What are the Patriots doing with their offensive coaching staff?
At this point, nobody knows for sure, but it’s looking increasingly likely that New England will enter the 2022 season without an official offensive coordinator.
Reports over the last few weeks have been all over the place, with some indicating Matt Patricia and recently re-hired Joe Judge will form a collaborative approach to the position. Other reports suggest that the Patriots still could pursue old friend Bill O’Brien, currently the OC at Alabama, or former New York Jets head coach Adam Gase, whom Bill Belichick speaks very highly of.
Last week, radio broadcaster Scott Zolak confidently asserted that O’Brien will not be New England’s offensive coordinator next season. Take that for what it’s worth.
In his latest Monday Morning Quarterback column, Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer offered his own insight into the situation. Check out this excerpt:
Bill Belichick has empowered three guys to help mitigate the losses of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and director of player personnel Dave Ziegler to the Raiders. The first two are Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, both of whom figure into the equation of replacing McDaniels. As it stands now, Judge is expected to work with the quarterbacks, and Patricia with the line, and each will do so without much experience having coached offense before they became head coaches over the last few years (Judge came up working with the special teams, Patricia on defense). Which, obviously, is a dice roll given the critical point that Mac Jones is at. (For what it’s worth, I’ve heard the Patriots haven’t so much as talked to Adam Gase about their OC opening, and things have been quiet on the Bill O’Brien front as well.)
Breer’s report differs from some of the speculation from Zolak, who predicted that Judge will coach the tight ends and be a co-run game coordinator, with current tight ends coach Nick Caley handling quarterbacks. So, this whole thing remains very confusing.
The Patriots only can hope that Jones, whom they hope is their quarterback of the future, isn’t as thrown off by the coaching upheaval as fans and pundits have been.
