The Patriots will be sending their staff to the East-West Shrine Bowl, and other New England coaches will be in Las Vegas, as well.
Wide receivers coach Troy Brown will serve as head coach of the West team, and Bill Belichick will serve a supervisory role along with Jerod Mayo and Bill O’Brien. You can view the full Shrine Bowl staff here.
The inclusion of Mayo appeared to signal a likely promotion for the inside linebackers coach. But there was a noticeable exclusion of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge.
The Boston Herald reported Thursday the dysfunction inside the Patriots organization, including players criticizing Belichick and Judge’s role being phased out during the season.
The futures of Patricia and Judge have been in doubt, but NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport reported Thursday the latter will be traveling with Belichick, O’Brien, Mayo and Steve Belichick to attend the Shrine Bowl.
This is by no means definitive, but this report seems to hint that Judge’s job is safe in New England. O’Brien has been hired as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, so it’s unknown if the offensive assistant will remain in his current role, especially after his reported tension with quarterback Mac Jones.
Patricia has caught a lot of fire publicly for his handling of the Patriots offense and recent reports point to a Patriots exit.
