The Patriots’ offense has had a tough time of it within the 2022 season. Whereas the unit ranks in the midst of the pack by way of factors per sport, it has posted the seventh-fewest yards per sport. Extra importantly, second-year quarterback Mac Jones has regressed after a promising rookie season, and Jones’ struggles, mixed with the offense’s issues as a complete, have led to elevated scrutiny of head coach Invoice Belichick‘s offseason staffing selections.
In fact, after longtime OC Josh McDaniels accepted the Raiders’ head teaching job, Belichick put in Matt Patricia and Joe Decide because the Pats’ high offensive coaches. Patricia has served because the offensive play-caller regardless of not having labored as an offensive coach since 2005, and Decide has operated because the membership’s offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach, regardless of having no teaching expertise by any means on that aspect of the ball.
The final ineffectiveness of Belichick’s former staffers, each of whom had flamed out as head coaches elsewhere, signifies that the end-of-year assembly between Belichick and proprietor Robert Kraft might be of specific significance, in line with Jeff Howe of The Athletic (subscription required). If Kraft — like many league evaluators that spoke to Howe — believes {that a} shakeup is so as, one wonders how Belichick will reply. Maybe he’ll agree and can carry an skilled OC aboard in an effort to maximise Jones’ skills and inject extra group and selection into the offense (the workforce is already rumored to be interested in a reunion with Invoice O’Brien).
But when Belichick doesn’t agree and elects to offer Patricia and/or Decide one other alternative of their present roles, then Kraft may have a tough resolution to make about Belichick himself within the close to future. Whereas it appears unfathomable that Belichick wouldn’t be given the chance to stroll away on his phrases, preserving his 2022 offensive workers intact in 2023 could put the highlight extra squarely on him, significantly if a few of this yr’s unforced errors — blown assignments, substitution mishaps, late play calls, and so forth. — ought to persist.
Now for extra Patriots notes:
- Albert Breer of SI.com agrees that figuring out the workforce’s 2023 offensive play-caller might be on the high of Kraft’s offseason agenda, and he pegs Patricia’s probabilities of remaining in his present function at lower than 50% (although he does imagine that Patricia will stay on the Pats’ teaching workers in some capability). Breer confirms that O’Brien might be within the combine, although the present Alabama OC may produce other NFL alternatives exterior of Foxborough.
- Add Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald to the checklist of pundits who imagine Belichick should make a change at offensive coordinator, lest he put his personal job safety in jeopardy. “Kraft has to make it clear that Belichick must provide you with actual options, versus getting his buddies on a budget with their former groups nonetheless paying them,” Guregian writes (through Peter King of NBC Sports). “If Belichick isn’t keen to budge, then Kraft has to determine whether or not it’s value it to maintain the established order, or transfer on from his sure-fire Corridor of Fame head coach and clear home.”
- Whereas neither Patricia nor Decide might be interviewing for head teaching positions anytime quickly, linebackers coach Jerod Mayo is a special story. Mayo, 36, interviewed for the Broncos’ and Raiders’ HC positions final yr, and Mike Reiss of ESPN.com expects the two-time Professional Bowler to be busy once more within the upcoming teaching cycle. Mayo, for his half, is ready for the problem, saying, “I feel I’m able to be a head coach within the league.”
- New England suspended P Jake Bailey and CB Jack Jones on Friday. In response to Reiss, the workforce believed that Bailey — who had been on IR since November 19 — was ready to return to game action, however Bailey apparently believed in any other case. Jones’ suspension, in the meantime, stems partly from his missed rehabilitation appointments, which additionally led to his being fined by the workforce. Jones performed in solely eight snaps within the Pats’ Week 14 victory over the Cardinals on account of a knee damage, and he missed the subsequent two contests earlier than being positioned on IR on December 31. The brokers for each gamers have famous their objections to the suspensions, with Bailey’s agent indicating that he has filed a grievance. Reiss says that it is difficult to see Bailey playing for the team again, and since his suspension technically voids the ensures in his contract, he and the Pats may discover themselves embroiled in a monetary battle within the coming weeks.
- The Patriots signed cornerback Tae Hayes to their lively roster on the finish of December, and Reiss tweets that Hayes’ contract is definitely a two-year pact. Hayes, who appeared in 24 defensive snaps in his New England debut on January 1, is now one in all six CBs below contract for 2023.
