Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft met this week to discuss the franchise’s outlook, and although rumors of the owner and legendary coach not being on the same page regarding staffing circulated during the season’s final weeks, NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Curran reports the two are believed to be in step when it comes to the coaching situation.
Patriots staffers have not been informed of any changes yet, Albert Breer of SI.com notes, but Curran adds that Kraft did not need to issue any ultimatums to Belichick to shake up his staff after a strange plan helped produce a disappointing season. Following a season that featured Matt Patricia as the Pats’ primary offensive play-caller, changes will be coming to New England’s offensive staff. Several coaches are under consideration to join the offensive staff, per Curran.
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Bill O’Brien has been linked to a New England return, but Curran tweets the Pats and the current Alabama OC have not been in contact yet. That said, Breer adds O’Brien likely “would love” to return to his home state to aid the Patriots. O’Brien was on Belichick’s staff from 2007-11, finishing that stay as the team’s offensive coordinator during Josh McDaniels‘ three years away. Although O’Brien was not on board as the Crimson Tide’s OC until the 2021 season, Breer mentions Mac Jones helped bring the incoming play-caller up to speed on the program’s offense. Robert and Jonathan Kraft are O’Brien fans as well, per Breer.
Belichick has also done some homework on Kliff Kingsbury, whom he drafted in the 2003 sixth round. The recently fired Cardinals HC spent just more than a year in New England, before being waived, but Breer adds Belichick placed the former Texas Tech QB in a de facto quality control role during a rookie year on IR. That said, Kingsbury may be readier to take a break compared to diving back into a high-pressure situation, Breer and ESPN.com’s Josh Weinfuss (Twitter link) offer. Tight ends coach Nick Caley came up previously as a potential McDaniels heir apparent, and he earned increased responsibility — in Year 6 coaching the Pats’ tight ends — following McDaniels’ departure.
It does not appear Patricia and Joe Judge will need to be too worried about losing their places on Belichick’s staff. The Patriots are expected to find roles for both of their de facto offensive coordinators, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com adds. Belichick thrusting both ex-head coaches into new roles impacted the Pats’ fortunes this season. The Pats plummeted from sixth to 17th in scoring offense, from 15th to 26th in total yards and from ninth to 24th in DVOA. It should be expected whoever calls Patriots plays in 2023 will have at least done it before.
“Patriots expected to shake up offensive staff by hiring offensive staff.”
“It does not appear Patricia and Joe Judge will need to be too worried about losing their places on Belichick’s staff.”
And then goes on to say they would be in different roles. As is, Patricia has been pulling double duty as like coach and coordinator, which would be extremely abnormal for even a qualified person.
They’re not going to be in different roles. Bill O’Brien represents the offense the Patriots are trying to go away from because the league has figured it out. Kliff Kingsbury showed no ability to improve a quarterback who clearly thinks he knows it all even though he doesn’t
Offensive Staff?? If that is the case Klunksbury and his “ No points air raid offense” shouldn’t be considered. He isn’t close to being an offensive mind. Maybe if he coached in the 60’s he might be considered offensive minded.
Belichick’s one weakness as a HC seems to be nepotism. Who would’ve guessed that Patricia would fail running the offense? All of his buddies hilariously crash and burn once they leave to take charge of their own team, and then he brings them back. He was probably betting on McDaniels coming back as OC this offseason.
He’s going to leave behind a dumpster fire of a coaching staff when he retires.
That’s not nepotism. Football fans use that word to mean a familiar or rehashed hire, but that’s not what it means.
Ironically, there IS a case of nepotism on Belichick’s staff, but not on offense.
Typed in nepotism on Google, and the top pop up is “the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives, friends, or associates, especially by giving them jobs.”
Ya, his two sons
Although initially it seems absurd to have Defensive minds functioning on the offensive side, there is kind of a “chess game mentality” associated with the move. Operating from a defensive point of view, those defensive minds functioning as offensive coaches SHOULD be positioned to to call plays that would be successful against the defensive scheme in place and then be positioned to flip to an alternate play when the defense changes up personnel on the fly.
Obviously, it was not successful in this case, but with the right personnel, it could have been.
They still need the skills to create a unique plan for the offense. Copying other teams will only go so far.
The problem was the quarterback. When Zappe played the offense moved. Every time Jones plays it’s clunky
There’s definitely some merit to the concept. Brandon Staley was a QB before he was ever a defensive coach. Shane Steichen’s first NFL job was as a defensive assistant. But that’s different than taking a guy who was an offensive assistant 17 years ago and making him both offensive playcaller and offensive line coach, and letting him install a totally different offensive scheme–with which he has zero experience–under a defense-first head coach.
And as Sherminator already noted, knowing what sorts of plays would challenge you on the defensive side of the ball is different than having the skills to scheme, install, and call plays on the offensive side of the ball.
I agree conceptually with everything stated above. I would like to add that it seems, in my opinion, that any sort of experiment of this sort would require a minimum level of experience at certain stages of the role in order to be successful, no matter the background. Meaning, you can’t just slot a good defensive guy in as offensive coordinator right away. He’s going to need some time at tight ends coach or quarterback coach or what not first, to not only understand how he would defend certain plays, but to understand how the offensive side thinks when they stage them.
The defensive coach might know how to stop plays and what progression of playcalling to expect-which plays set up what or which plays counter those-but he understands them on a functional level. He does not probably consider as primary motivation the same objective as the offensive coach, because he still thinks about functionally-I.e., the effect of X play is Y; this is how to stop X, and this is why X works. But does he understand why X is in the playbook, in terms of what part of the offensive identity it is? And if he does understand, does now have the motivation to accomplish that objective, instead of just trying to figure out its strengths or weaknesses?
That kind of identity is built on a base level. That’s why some coaches have trouble adapting their schemes to their players, because they’ve developed that identity so fervently that they can’t work outside of it. But not having an identity at all is worse, because plays will end up directionless and haphazard. That’s what I saw, personally, in New England this year. Patricia is by all accounts smart and even to do a bad job in a completely new field at its highest level is better than most. But this experiment was never bound to work. Patricia never built up the practical experience nor the ideological identity that every other offensive coach does at a lower level. With time, maybe he could have as O.C., but the Patriots would have paid the price for his on the job training. They sort of already have.
Just keep O’Brien out of the room if trades are being discussed.
Expected? This is nothing but substance-devoid delusion projection by Curran. The fact is the staff wasn’t the problem Mac Jones was and is the problem. He had problems seeing the field, throwing crisply, etc. throughout his rookie season that most didn’t notice; he was supposed to get better in the offseason and instead he still misses open guys, stares down receivers, doesn’t see defenders, and NEVER elevates his game in the clutch
Ehhh, I found it misleading to cast blame on the second year player for the offensive struggles of a staff manned by not only a first time playcaller, but also a first offensive coach.
You mentioned earlier that the offense moved with Zappe. It did, but then severely regressed back to being lethargic just as quickly. I don’t think that Zappe outdid Jones by much, if at all. In both cases, though, the Patriots had very young players that lack veteran leadership on a coaching level, let alone basic and disjointed playcalling. I would say it’s more that the Patriots wasted a year of Mac Jones than it is that Max Jones wasted a year of the Patriots.
It didn’t regress under Zappe. His inexperience caught up to him. With more starts he’d have fixed mistakes because unlike Jones Zappe by all accounts actually listens to the coaches where Jones carries on like he’s a finished product (Vince Young likewise insisted he was a finished product). The Patriots wasted the season with Jones when they were better keeping Zappe as starter. For 2023 a veteran will be signed to push or push out Jones.
They can have Josh McDaniels back.
Y is Nick Caley so great we’ve haven’t had a good TE in yrs I thought Henry was going to be the guy but he blow this yr and the there’s that useless Smith and don’t forget those 2 scrubs they drafted a few yrs ago
Being a Lions fan, I have a very distinct opinion about Patricia. Therefore, given the fact that he was the Patriots’ OC, I wouldn’t not deem their performance on offense “disappointing” at all…
Gruß,
BSHH
The Lions had a dysfunctional culture they wouldn’t empower Patricia to fix. The players hated him because they thought they knew it all and in fact knew nothing and couldn’t take it that he told them off as such.
Color me shocked that Joe Clown Shoes Judge failed to develop a dynamic offense.
At least the Patriots’ offensive line coach got to keep his job. Oh, wait a minute…
He should hire more of his own children.