New Patriots special teams coach Scott O’Brien apparently didn’t need a reference in Foxborough, but Todd Sauerbrun would have been happy to provide him with one.

Sauerbrun, a three-time Pro Bowl punter who worked with O’Brien in Denver and Carolina, said yesterday New England is getting a special teams coach who’s a little different, but is the best in the NFL at what he does.

“Scott O’Brien is the best special teams coach I’ve ever come across,” Sauerbrun said of O’Brien, who replaces Brad Seely on the Patriots’ coaching staff. “He marches to his own drummer. A lot of teams have had a problem with him over the years because they wanted him to do things their way. But he’s a great coach, and has done some great things.”

He certainly did some great things with the outspoken Sauerbrun, who earned three straight Pro Bowl berths working with O’Brien while posting the highest three-year gross punting average (45.9 yards per punt from 2001-03) in NFL history. Sauerbrun credits O’Brien for his success.

“I have so much respect for someone in the NFL like that, someone who has the [guts] to come out and say, ‘I’m doing it my way, and if they don’t like it, [bleep] ’em,’” Sauerbrun said of O’Brien. “He’s the best in the business. If he were just mediocre, he probably wouldn’t have a job. But he’s great, so teams leave him alone and let him do his thing.”

O’Brien replaces Seely, who spent 10 seasons with the Patriots as New England’s special teams coach before taking the job as special teams coordinator in Cleveland last month. Hired in 1999, Seely was one of the few people in the Patriots’ organization who predated the arrival of New England coach Bill Belichick.

Under Seely, the Patriots kicking game was one of the best in the league — Adam Vinatieri and Stephen Gostkowski have helped set the gold standard in many ways for kickers, while return man Ellis Hobbs ranked second in the NFL with a 28.5 kickoff return average this past season. However, New England punters have struggled of late, including Chris Hanson, who ranked in the bottom half of all major punting categories in 2008, including average yards per punt and total punts downed inside the 20.

O’Brien joins the Patriots after spending the last two seasons as the Broncos’ special teams coordinator. O’Brien has previously served as special teams coach for four NFL teams — Cleveland (1991-95), Baltimore (1996-98), Carolina (1999-2004) and Denver (2007-08). He has deep roots with Belichick, having begun his professional coaching career when Belichick hired him to coach the Browns’ special teams in 1991.

During O’Brien’s five seasons with Belichick and Cleveland, the Browns tied for the NFL lead with eight special teams touchdowns while also becoming the only NFL team to not allow a special teams score over that span. Under O’Brien’s tutelage, Cleveland punt returner Eric Metcalf earned Pro Bowl honors in 1993 and 1994 while leading the NFL with four punt returns for touchdowns over those two seasons.

In 16 seasons as an NFL special teams coach, O’Brien’s units have produced 29 special teams touchdowns — including 17 punt returns for touchdowns and nine kickoff returns for touchdowns. He has helped six different special teams players earn a total of 10 Pro Bowl berths and has coached players to the Pro Bowl in eight different seasons, including a very grateful Sauerbrun.

“Working with Scott, I went to Hawaii three times,” Sauerbrun said. “The results speak for themselves.”

In addition, the Patriots yesterday named Bill O’Brien the new quarterbacks coach and Josh Boyer defensive backs coach. There are now three openings on the New England coaching staff: tight ends coach (Pete Mangurian left to join the Tampa Bay coaching staff), offensive coordinator (Josh McDaniels left to take the head coaching job in Denver) and wide receivers coach.

It’s expected that O’Brien will help fill the role of offensive coordinator this coming season. In fact, he will likely follow the same path as McDaniels. In 2005, the Patriots were without an offensive coordinator, and so Belichick took a more active role in the offense.

In truth, McDaniels (listed only as QB coach on the New England masthead that season) actually spent the season in an apprenticeship role as offensive coordinator, working with Belichick and eventually taking on play-calling duties at the end of the season before taking on the dual role of offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach the following year. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see O’Brien make the same leap by the end of the 2009 season.

Christopher Price covers the Patriots for WEEI.com. He can be reached at cprice@weei.com.