Burning Patriots questions: Will the offense thrive under Bill O'Brien?

FOXBORO -- There is no way to sugarcoat it: The Patriots' offense in 2022 was an abject failure. A disaster. A miscalculation by Bill Belichick of epic proportions.

Why anyone -- let alone Belichick --  thought that putting Matt Patricia (who spent the large bulk of his career as a defensive coach) and Joe Judge (a special teams guy before getting his shot as a head coach with the Giants) in charge of the offense would work remains a baffling mystery. The anyone can coach offense approach backfired in every possible way, leading to several frustrating and embarrassing weekends for the Patriots.

Enter Bill O'Brien, the man tasked with righting the offensive ship in New England. He returns to the Patriots after his head-coaching stint at Penn State, a seven-year run as head coach of the Texans, and two years as the OC at Alabama. O'Brien briefly crossed paths with Mac Jones in Tuscaloosa -- Jones was leaving as O'Brien arrived -- and the two appeared to be inseparable on the New England sideline this summer.

It brings back the happy images of Mac and Josh McDaniels having fun on the sideline during Mac's rookie year, and has pushed those visions of the QB cursing out Patricia and Judge throughout last season. 

Will O'Brien's addition to the staff fix all that was wrong with the New England offense last season? Probably not everything, since it's still ultimately up to the players going out and performing, and the Patriots lack star power on that side of the ball. But at least O'Brien had a good idea of what he's doing, and the WBZ sports team believes the new OC will put the team in a much, much better position to succeed in 2023.

Steve Burton, WBZ-TV Sports

The offense will figure things out as the season goes along. Bill O'Brien is very smart when it comes to play-calling and if the offensive line can protect Mac Jones, the Pats will put points on the board. And the running game should be rock solid.

Dan Roche, WBZ-TV Sports

I expect exactly what the Patriots signed up for when they brought in Bill O'Brien. Someone who has a wealth of experience with the Patriots system and someone who understands Mac Jones. We've seen confidence grow in Mac and the entire offense since Day One of Camp. Now it needs to go to a new level in the regular season and once the offensive line gets right, i expect good things/points.

Michael Hurley, WBZ.com Sports

I think they'll be … fine. Probably a middle-of-the-pack team. One area where I think they'll be much better is the red zone. They ranked dead last in the NFL in red zone touchdown scoring last year at 42.2 percent. Look for that number to climb over 50 percent this year.

Matthew Geagan, WBZ.com Sports

Last year's Patriots offense was vanilla ice cream if it was stripped of its flavor. And any time they tried to add sprinkles to make it a little more flavorful, everything went terribly wrong. Think along the lines of adding an entire bag of salt and vinegar chips to said vanilla ice cream. Nasty.

At the very least, nothing will be very vanilla under Bill O'Brien. He's an experienced offensive mind who has done this at both the pro and collegiate level, and he has experience here in New England. O'Brien is going to figure out what works best for this group and make sure it leads to points on the board. He has an incredible attention for detail, and a personality that will get his point across.

The Pats tried to go vertical last season and it didn't work. Mac was essentially told to heave it deep and hope someone in a Pats uniform came down with it. This year, expect them to get back to attacking the middle of the field and winning big between the numbers, which should make life easier for Jones.

Last season, teams knew -- or had a good idea -- what was coming based on how the Patriots lined up. That won't happen anymore this year. O'Brien loves to use pre-snap alignment to confuse and deceive opposing defenses. 

Will the offense put up a ton of points? Probably not. But expect a much more functional offense from the Patriots this season, and if they can have some success in the red zone this year, they should be a respectable NFL offense under O'Brien.

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