The Patriots’ search for an offensive coordinator has come to an end. New England is reuniting with Bill O’Brien to fill the vacancy, as first reported (on Twitter) by ESPN’s Adam Schefter. O’Brien will also serve as the Pats’ quarterbacks coach, the team announced.
Both during and after New England’s season came to an end with the team sitting outside the postseason (in large part due to their offensive struggles), it became clear that O’Brien was the Patriots’ preferred choice to help the unit rebound in 2023. The 53-year-old spent the past two seasons at the helm of Alabama’s offense, but his next NFL gig will be in a familiar place. 
O’Brien began his pro coaching career in New England in 2007 as an offensive assistant. Over time, he took on a larger role on Bill Belichick‘s staff, working with the team’s wide receivers and quarterbacks before being promoted again to offensive coordinator in 2011. While he only held that title for one season, he operated as the team’s play-caller after Josh McDaniels departed in 2009.
Following that time, O’Brien took a two-year head coaching gig at Penn State, which led him to the same role with the Texans. He operated as the team’s bench boss – and, for part of that stretch, the general manager as well – from 2014 to the one-quarter mark of the 2020 campaign. Overall, the Texans sported winning records in five of his six full seasons at the helm, though his firing came as little surprise by the time it happened in the wake of an 0-4 start and several missteps in terms of managerial moves.
O’Brien returned to the college ranks after that, working under Nick Saban and with the help of current Patriots quarterback Mac Jones. The latter helped O’Brien, a Massachusetts native, get acquainted with the Crimson Tide’s scheme, one which allowed Bryce Young develop into a Heisman winner and a serious contender to be selected first overall in the upcoming draft. O’Brien and Jones working together on a full-time basis could be beneficial to unlocking the latter’s potential.
After a rookie campaign in which Jones earned a Pro Bowl nod, the former first-rounder took a step back statistically. Overall, the Patriots finished below-average in almost every offensive category in 2022, a season in which Belichick drew criticism for his arrangement with Matt Patricia calling plays and Joe Judge having a key role in the unit as well. Both ex-head coaches had plenty of experience in New England, but not on the offensive side of the ball.
O’Brien’s hire comes not long after he interviewed for what will be a much more traditional OC role. New England also spoke with their TEs coach Nick Caley, Vikings WRs coach Keenan McCardell, Cardinals assistant head coach Shawn Jefferson and Oregon associate head coach Adrian Klemm in a more expansive, outward-looking search process than many others Belichick has overseen. O’Brien and the Patriots will enter 2023 with expectations for a significant step forward in offensive production to compliment the team’s highly-regarded defense.
Barf!
Well that felt inevitable. I get why people won’t exactly be jazzed about this, but O’Brien is a huge improvement over having Patricia try to be coordinator and line coach at the same time, when he shouldn’t be doing either. O’Brien the offensive coach gets underrated because O’Brien the GM was so bad. I don’t think he’s a genius or anything, but the Patriots’ offensive coaching last year was a bit like the Jets’ QB play: even competence in that area would have made them pretty competitive overall.
Predictable and a good hire. He may have been awful towards the end of his Texans run, but he’s a solid coordinator
He became awful when they have him front office control. The X’s and O’s were never the problem.
Ehh there were several issues there as well. I think people forget how rigid O’Brien was with forcing players into his system, or dismissing them entirely if they could not. That was the major reason for most of his managerial missteps-he’d have a talented player, refuse to adapt to his strengths, and then deal him for peanuts or just not play him. The playcalling could be suspect at times-case in point being the final playoff game with Watson versus Kansas City, in which Texans had a good lead at half and settled for a field goal and calling conservative plays with two quarters left to go.
Don’t get me wrong, overall O’Brien is a solid coordinator and schemer. He will absolutely, doubtlessly be an upgrade over Patricia/Judge, and his familiarity with New England made this 100% a good move. But his football product in Houston wasn’t perfect, aside from his management decisions. Having an experienced head coach and time in between his Houston tenure should help even that out. I just am hesitant to agree that his firing in Houston came about purely due to personnel issues, as many people are fond of saying now.
Solid move. Best part is it’s backed by the Krafts. OB is a prick which works here. He can tell Bill to FO and focus on the rest of the team because this is his domain. He brings that level of competency.
That might be the first time BOB and competent have been used in the same sentence.
Houston won the division 4 times in the 6 years he was the head coach.
Now it is time to get a team to bite on trading for Mac Jones.
Shocker! Bill hires another insider…
BOB still the most successful Belichick coach away from NE. Matt Patricia can now work towards his stretch goal of warming up cars when practice ends.
Ironically, the best Patriots branch-off would be in the executive category with Jon Robinson. You are correct, O’Brien has probably been the best coach, at least at a professional level. It is a bit funny to think that, for all of the criticism of Belichick’s G.M. skills, his best candidate would fall into that category.
Daboll has gotten off to a good start, however. He’ll need a few more seasons like that to stake a claim to that title.
I can understand Belichick’s desire to have people around him that he’s comfortable with and has shared success with in the past but you can only go back to the future in the movies. I sometimes wonder if Bill still has underwear he wore a decade ago.