Did you hate what you saw from the Patriots offense last season? If so, we have good news for you.
New England’s offense glaringly regressed with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge steering the ship. Sophomore quarterback Mac Jones took a major step back after an impressive rookie campaign, and coaching dysfunction created a general sense of chaos from start to finish.
But new offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien is in the process of making sweeping changes to the Patriots offense, according to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated.
“My understanding is Bill O’Brien is completely reworking the playbook with the new coaches,” Breer said last week during “Early Edition”, as transcribed by NBC Sports Boston’s Darren Hartwell.
O’Brien previously ran New England’s offense in 2011 before head-coaching stints with Penn State and the Houston Texans. He spent the last two years as Alabama’s offensive coordinator.
“I think it’s going to be a hybrid of a lot of different things,” Breer said of the Patriots offense. “I think it’s going to have some stuff that they did at Alabama that Mac is going to be comfortable with, because Mac was at Alabama. … (O’Brien) coached Deshaun Watson in Houston, he coached Bryce Young the last couple years at Alabama, so he’s got a lot of different ideas.
“I think he’s got really great perspective because he does have the bones of the Patriots offense, but he’s gonna be able to do some things that I think are on the cutting edge of where the sport is going.”
Whether O’Brien will get the job done and get Jones back on track remains to be seen. But it’s hard to envision him not being a huge upgrade from Patricia, and all indications are that Jones is thrilled to work with the Massachusetts native.
The Patriots officially began their offseason program Monday, with voluntary practices and mandatory minicamp tentatively scheduled for late May through mid-June.
