You won’t be surprised to hear the New England PatriotsThe attack suffered as much behind closed doors as they did on the pitch.
After a difficult 8-9 season that ended in Patriots hire true offensive coordinator in Bill O’Brien, the Boston Herald published an article on Thursday laying bare the team’s struggle to field a competent offense.
The basics of a story worth reading in full include a strained relationship between the quarterback McJones and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, an offensive coaching staff using concepts he didn’t quite understand and people wondered if head coach Bill Belichick realized how difficult it would be to replace Josh McDaniels, who left his position as offensive coordinator last offseason to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
The future of judge and offensive line coach Matt Patricia, the two coaches tasked with leading the offense and calling plays, would remain up in the air under O’Brien as the two are not part of the squad. coaches of the Patriots in the East. -West Shrine Bowl.
Given how much of the Patriots’ future hinges on Jones becoming a quality NFL quarterback, Judge’s future may be particularly questionable. Jones made it clear he was unhappy with the team’s attacking play this seasonand the Herald reports that he was not a fan of his coaching job:
As Patricia came under fire from the outside as the face of the offense, Judge drew increasing criticism from within. Belichick was blasting him in practice, and it was not uncommon for Judge and Jones to exchange blasphemous outbursts. Jones’ confidence in his coaching position was effectively non-existent.
“Mac didn’t like it,” a source said. “At all.”
“[Judge] spoke very loudly in meetings, trying to project himself as if he was the guy,” another source said. “And I think that kind of stuff rubbed people the wrong way.”
“A lot of people were frustrated with [Judge]“, added a third.
The Patriots’ offensive plan this season was to take concepts from McDaniels, add some ideas from Sean McVay (game passes in particular), and simplify the overall game plan for faster execution.
On paper, that sounds reasonable. Unfortunately, the Patriots had a pretty significant handicap in that no one on their coaching staff had experience with a Shanahan-style system, which is where McVay’s philosophy comes from. Their running plays clashed with their passing plays, and their pass protection dealt with major communication issues.
The offensive experience of the Patriots coaching staff was already a concern, as Judge entered this season with zero past experience on the offensive side of the ball as a positional coach, and Patricia had only worked as an assistant coach in the offensive line than in 2005.
Apparently this led to issues with players actually having experience under a Shanahan offense:
The staff’s lack of understanding became a frequent source of frustration at meetings, when players experienced in Shanahan systems, of which there were at least half a dozen, raised questions about how to solve the defenses they faced. had been confronted with other teams.
“A lot of guys would ask, ‘Well, what if [the defense] is that?’ And you would see they hadn’t really factored that in yet,” a source said. “And they were like, ‘We’ll get there when we get there. This kind of attitude got us in trouble.
The good news for the Patriots is that O’Brien has offensive experience and would have the Jones seal of approval. There are still plenty of issues to work out as 2022 has been a step backwards for Jones whether his coaching staff is incompetent or not.