Tom E. Curran

For first time in years, Patriots are building momentum early

It's been nearly half a decade since the team was in this good of a place this early.

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FOXBORO -- Nobody knows what the Patriots offense will look like when training camp draws to a close in three months.

But at Wednesday’s OTA, the efficiency, organization and crispness the Patriots showed announced that -- for the first time since 2019 -- a truly solid foundation is being laid.

Think about it. For the first time post-Brady, the Patriots know during OTAs who they’ll be and how they’ll play on offense.

In 2020, the team hadn’t even signed Cam Newton at this point. He came aboard at the end of June, and once he won the job in camp, Josh McDaniels started tailoring the offense to Cam.

Patriots Talk: Easy to tell who’s running the offense at Patriots' OTA | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

In 2021, Newton was the presumed starter at this point and training camp was spent watching Mac Jones wrest the job away from him. Two very different players. Two very different styles. One very young player learning on the job. A necessary process but one that doesn’t allow a unit to hit the ground running in September.

In 2022, it was -- as you will recall -- kind of chaotic. Especially looking back at last May and June with the results of the regular season to refer to.

You had Bill Belichick standing behind Matt Patricia as Patricia called plays and coordinated the offense. Patricia hustling over to coach offensive line and Belichick appearing to take over. Joe Judge hands-on with the quarterbacks. Sometimes with the play sheet. All three men installing an offense with massive changes in terminology and a new running scheme.

It was basically three cooks in a close-quarters kitchen trying to whip up a meal none had ever cooked. And their combined cooking experience? Watching other cooks work.

The Patriots now have a head chef in Bill O’Brien. And for the first time in four seasons, they are going to spend the entire offseason with certainty as to who’s doing what and how they want to play.

Which means that, despite all the hand-wringing over Belichick not saying Mac Jones’ name or anointing Jones the starter, there’s no open competition for the quarterback job afoot.

Jones -- a first-round pick in 2021 who was runner-up for Offensive Rookie of the Year -- is not going to get jerked around and mentally effed with all summer.

Unless he goes on strike or inexplicably turns into a one-man turnover machine, he’s the starter. Bailey Zappe is the willing backup. No matter who takes reps with whom and what the 7-on-7 completion percentages are in August, the Patriots aren’t desirous of a change at the top of the depth chart.

They want to win. Jones will give them the best chance to do it. And -- with Robert Kraft conspicuously tapping his foot and checking his watch for going on three years -- 2023 is not the time to be shrugging and muttering, "We’ll see how it goes…" just to show Mac who’s boss.

After Jones’ media session Wednesday, many seized on him using the word "normal" to describe his interactions with O’Brien.

I didn’t take that as the smoking gun others did. I think it was just the first word he happened on to describe, "nothing out of the ordinary." It wasn’t a shot. In my opinion.

But there were things Jones said which -- when compared to last summer -- were starkly different.

"I think everything he’s done so far has been really good," Jones said of O’Brien. "I think the communication is the most important part, and trust. I think it all starts with that when you’re with a new coach. He’s done a great job in controlling the room. I feel like everyone’s on the same page."

Remember last year at this time -- and into training camp -- the players were still putting up the front that they weren’t sure who was offensive coordinator, play-caller, etc. and that it was a big collaboration.

"There’s things we both say and it makes sense, so that’s important," was the way Jones began one answer about O’Brien.

Again, compare. By the middle of training camp last August, Jones was explaining that sometimes he didn’t understand the "why" of what the Patriots were doing but mentioned he just had to trust in the coaches and himself.

Which brings us to the last tidbit that caught my ear.

"There’s a lot of familiarity, but it’s a new relationship still. We’re just working on that trust," Jones said of O'Brien. "That’s what I care about; I’m very much a trustworthy person, and that’s what we’re trying to build."

If you want to read into an answer, that’s the one to do it with. Jones trusted that Belichick would figure it out. He trusted that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge would help him develop after a very good rookie season.

The precise opposite happened, as detailed by The Boston Herald in late January when Andrew Callahan and Karen Guregian wrote, "As Patricia came under outside fire as the face of the offense, Judge drew increasing criticism from within. Belichick would blast him in practice, and it wasn’t uncommon for Judge and Jones to trade profanity-laced outbursts. Jones’ trust in his position coach was effectively non-existent."

Jones got hosed in 2022. His sin? Realizing he was getting hosed and not just shrugging and letting the hosing wash over him. And even then it took until December for him to act out and actually start openly fuming at the incompetence he was being forced to try and oversee and execute.

Belichick messed up. But Jones, even though his trust is a little dented, is trying to clean-slate things.  

"There are a lot of things I can do better and grow upon but it's all about this year," he said. "We have new faces in the room and it's all about earning the respect of everybody every day. So, I'm starting fresh just like everybody else and I'm going to run my own race and look up at the end and see where I'm at and I think everybody else will do that too."

In this race and this season, the Patriots are starting further down the track than they have in quite a while.

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