The Patriots offense has struggled mightily in 2022, and the organization may turn to a familiar face to right the ship. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that Bill O’Brien is emerging as “a strong option” to be New England’s offensive coordinator next season.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard O’Brien’s name connected to the gig. He was mentioned as a potential option when Josh McDaniels left New England for Las Vegas, but Bill Belichick ultimately didn’t want to steal O’Brien from good friend Nick Saban. O’Brien has served as Alabama’s offensive coordinator for the past two seasons. Rapoport notes that the coach gave Saban a two-year commitment when he joined the program, and no extension has materialized. This has left an NFL return as a “real thought” for O’Brien.
Naturally, the Patriots would be a fit. O’Brien was on New England’s staff for five seasons, culminating in him earning the role of OC. The coach eventually left for Penn State before returning to the NFL as the Texans’ head coach. Houston went 52-48 in O’Brien’s six-plus seasons, including four playoff nods.
Further, the Patriots offense has taken a major step back during Mac Jones‘ second season in the NFL, although the organization hasn’t necessarily put the former first-round pick in a position to succeed. The Patriots have turned to former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia and former special teams coordinator Joe Judge to help guide their offense, and as a result, New England ranks in the bottom half of the NFL in most offensive categories.
“I think it goes back to just trusting the process of everything and doing whatever you can do to become a great football player,” Jones said recently (via Rapoport). “Eventually that will show up on film. So a lot of things as an offense, it’s 11 guys and you have to try to push everybody as a quarterback to do the right thing and make sure we’re all on the same page. We’ve done that at times. But just getting that consistency. Obviously with myself, too.”
As great as a coach as Belichick is, it was very stupid of him to give the OC to Patricia who before this was known as a defensive coach.
Is he that great? I get it, he’s won a lot. What has he done in his career without Brady, though? He’s looked pretty average on his own.
Do you really think that Brady would have been Brady without Bill? It goes both ways
I do think Brady would’ve been Brady without Bill. He has won a SB without Bill. Does he have as many without Bill? Couldn’t tell you. I know he took a lot of team friendly deals though, which also had an awful lot to do with the Patriots dynasty.
I can agree that Brady played a large part in those Superbowl victories (particularly the later ones), but to discredit Bill entirely is a big mistake IMO.
Consider some of those earlier New England teams, prior to Brady really coming into his own in 2007. Bill anchored a series of defenses that consistently ranked in the top 5. Such dominant units certainly aided Brady on his initial path to success. Think about how much Peyton Manning struggled in the postseason against some of those defenses. If not for the unit’s efforts, Brady would have been forced into playoff shootouts in such instances, decreasing the likelihood of success.
Therefore, although Brady had a large hand in New England’s success, Bill at least deserves recognition as a fantastic defensive coach whose units initially made Brady’s life easier
6 SB’s 2 more than the next Coach. Yes he is a great coach, like him or not
Vince Lombardi has won 5 Superbowls as a coach, and has a much stronger resume
Partially true. Lombardi won the first 2 Super Bowls along with 3 NFL championships pre-SB.
Brady’s Super Bowl without Bill also came courtesy of a built to win now superteam featuring four former All-Pros as his top receivers, not to mention across the board at other positions. It’s not like Brady left to rebuild the Pittsburgh Pirates.
why wasn’t a NE a win now super team? Bill is the GM right? Bill constantly drafts poorly which Tom covered up with his play. Now all those bad draft picks are on full display the last 3 seasons.
as the article says Bill and Nick are good friends. Wouldn’t you think Nick would tell Bill if he had questions about his arm? Besides, Mac’s arm is fine. After all that came out last week, I watched YouTube highlights of Mac. Constant deep balls at Bama.
New England was definitely a stacked team in the early 2000s to late 2000s, particularly on defense. But the New Englands of the past are irrelevant to the comparison of the two. Brady went to a superteam with no real deficiencies that went above and beyond to obtain extremely high level talent. That is a fact. Winning in Tampa hasn’t been a difficult proposition for a QB for the last two years, no matter how good Brady is or how bad Belichick was. It is sheer lunacy to ignore that fact in a misguided attempt to create a hypothetical dimension where Brady and Belichick had independent and completely comparable careers.
Besides, it’s not like New England’s defense or kickers ever won anything, right? In any case, we are going so far off the topic (Bill O’Brien) into an unproductive and speculative discussion that I fail to see the point of it at all. Brady and Belichick aided each other immensely in their success, and it is impossible to divorce the two. This is a separate topic from what is discussed in the article that we are now veering into.
I agree the TB GM out GM’ed Bill and that was Compelling to Tom. Why should he waste his career w/ a bad GM? I wouldn’t.
and why were the younger pats teams stacked on O rather than D? When you have a HoF QB stack his side. We watched Indy draft 1st round offensive players for Manning. Indy was fine winning 30-37 games.
I’ve said here before Bill certainly helped a young Tom, but not so much as When Tom learned the game and how to win. I can’t think of a another HC that ran off 2 HoF’ers in their prime off his roster. Gronk and Tom. That has to account for something as well. They tired of the dictator and clearly won w/o him.
Lombardi only won 2. Know your history dude
Would you really want to go to a team that starts an absolute crap QB like Mac Jones?
Pro-Bowler in 2021, a bit to early to give up on Mac. How’s Wilson looking in New Jersey?
Whenever the Jets stumbled in the past month, New England stumbled as well. Gillette Stadium is no longer impenetrable.
Stop the freaking madness with this garbage Probowl talk. He was the seventh alternate for the Probowl. The only reason he went is because they have to have three. Mac Jones is ass.
Pro Bowler? Mitch Trubisky was a pro bowler, too. Eleven (!) QBs made the pro bowl the year Mac Jones made it and ten of them were better than him.
That’s a plus since BB is the de facto GM, so BOB can’t screw that up and stick to coaching, which he’s actually pretty good at.
Belichick must have a DeLorean hidden in his garage because he’s making a determined effort to go back to the future.
Drew Bledsoe will be playing QB in New England next year. You heard it here first.
BOB is garbage. He ruined the Houston franchise. This guy needs to be selling insurance.
This x100. Plus he’s managed to mess up Alabama with idiotic play calling there too. If they want high draft picks, BOB is the guy.
Sadly enough, while I think that O’Brien’s coaching is a bit overrated, he would be a great improvement on what New England is currently featuring at coordinator in a crucial stage of development for Mac Jones. Patricia may eventually become a good offensive coach-who knows-but allowing to use a New England season where they should have been attempting a playoff run to essentially train him on the job was nonsensical.
I understand that Patricia may be a very smart guy and an intuitive coach, but nobody simply walks in with no specific experience and is an immediate playcalling success at the highest level of the game. Even if Patricia had worked out, he certainly wasn’t going to this year, and Jones is at a very important stage of his development right now. Giving him inexperienced coaching is extremely harmful, and the time considerations of New England’s free agency spending spree made this a costly experiment for Belichick and Patricia.
How does Rapaport come into this kind of info ?
Just keep O’Brien out of the room when they’re discussing trades.
Some people should stick to what they are good at. Both O’Brien and Belichick should have avoided taking on a GM role, and most of Belichick’s coaching tree has clearly failed when put into a Head Coach position.
BFOB
B for bill
O for ‘O
B for Brien
and you know what the Fs for if you watched Texans Hard Knocks and know what he says every other word
Why would BO return to BB as OC? I would think BO’s career would be better served getting a college HC gig.
I know B is interested in the GT HC job, but the Yellow Jackets have their eye on the Tulane HC.