Ex-Patriots Exec Explains How Ernie Adams’ Absence Has Hurt New England

The Patriots hit rock bottom when they were shut out by the New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium last Sunday, and everyone in New England is trying to figure out where things went wrong.

Bill Belichick and Mac Jones took the brunt of the blame after the Week 5 loss, but the duo stood firm Monday and hoped to turn the Patriots’ season around this Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders.

Others around the league believe the end is near for Belichick and New England should draft Jones’ successor in the 2024 NFL Draft. Belichick’s roster decisions also have been met with scrutiny, and former Patriots executive Scott Pioli highlighted Tuesday two key figures New England really has missed since they left.

“There’s a lot of things going on, but what I see is so different is the way that they’re losing right now,” Pioli said on NFL Media’s “Good Morning Football.” “It’s the antithesis of how we used to win games. … When I look at this a little bit deeper, to me, one of the things I see is they got young players that don’t seem to be developing at the rapid pace that they did. You need to have young players playing.

“When you look at it a bit deeper, I see the absence of Dante Scarnecchia really impacting that offensive line and the players really developing. But the other person we don’t really hear enough about is the absence of Ernie Adams. … Ernie Adams was everything. Ernie Adams was the guy who developed quarterbacks. You go back and look at the quarterbacks and how they developed whether it was (Tom) Brady, (Jimmy) Garoppolo, (Matt) Cassel, all the young quarterbacks.

“Ernie was the one who put the tapes together. Ernie was the one who found all the tells, all the leads. He would give it to Bill. Bill would give it to the players. It was an important part of player development at the Patriots. So the absence of Ernie, Dante, you just don’t see, again, the rapid development of New England Patriots players when you need good, young players. To me, that’s something that’s missing, but I’m not there, so I don’t know all the details. But Ernie Adams was one of the most important people during that run with the Patriots.”

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Adams retired after the 2021 NFL Draft, and Scarnecchia retired after the 2020 season.

Jason McCourty added that Adams would find ways to help the defense game plan against an opponent by running plays he thought an opposing team would run against a defense.

While the defensive side of the ball remained consistent in recent years, the offense has not picked up the slack after Brady left the Patriots. Of course, replacing a Hall of Fame quarterback would never be easy but very few could have imagined things would go as bad as they have been in the first five weeks of the season.