The roles and responsibilities of the assistant coaches on Bill Belichick’s offensive coaching staff with the Patriots were the biggest football story this week in New England.
All of Belichick’s assistants were available to the media via Zoom on consecutive days. Most were asked about their respective jobs heading into 2022, particularly Joe Judge and Matt Patricia.
Judge, is the former New England special teams coach who has returned to the team as an offensive assistant after a failed two-year stint as head coach of the Giants. Patricia, the former Patriots defensive coordinator who spent last season as a senior advisor in New England after a failed three-year tenure as the head coach of the Lions, is also an offensive assistant heading into 2022.
Neither has much of a background on offense, but Belichick made it clear they will have a significant role on that side of the ball as he tries to formulate a staff that lost a number of offensive assistants, in particular offensive coordinator and play caller Josh McDaniels.
During his Zoom, Judge made it clear what he’s doing at this point and it revolves around Pro Bowl second-year franchise quarterback Mac Jones.
“So I’ll give you a direct answer, not to be evasive or anything, I am working with Mac along with some other people on the offense,” Judge said. “You’ll see me on the field with the quarterbacks. We’ll be meeting together as a skill group.”
Though Judge made it clear that Belichick has not yet made decision as to who will be calling plays for the Patriots this fall, just the idea of Judge leading Jones in his second season of NFL development was enough to get the ball rolling for an interesting discussion on the latest 6 Rings podcast from WEEI/Audacy.
“It’s an awful thing,” co-host/producer Chris Scheim declared, noting not only Judge’s lack of experience, but the issues former first-round QB Daniel Jones and his New York offense had over the last two seasons. Going down a similar road of regression with Mac Jones would certainly be a problem for the Patriots.
As the 6 Rings conversation evolved, it got into the idea that Belichick may be – stop me if you’ve heard this before – spreading himself too thin given all the “hats” he wears in New England.
There’s also the question of lack of titles on the Patriots coaching staff and Belichick seemingly “swimming upstream against specialization” that’s the modern norm in not only football but really the entire world.
Belichick’s coaching staff, the roles of his assistants and the way that leads to production or fails to lead to production on the football field is a major question for the Patriots at this point in the offseason.
And it will remain a major question well into the 2022 regular season.
The 6 Rings podcast boys will be there every step of the way to debate, discuss and rate the way Belichick’s unconventional, questionable coaching staff is getting its job done.