Why Julian Edelman Is Concerned About Patriots’ New Offense

Worried about the state of the New England Patriots’ revamped offense? Julian Edelman is right there with you.

During an appearance Friday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” the former Patriots wide receiver admitted he’s concerned about New England’s offense, which struggled mightily this summer following the loss of longtime coordinator Josh McDaniels.

“I do. I do share that concern,” Edelman said. “And it’s not a concern, but you’re always concerned when you lose your offensive coordinator and there’s a new guy coming in, regardless of who it is, with a young quarterback that you have in Mac Jones that had a successful rookie year. That second year is usually his biggest jump, and when he’s got to change play-callers in the middle of it, it wouldn’t matter if it was someone else that called offensive plays. It’s still going to be an effect and a learning experience for that relationship between the quarterback and the play-caller.”

With McDaniels now in Las Vegas, the Patriots’ new offensive brain trust is led by head coach Bill Belichick, offensive line coach Matt Patricia and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge. Patricia was the primary offensive play-caller during training camp and the preseason, though Belichick has yet to reveal who will handle those duties once the regular season begins this Sunday.

Neither Patricia nor Judge, who radioed in plays during some training camp periods, has offensive play-calling experience. They have spent most of their careers coaching defense and special teams, respectively.

“We don’t know who the play-caller is,” Edelman said on WEEI. “I think it’s going to be a collaborative effort. I think it’s going to be Bill, Judge and Matty P. We all forget that Matty P started on offense. Bill has a thing where when coaches are coming in, he’ll cross-train them. He’ll throw a defensive coach on the offensive side, make him learn the offensive side of the ball for three or four years, and then he brings them back to defense. So it’s not like Matty P has no information or no knowledge of offense. This guy knows football.

“But it’s going to be a huge learning experience, and it’s going to have to happen fast, that relationship between whoever’s calling plays and your young quarterback that had a successful rookie season that has to build off that to gain and keep his confidence.”

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The Patriots’ Jones-led starting offense played seven drives during the preseason. Four of them resulted in three-and-outs, and another ended with an ugly Jones interception. Just two produced points, with New England getting a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers and a field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders.

“It didn’t look good in the preseason,” Edelman said. “I’m not going to lie. But it’s also fool’s gold in the preseason, because a lot of times, these coaches, they’ll put people in situations that they know they can’t succeed, and they want to see how they react. You see a lot of vanilla coverages, vanilla defense. You’re throwing out vanilla concepts on offense because you want to see matchups — can this guy win 1-on-1? Can this guy do this? So it’s a little fool’s gold-y with the preseason play.”

Edelman also attended one of the Patriots’ joint practices against the Raiders and was not impressed.

“It didn’t look great,” he said. “They looked like they didn’t have any juice. But hey, this is going to be a learning experience.”

Edelman expects the Patriots’ offense to evolve over time, with the team not reaching its final form until several weeks into the season. But he believes an encouraging start is vital for Jones’ confidence. The second-year QB already looked uncharacteristically skittish as the preseason progressed, lacking his usual poise while playing behind a struggling offensive line.

The Patriots will open the regular season Sunday against the Miami Dolphins at Hard Rock Stadium.