Bill Belichick being cold and calculated about why the Patriots are operating without an offensive coordinator in their 2022 OTAs shouldn't surprise anyone.
Players and reporters are both trying to figure out whether the primary responsibility of replacing Josh McDaniels will fall to former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia or former special teams coordinator Joe Judge. Belichick, however, doesn't seem concerned about who's calling plays in the middle of the offseason.
“Do we have titles? Yeah, look, there’s a lot of jobs that we have to do, we’re all working on those things now but — it’s May,” Belichick told those reporters on Monday.
“They’ll change in June, they’ll change in August, they’ll change in September. So, we’ll evolve it to the things timely that we need to do. If you’re asking about game plans, we’re months away from that — months. ... Months away. Months. What plays are we calling? Minicamp plays?”
Abrasive. Elusive. Evasive. Coy. These are some the of adjectives those frustrated by Belichick's comments have used when trying to get an answer that the other 31 teams in the NFL have already provided. But he has several good reasons to keep everyone guessing as the Patriots are changing their OC for the first time in a decade:
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Coaching by committee under Belichick is nothing new for Patriots
In their respective previous stints on Belichick's staffs before their failed head-coaching stints with the Lions and Giants, Patrica and Judge had well-defined roles.
Since 2017, when Patricia left for Detroit, the Patriots haven't had a defined defensive coordinator, either. Brian Flores was a big part of that game plan before he left for Miami and now Jerod Mayo is too, as linebackers coach. Belichick himself and his son Steve, another linebackers coach, also have had a massive influence.
Without Patricia on the staff through when he was made a senior football advisor in 2021, the Patriots have continued to field a top-flight scoring defense, even with some key personnel changes. They finished No. 2 in points allowed last season.
The last time McDaniels left for a head coaching job in the AFC West was 2009. The Patriots didn't have a designated offensive coordinator for two seasons prior to McDaniels' return until Bill O'Brien held that title for only 2011. Before then O'Brien, first working with the QBs, got some key help from Chad O'Shea, Shane Waldron and George Godsey.
Belichick's "coordinators" and position coaches are not like other team's position coaches. There are extensions of his vision on both sides of the ball and collaborate on scheming the best game plans for particular opponents The bottom line is being prepared enough as a staff to take advantage of versatile concepts.
Patricia and Judge's recent work on the staff may not have been with the offense, but both are well aware of what Belchick wants in the offense to best complement the defense and put the Patriots in position to win games. McDaniel is in Las Vegas, but he's left behind a workable blueprint.
Mac Jones is cerebral enough to keep up with the changes
The focus early in the offseason has been Jones' much-improved physical stature for Year 2. But the first-round QB should also have a sharper NFL mind with more than a full year under his belt.
Jones, an exceptional scholar-athlete in Alabama, was able to master an explosive scheme with diverse weapons under Nick Saban. For Jones, change has been the constant with who's calling plays for him. He also went through three offensive coordinators in his four years at Tuscaloosa — Brian Daboll, Mike Locksley and Steve Sarkisian.
Jones had a good rookie season because he leaned well on the running game and tight end, but he grew more confident passing downfield with the Patriots' limited wide receiver corps as the year progressed. He stayed within the framework of the offense and got down the necessary efficiency, earning him a Pro Bowl spot.
Jones will build on that and will benefit from the added positional influence of Judge a former backup QB at Mississippi State. The Patriots, like much of the league, were a predominant 11 personnel offense (three wide receivers) in 2021, but were second only to the 49ers in usage of 21 personnel (two wide receivers).
The Patriots are known for being an amoeba defense under Belichick, but without McDaniels, they will embrace having further fluidity with their offensive identity.
The offense will adjust to have multiple identities, anyway
Speaking of which, the Patriots were a 54-46 passing to running team in 2021. Only six teams threw the ball at a lower rate. In addition to alignment versatility stemming from the depth in the backfield, wide receiver and tight end, New England can toggle between pass-happy and run-heavy better than most teams.
Breaking down Jones' 16 fully healthy game starts as a rookie, he had more than 30 passing attempts in 8 games and 30 or fewer passing attempts in 8 games. The team also had 24 passing touchdowns and 24 rushing touchdowns. That's real offensive balance, looking at the big picture of the season vs. the play-calling and production in a single game. There's a good chance the Patriots' offensive game plan from week to week will flip from McDaniels to multiple staff members regardless if Patricia or Judge is the one in Jones' ear from the sidelines.
The process is less important to Belichick than the results
Belichick has confidence the Patriots will come up with the right game plans to suit their personnel, because they have consistently done it over the years under him, with or without McDaniels.
Part of that came from the absolute trust that Tom Brady would deliver with whatever was drawn up from down to down. The big reason for drafting Jones was the fact Belichick saw a reliable young executor.
"The execution of the plays, I think, are a lot more important than the plays themselves. I’ve called them, I’ve not called them. I’ve called them, I’ve not called them. And so has everybody else,” Belichick also told reporters.
The transition from McDaniels doesn't mean Jones will slip in this part of his job. The goal should be make Jones more autonomous as he makes the leap to established veteran QB. In the end Belichick believes in his QB and has total trust in his system.
The Patriots are a bottom-line team, interested in winning in whatever way vs. winning in a particular way. With Brady, their success in the end wasn't measured by AFC East titles, but Super Bowls. Some roads started off bumpy or got rocky in the middle, but for Belichick he expects the offense to smooth out into strong asset. That doesn't matter who's running it or how much they run vs. pass.
There's too strong of a history, save for the post Brady, pre Jones season in 2020, to think the Patriots will have much of a dropoff from a top-10 scoring offense. While a coordinator may never be named, in the end, the play-designing collective should produce more of the same, even if the path deviates from McDaniels.
