Rob Gronkowski believes hiring Bill O’Brien was the right call for the New England Patriots. Julian Edelman is right there with him.
Edelman, who played for O’Brien in New England from 2009-11, raved about the Patriots’ new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach, saying he’s “super pumped” that O’Brien is back in Foxboro.
“I think it’s a great move for the Patriots because he understands the standard,” Edelman said on Friday’s episode of the “Pardon My Take” podcast. “He’s been in the situation of being a coach in the organization of the New England Patriots, and he’s also been a head coach, so now he’s got a different level.
“He’s not the same Billy O when he came from Duke (in 2007) and then he’s working his way up. He’s got head-coaching experience, and I guarantee Bill (Belichick) is going to use that. He’s going to bounce ideas off of him, because he was decently successful as a head coach.”
After his initial five-year stint in New England, O’Brien landed head-coaching jobs with Penn State and the Houston Texans. In Houston, he was maligned for his questionable personnel moves but won more games than he lost, finishing above .500 in five of his seven seasons and making the playoffs four times before being fired in 2020.
“He brought the Houston Texans, who are, like, the most irrelevant organization right now since he left, to the playoffs four (times),” Edelman said. “For any other organization, that’s really cool. That’s good. And then they kick him out the door, and now look at them the last few years. It’s been terrible. He singlehandedly developed Deshaun Watson. He made Deshaun Watson a $250 million quarterback.”
The Patriots are tasking O’Brien with reviving an offense that lacked any semblance of consistency under the leadership of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge this season. It’ll also be his job to rehabilitate quarterback Mac Jones, who clashed with Patricia and Judge and regressed after a promising rookie year.
In O’Brien’s three years as New England’s play-caller (2009-11), the then-Tom Brady-led Patriots boasted one of the NFL’s most efficient and highest-scoring offenses, ranking sixth, first and third in points per game and first, first and third in Football Outsiders’ DVOA.
