The Washington Commanders lost one of their top assistant coaches when veteran tight ends coach Pete Hoener officially retired Friday.
Hoener, who came to Washington in 2020 with head coach Ron Rivera, ends a 46-year coaching career that featured stops with the 49ers, Bears, Cardinals and Panthers in the NFL before his time in Washington. The 70-year-old Hoener also spent several years coaching college football with stops at Texas A&M, Iowa State, TCU, Purdue, Illinois, Indiana State, Illinois State and Missouri. His NFL coaching career began in 1985.
Hoener was instrumental in the development of Vernon Davis, Greg Olsen and the breakout of Logan Thomas. Under Hoener, Olsen became one of the NFL’s best tight ends during his nine-year run with the Panthers.
Tight ends coach Pete Hoener has retired.
Thank you for everything, Coach Hoener 💛
— Washington Commanders (@Commanders) February 18, 2022
Olsen spoke of Hoener’s influence in 2019 to the Charlotte Observer, via Zach Selby of commanders.com:
“He’s been unbelievable for my development,” Olsen said. “He believed in me, gave me a chance. I was kind of on the fence about whether I was gonna be that next breakout guy or if I was gonna be another first-round ‘bust,’ so to speak. Obviously, my career took off to another level since I’ve gotten here, and Pete was a big part of that.”
Thomas has also been complimentary of Hoener and his role in the former quarterback’s development at tight end. Thomas had a career year for Washington in 2020 and signed a three-year contract extension last summer.
The 2022 season will be the first for Rivera as a head coach without Hoener on the sideline.
The Commanders acted quickly in hiring Hoener’s replacement, as Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network reported the team was hiring veteran coach Juan Castillo as their next tight ends coach.
We’ll have more on Castillo tomorrow.
The #Commanders are hiring veteran assistant Juan Castillo as their tight ends coach, replacing the retiring Pete Hoener, source said. Castillo — who worked with Ron Rivera two decades ago in Philadelphia — most recently was Chicago’s OL coach.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 18, 2022
