NFL Insider Offers New Insight Into Patriots Coaching Staff Situation

The New England Patriots entered the offseason with a rather tricky situation within the organization. Josh McDaniels was the first assistant coach to leave the Patriots. He interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders for their head coaching vacancy. Dave Ziegler followed his example and joined the Raiders too. NFL analysts have a few good reasons to believe that Bill Belichick won’t hire an offensive coordinator at this point. Bill O’Brien makes sense, but Dante Scarnecchia would go with Nick Caley. The Patriots coaching staff will be a lot different in 2022.

Scott Zolak is convinced that O’Brien won’t replace McDaniels in 2022. Albert Breer from Sports Illustrated discussed McDaniels’ departure and the much needed change Belichick is about to make.

“Bill Belichick has empowered three guys to help mitigate the losses of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and director of player personnel Dave Ziegler to the Raiders. The first two are Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, both of whom figure into the equation of replacing McDaniels. As it stands now, Judge is expected to work with the quarterbacks, and Patricia with the line, and each will do so without much experience having coached offense before they became head coaches over the last few years (Judge came up working with the special teams, Patricia on defense). Which, obviously, is a dice roll given the critical point that Mac Jones is at. (For what it’s worth, I’ve heard the Patriots haven’t so much as talked to Adam Gase about their OC opening, and things have been quiet on the Bill O’Brien front as well.)”

Patriots coaching staff to see more changes

Breer offered a rather different approach to the whole situation. Zolak put Judge as tight end coach and co-run game coordinator.

Belichick has to play really wise this offseason. Losing McDaniels was a big blow for the team, but hey, Belichick always has a backup plan.

The Patriots are coming off a not-so-bad season. They had a seven-game winning streak, but lost the wild-card game to the Buffalo Bills. Patriots players should do better. They have to do better.