Meet the 2024 New Orleans Saints coaches: Andrew Janocko

Janocko is entering his first season with the Saints

Jul 07, 2024 at 10:00 AM

New Orleans Saints

Andrew Janocko (pronounced juh-NO-co) enters his first season as New Orleans' quarterbacks coach in 2024.

Andrew Janocko

Quarterbacks

Janocko has 13 years of coaching experience, including 11 in the NFL. He joins the Saints after spending the past two years as quarterbacks coach of the Chicago Bears. In addition to his time in Chicago, Janocko also held several offensive roles in his time with the Minnesota Vikings (2015-21), coached quarterbacks at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pa. (2014), spent two seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2012-13) and was a graduate assistant at Rutgers University in 2011.

Over the past two seasons, Janocko was instrumental in the development of Bears signal-caller Justin Fields, who completed 419-of-688 (60.9%) passes for 4,804 yards with 33 touchdown passes, while carrying 284 times for 1,800 yards (6.3 avg.) with 12 touchdowns in 28 starts. In Week 14 of the 2023 season, Fields became the second-fastest quarterback in NFL history to reach 2,000 rushing yards in only 36 games and only the third signal-caller with at least 2,000 rushing yards in his first three seasons. In 2023, despite playing in two fewer games than 2022 due to injuries, Fields improved in most major passing categories, completing 227-of-370 (61.4%) passes for 2,562 yards with 16 touchdowns and an 86.3 passer rating, while carrying 124 times for 657 yards with four touchdowns. The Bears improved their victory total from three in 2022 to seven in 2023, as Fields won four of his final six starts.

Fields finished the 2022 season with eight rushing touchdowns and 1,143 rushing yards over 15 starts, becoming one of three quarterbacks in NFL history to rush for 1,000-or-more yards in a single season, joining Lamar Jackson and Michael Vick. Fields also completed 192-of-318 (60.4%) passes for 2,242 yards and 17 touchdowns on the season, while posting a passer rating of at least 92.0 in five of eight starts from Weeks 8-17.

Janocko spent seven seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, gaining experience coaching with the offensive line (2017-19), wide receivers coach (2020) and quarterbacks coach (2021).

In 2021, Janocko helped veteran QB Kirk Cousins throw for 4,221 yards with 33 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a 103.1 passer rating, as he was named to his third Pro Bowl. Cousins' passer rating was fourth-best in the NFL and he was one of only two quarterbacks in 2021 to throw for over 30 touchdowns with fewer than ten interceptions.

With Janocko as his position coach in 2020, first-round draft pick Justin Jefferson had one of the greatest seasons by a rookie receiver in NFL history. Jefferson set a league rookie receiving record with 1,400 yards and became the NFL's first rookie receiver to earn AP All-Pro honors since Randy Moss in 1998 and was tabbed to his first Pro Bowl. Additionally, Adam Thielen established a career high 14 touchdown catches.

In 2019, while assisting the offensive line, the Vikings allowed only 28 sacks, tying them for the fifth-fewest in the NFL. The mark also tied for the eighth-fewest sacks allowed in franchise history. The offensive line paved the way for Dalvin Cook to rush for 1,135 yards, the Vikings' first 1,000-yard rusher since Adrian Peterson did so in 2015.

In 2018, serving as co-offensive line coach with Saints tight ends coach Clancy Barone, the Vikings line protected Cousins, as he set a team record for completions (425), posted the second-best completion percentage mark in team history (70.1%) and threw for the second-most yards (4,298) in franchise history.

Serving as assistant offensive line coach in 2017, the Vikings line was pivotal to the team going 13-3, winning the NFC North title and advancing to the NFC Championship Game. The line paved the way for several offensive players to have career years, highlighted by QB Case Keenum. Cook set a team record for rookies with 288 yards in the opening three games of the season, but suffered a season-ending torn ACL injury in the fourth contest. The Vikings jumped from last in the NFL in rushing in 2016 to seventh in 2017 and climbed from No. 28 in total offense to No. 11. Janocko started his Vikings tenure as an offensive assistant from 2015-16.

Janocko arrived in Minnesota after coaching the quarterbacks at Division II Mercyhurst for one season in 2014. His first start in coaching came in 2011, when he was a graduate assistant at Rutgers, working with quarterbacks under Greg Schiano. After impressing Schiano, Janocko's first NFL coaching opportunity came in 2012 when then-Tampa Bay Head Coach Schiano offered him a position to serve as an offensive assistant for two seasons (2012-13).

A three-year letterman at Pitt, Janocko served as a backup quarterback and holder on special teams. Janocko spent his first two seasons as a walk-on before earning a scholarship his final two seasons. A three-time member of the Big East Conference All-Academic Team, he graduated from Pitt in 2010 with a degree in history and a minor in political science.

A native of Clearfield, Pa., Janocko was the starting quarterback at Clearfield Area High School, where his father, Tim, served as the head coach for 38 years. He led the school to a pair of district championships and was a two-time Pennsylvania Football News All-State honoree.

Janocko and his wife, Natalie, have a son, Noah, and a daughter, Isabella.

PLAYING CAREER: Pittsburgh, 2007-10.

COACHING CAREER: Rutgers, 2011; Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2012-13; Mercyhurst University, 2014; Minnesota Vikings, 2015-21; Chicago Bears, 2022-23; New Orleans Saints, 2024-.