Patriots' Coaching Staff Remains A Major Mystery In New England
BOSTON (CBS) -- Normally at this time of year, conversations about the draft and free agency dominate the headlines and fill the airwaves. This year, though, the focus in New England seems to be on the Patriots' coaching staff.
Namely -- will the Patriots actually have a full coaching staff on the offensive side of the football?
Of course, it's only mid-February, leaving plenty of time for changes to be made. But as it stands now, the Patriots are looking a bit bare-bones in terms of offensive coaching. With Josh McDaniels, Mick Lombardi, Carmen Bricillo and Bo Hardegree all going to Las Vegas, the Patriots lost four offensive coaches, including their offensive coordinator. Thus far, the only person hired to help fill that void has been Joe Judge, who has one year of experience as an offensive assistant in his career.
Meanwhile, the talk of the Patriots bringing back Bill O'Brien to run the offense again seems to have died down, and nothing appears to be imminent on that front.
The situation is a bit of a concern, considering the Patriots don't have the luxury of having a veteran, GOAT-level quarterback running the offense. Instead, Mac Jones is entering a critical year of his career after a successful rookie season. While he's said all the right things publicly about the team's current state in terms of coaching, the reality is a young quarterback needs good coaching in order to continue developing.
Scott Zolak, the color commentator for Patriots radio broadcasts, said on his show Thursday that neither the aforementioned Bill O'Brien nor Adam Gase will not be the next offensive coordinator, and he laid out what he expects the offensive coaching staff to look like:
Matt Patricia: Offensive line/run game coordinator
Joe Judge: Tight ends/run game coordinator
Nick Caley: Quarterbacks coach/passing game coordinator
Troy Brown: Wide receivers coach
Zolak said the Patriots may use Caley (currently the tight ends and fullbacks coach) as the passing game coordinator, while using Patricia (currently a "senior football advisor" under Bill Belichick) and Judge as the co-running game coordinators.
As for who would call the plays? Zolak suggested it would be Patricia, even though he's never served that role in his career.
"I'm just trying to slot guys across the offense here," Zolak said.
Elsewhere, Pro Football Focus' Doug Kyed said that he's heard that Patricia and Belichick may be taking on "bigger roles" on offense.
We won't hear directly from Belichick for some time, but if the Patriots don't make any new hires in the coming days or weeks, it appears this could be the plan for 2022.
