coach Jerod Mayo.

Personal life
McCartney is the son of the late Sal Aunese, a former quarterback for Colorado and Kristy McCartney, the daughter of former Colorado head coach Bill McCartney.