| Los Angeles Rams | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Offensive assistant |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | March 5, 1990 Islip Terrace, New York, U.S. |
| Height: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Weight: | 216 lb (98 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school: | East Islip (NY) |
| College: | UCF |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
| |
Rob Calabrese (born March 5, 1990) is an American football coach who is an offensive assistant for the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the quarterbacks coach for the New York Jets.
A native of Islip Terrace, New York, Calabrese played quarterback at East Islip High School, where he broke the school records for career passing yards and touchdowns, set by former NFL MVP and Calabrese's mentor Boomer Esiason.[1]
Calabrese played college football at UCF from 2008 to 2012. As a true freshman, he led the team in passing yards, completions, and passing attempts. After starting the first two games in 2009 as a sophomore, he was benched for Brett Hodges and spent the remainder of the season as a reserve quarterback.[2] He suffered a serious knee injury as a junior in a game against Marshall and sat out his senior season.[3] As a redshirt senior, he split time at both quarterback and wide receiver while taking on more of a mentor role.[4]
At the conclusion of his playing career, Calabrese joined the coaching staff at nearby Oviedo High School in the Orlando area as their varsity quarterbacks coach in 2013. He joined the coaching staff at his alma mater UCF in 2014 as a graduate assistant.[5] He was not retained following the departure of George O'Leary and the hire of Scott Frost.[6] He was hired as the running backs coach and assistant special teams coordinator at Wagner in 2016 before being promoted to offensive coordinator in 2017 to replace Rich Scangarello.[7]
Calabrese was hired as a quality control assistant on January 23, 2019, once again working under Rich Scangarello, the newly hired offensive coordinator for the Broncos.[8] Calabrese was rumored to be a possibility to start at quarterback for the Broncos in 2020 for their game against the Saints after all of their quarterbacks were ruled out due to COVID-19 protocols and he took offensive practice reps. However, the NFL quickly shot down the idea due to not wanting teams to stock up on players by referring to them as coaches.[9]
On January 18, 2021, Calabrese was hired by the New York Jets to be their quarterbacks coach under head coach Robert Saleh.[10]