FOXBORO – Bill Belichick’s not budging. He insists on being the human shield between Offensive Coordinator Doe and the mean media/fanbase who would put too much pressure on the poor guy.
As a result, we’ve got to do our own sleuthing as to who’s running the Patriots offense in 2022. And Wednesday morning during the first practice of 2022 training camp, it looked as we suspected it would. Matt Patricia’s running things.
I said, "as we suspected…" like I knew it all along. But that conclusion was only reached during minicamp after I’d incorrectly overestimated the involvement of Joe Judge in the offense during OTAs and figured he was trending to be the OC. Lotta laughs.
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Anyway, you could tell Patricia was running things because when the Patriots broke off into 7-on-7, he was the one radioing in plays to Mac Jones while Belichick and Judge stood apart observing.
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It matters. Even if Belichick keeps playing a podium shell game and pretending we’re making something out of nothing.
New England Patriots
The Patriots spent 20 years with Tom Brady as quarterback and their last 10 with Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. They were really experienced. They were really good. And there will never be a combo like them.
Now, three years post-Brady, the Patriots have a promising quarterback in Jones, and the two coaches in charge of Jones’ care and feeding are men who’ve never called plays or been offensive coordinators. And neither is on a hot streak given how things ended in their last jobs. So it’s a point of interest.
The two most important people in the four-man offensive weave might be Belichick and Jones. Jones is the one who’s got to execute the offense. And Belichick’s the one who has to go forward or pull back on the plan he’s hatched depending on results.
Both men spoke Wednesday about the process.
Belichick defended Patricia’s offensive background by saying he’s been coaching offense the past four years, adding, "It’s not about a one-person transition, it’s about putting together…"
Then he veered.
"Four staff members went to Las Vegas, we had new staff members and new players, quarterback going into his second year, it was a lot of things going on, it’s all got to come together on all the ends, it’s not one person. All right, welcome to camp!"
Jones testified that it's an open process between everyone right now.
"Coach Belichick has done a great job explaining exactly what we want to do as an offense," said Jones. "Matty P has seen so many different defenses along with Coach Belichick, so they combine their knowledge of how to attack the defense and they’re great guys and (Coach Judge).
"They all bring this different energy to the room when they’re presenting. They are trying to get us to work together and that’s important that we’re all on the same page regardless of who’s talking, who’s making a decision on the play. It’s always an open conversation, which I love."
I asked Jones if he felt ownership and whether he thought his input was valued.
"At the end of the day, players play and coaches coach," he said. "You want to listen to the good coaching you can get from three coaches who’ve all been head coaches in the league. They’ve seen a ton of football and that’s what I’m taking with me. What is something each one of them says in a meeting that I can take with me?
"They’re also listening to the players when we say, 'Hey, I wanna try this concept.' They'll say, 'OK, let’s try it.' Or if they want to put in something else, they explain the why, and that’s important for me understanding why we’re doing something."
Let the collaboration begin.