Bill O’Brien will be under a lot of pressure this season. With the Patriots only marginally improving their roster, it’ll be on O’Brien to return the offense to the path it was on before last season’s trainwreck.
James White believes New England’s offensive coordinator will rise to the challenge.
“I think Billy O, bringing him back is huge,” White said during the latest episode of Tom E. Curran’s “Patriots Talk” podcast. “Obviously, the offense had a down year … Billy O should bring that discipline back, that accountability back. From the quarterback position to offensive line, running back, receivers, basically making sure that guys can show they are reliable on a day-to-day basis will be the guys that are playing week in and week out.”
White, who retired last summer, was drafted by the Patriots two years after O’Brien left New England to join Penn State. So, he never played under the famously intense coach. But the longtime Patriots running back believes he’s seen enough to know that O’Brien’s personality will be a welcome and needed addition.
“I think that’ll be very important to get back to those finer details, the fundamentals,” White said. ” … He looks like a hard-nosed football coach, an old-school football coach. Doesn’t really take too much stuff. I don’t know. I haven’t interacted with him too much, so I can’t speak to that … but from what I’ve seen competing against him when he’s with the Texans, when he was with Penn State, he’s a very good football coach. He’ll demand the best out of the players that are in that room.”
White acknowledged the Patriots made “uncharacteristic mistakes” last season but didn’t want to put all the blame on Matt Patricia, who now is in Philadelphia, and Joe Judge, who has a new role in Foxboro. But White, who is a big believer in Mac Jones, expects the Patriots offense to take people by surprise in 2023.
“I think they have a very underrated offense,” White said. “I kind of said before, they don’t have, you know, the ‘high-profile names’ within the conference. But they have the best coach, in my opinion, which (Bill Belichick) is in the division, which I think that’s the most important thing.
“You can have all the players you want. If you don’t have the right coach in place to allow the players to be themselves to go out and execute the game plan, then it honestly doesn’t matter. So I think Billy O and Coach (Belichick) is a great match-up. Again, I think it allows for this team to be a surprising football team.”
The Patriots are set to begin voluntary offseason practices next Monday. Reporters will get their first look at the new-look offense the following Thursday.
