Coach Ben McAdoo promoted Rob Leonard and added Bobby Blick and Pratik Patel to the Giants coaching staff:
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Giants coach Ben McAdoo today announced one new assignment and two additions to his coaching staff for the 2017 season.
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Rob Leonard has been promoted to assistant defensive line coach after spending the previous four seasons as a defensive assistant. He replaces Jeff Zgonina, who left the Giants after one season to become the San Francisco 49ers' defensive line coach.
Bobby Blick will replace Leonard as the defensive assistant, and Pratik Patel has been hired as director of performance nutrition/assistant strength and conditioning coach.
Blick spent the 2016 season as the director of player personnel on the Army West Point football staff. Prior to joining the Black Knights, Blick was the special teams coordinator and director of recruiting at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He coached a kickoff return unit that finished fifth in the nation and first in the Southern Conference in 2015. Blick has also worked on the coaching staffs at Georgia Tech, Elon University and his alma mater, North Carolina State.
Patel has been the University of Oregon's sports nutrition coach since October 2014. Prior to joining the Ducks, Patel spent over two years as the sports dietitian at Michigan State through the Department of Radiology and Division of Sports and Cardiovascular Nutrition at MSU. Patel also served for two years as the sports dietitian for the men's basketball team at Kansas State.
Patel has served in sports nutrition roles with a variety of other organizations, including the Kansas City Royals, the University of Kansas and the Houston Texans. A 2008 graduate from Kansas State with a degree in dietetics, Patel earned his master's degree in kinesiology from Kansas State in 2012.
Leonard joined the Giants' staff as a defensive assistant in 2013. He came to the Giants from his alma mater, North Carolina State, where he was a graduate assistant for three seasons. He began his coaching career in 2009 as a defensive assistant at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Raleigh. Leonard played three seasons at N.C. State after playing the 2004 season at Division III Washington & Jefferson College.
