If you want to know how good an offense looks, ask the players tasked with defending it.
Safety Adrian Phillips and the New England Patriots' defense have spent the past week at training camp going up against a new-look offense led by veteran offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien. And what's stood out most to Phillips about O'Brien's offense is its unpredictability.
"Variety. We never see the same thing twice," Phillips told reporters Tuesday after the team's practice outside Gillette Stadium, as seen in the video above. "It's just a lot of variety. He has a lot of different guys in different spots, and he uses them to the best of their abilities, and he just dials it up."
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While the Patriots' offense is still in install mode and far from a finished product, Phillips also pointed out that O'Brien has been making adjustments throughout camp to counteract the looks the defense gives him.
"You can also tell that he's watching film on the defense, too," Phillips added. "When he sees us make a check on defense, OK, the next day he might come out and throw a little wrinkle in there. It's just a lot of variety."
Variety and preparation aren't groundbreaking traits for an NFL offensive coordinator. But considering what this team experienced last season, Patriots fans should be very encouraged by Phillips' comments. By many accounts, New England's 2022 offense under first-time offensive play-caller Matt Patricia was vanilla and predictable, with one opposing defensive coordinator highlighting the "simplicity" of Patricia's scheme.
"We felt like we could solve any problems they presented quickly," the DC said earlier this offseason.
The Patriots' offense under O'Brien should be refreshingly more diverse; through just six camp sessions, our Phil Perry has already observed the starting offense working on a wide variety of concepts, from play-action passes that New England under-utilized last season to a route combination with a little "Alabama flavor."
There's only so much impact an offensive coordinator can make. The Patriots' success on offense will largely hinge on the play of third-year quarterback Mac Jones, and the effectiveness/availability of a pass-catching group led by JuJu Smith-Schuster, Devante Parker, Kendrick Bourne, Tyquan Thornton, Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki.
If Phillips' experience is any indication, however, O'Brien will put his personnel in a much better position to succeed.