It's Looking Like the Coach to Lead the Patriots Offense Back to Super Bowl Contention Could Be ... Matt Patricia?

It's hard to watch Super Bowl 56 as a neutral observer without a dog in the fight and wonder what it is that the 2021 Bengals and Rams have that your team doesn't. Beyond the obvious shorthand answers of Aaron Donald, Cooper Kupp, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, of course. Neither came across as an unstoppable super team on either side of the ball that's certain to be back in contention next year. They each had major problems along their offensive lines, both in terms of protection and breaking open running lanes. 

If anything, the way the game played out should give any Patriots fan a renewed appreciation for the job the 2018 Pats O-line did against Aaron Donald when he was paired up in Ndamukong Suh and managed to produce one QB Hit and one pressure on his 38 pass rushing snaps. And a new level of appreciation for how good Dante Scarnecchia was. 

But as this season of self-scouting, evaluation and reorganizing hits its peak - ahead of Free Agency season and Draft Prep season - there are questions all over the place as to who is going to coach what on a team that just saw its offensive coordinator leave and take a couple of assistants with him. I already mentioned Joe Judge returning, not to take back his old job running special teams, but with an undefined role as an offensive assistant. Which brings us to the guy now rumored to be replacing Josh McDaniels:

Mike Reiss - Could a second domino include senior football adviser Matt Patricia?

Few, if any, truly know what Belichick is thinking. But the possibility of Patricia joining the offensive staff in some capacity has come up in conversations with smart NFL personnel projecting Belichick's next move, and the thinking goes like this:

With the Patriots set to retain the core of their existing defensive staff, but losing elite institutional brainpower/knowledge on offense without McDaniels and others, Belichick might view some combination of Patricia and Judge as his best option to spearhead the offensive transition. …

Patricia's last extended time on offense came in 2004-05 when he was offensive assistant/assistant O-line coach in New England. And Judge has just one year as an offensive assistant on his résumé, in 2019 as Patriots wide receivers coach. Neither has called offensive plays in the NFL. …

Along with McDaniels, the Patriots are losing receivers coach Mick Lombardi, offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo and quality control/quarterbacks coach Bo Hardegree -- not to mention the expected retirement of running backs coach Ivan Fears. …

[A] move to more of a pure coaching role on offense is a scenario that bears watching -- especially with so many offensive coaches moving on.

My initial reaction to the idea that our offense for 2022 and beyond might be run by a combination of Patricia and Judge is that at least it would solve the problem of having so many assistants leave every other year. Because those are two guys who won't be hotly sought after commodities any time soon. Urban Meyer will be getting interviews before they do. 

Second, I can't pretend to have a ton of confidence in the idea of Mac Jones' all-important Year 2 Jump being mentored by two guys whose offensive careers consist of two seasons as an assistant O-line coach (17 years ago) and one year as a wide receivers coach (on a team whose WR2 was Damiere Byrd) respectively. And while there's a lot of factors involved so it's probably not fair to even cite these numbers, they're on both coaches permanent record. Here's where each of their teams ranked in points scored while they were head coaches:

• Patricia, Detroit: 25th, 18th, 20th
• Judge, NYG: 31st, 31st

Those aren't exactly Obi Wan and Yoda results. You'll have to forgive me if I have my doubts about either of them being the one to guide this young Padawan on his hero's journey to restore balance to the Force. 

I will say this though: I do take some comfort in knowing they are Made Men in the Belichick crime syndicate. Over the past few weeks there's been talk about Adam Gase being brought in. Which, if you saw what Ryan Tannehill's career trajectory has been with and without Gase or how quickly he turned a promising young Sam Darnold into Shaggy, putting him in charge of Mac10 would be worse than offering a coach $100,000 per game to lose on purpose. 

I stand by what I've been saying since McDaniels was getting interview requests. That replacing him is the no-braineriest of no-brainers. Bill O'Brien has coached this system at the highest levels it has ever achieved. He was a very solid head coach in Houston. He can command a room. Moreover, when he was brought to Alabama, he himself was coached up on Nick Saban's offense than none other than outgoing National Champion/incoming Patriots legend Mac Jones. You cannot have it more teed up than that. Let Patricia be involved in an Ernie Adams-like consulting role. Let Judge be an assistant of whatever kind, O-line or running backs, but with a voice in the decision making. But you've got the perfect guy to replace McDaniels, and it's the guy who replaced McDaniels before and then was replaced by him. 

For O'Brien, it works because it fast tracks him back toward getting a head coach job in the NFL. And when a job opens up for him. it's likely McDaniels will have failed in Las Vegas, and you bring him back to re-replace BOB. Then you can just repeat the cycle for as long as it takes for Jones to hang six banners of his own. 

Sorry, but to me this makes a lot more sense than the idea of putting Patricia and Judge in charge of the Pats offense. But if Belichick does try it, it all works out and Jones ends up developing like Joe Burrow, I'll be the first one to happily admit I was wrong,, stand corrected and apologize. But if this does turn out to be the plan, I can't lie. I have a bad feeling about this.