Julian Edelman Has Two-Word Answer For Why 2023 Patriots Will Make Playoffs

After failing to qualify for the postseason twice in the last three years, Julian Edelman is confident the New England Patriots will be back in the tournament in 2023.

Why? Simple.

“Billy O’Brien,” Edelman told NBC Sports Boston’s Tom Giles on Tuesday.

O’Brien is the Patriots’ new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, the man tasked with reviving a New England offense that ranked among the NFL’s worst this season under the direction of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge.

Edelman has spoken highly of O’Brien, under whom he played in 2010 and 2011, and believes the latter’s return to New England will allow Belichick to shift his focus away from the offense and toward other aspects of the Patriots’ operation that were uncharacteristically lacking in 2022.

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With Patricia and Judge lacking experience in their roles, Belichick was more involved with the offense this season, even reportedly “moonlighting” as the play-caller on occasion.

“He’s a tough coach,” Edelman said of O’Brien. “He’s going to tell you how he sees it. But the thing that I like about Billy O is it’s going to allow Coach Belichick to really focus on everything else on the team. It felt like little things were slipping away this last year, little things that you always see — special teams, situational-type football, a lot of brain farts.

“So Billy O being there, it allows Bill to kind of sit there and say, ‘All right, I know what Billy O is. He’s a former head coach. I can bounce ideas off of him.’ But (Belichick) can think of the macro now. He can focus on the macro, and that’s why Bill’s the best, because he can usually do that. I think he had his foot in it last year and it was taking him away from those little things.”

The 2022 Patriots often were undone by mental mistakes and other self-inflicted errors, like the two kick-return touchdowns they allowed in their season-ending road loss to the Buffalo Bills. Edelman is confident O’Brien’s arrival will help reduce those moving forward while also returning New England’s Mac Jones-led offense to respectability.