Welcome to first and 10, a roundup of all the (mostly) Patriots-related news you need to start your Thursday. Grab your coffee and let’s get to it.
Chad O'Shea was our choice for Patriots' Coach of the Year in 2018. I know no such award exists, but for what he had to do this past season, he deserved some sort of honor.
There was zero consistency or continuity in the receivers' room this past summer. By my count, the Patriots made 29 transactions involving wide receivers between July 23 and September 17. Twenty-nine. Over 57 days. That's an average of almost one every other day. Now, some of the transactions over that time involved multiple moves with the same receiver, but the constant turnover had to be a challenge for the receivers coach. (And that doesn't even begin to measure the challenge of having to do it all without Julian Edelman, who missed the first four games of the regular season.) But he handled everything with good humor, always managing to keep the guys who stuck around focused on the big picture while always being protective of those in the room at any given moment.
“He knows what we need to do, and he knows what we’re going through. The fact he played quarterback helps,” Phillip Dorsett told me this past season. “He’s in there with you through thick and thin. He takes up for his guys. That’s what you want in a receiving coach.
“When you made a bad play or something like that — as a receiver, we know when we missed up or dropped a pass. We know we have to do better. When somebody gets on us, he’ll butt in and be like ‘I got it. Don’t worry about it. I have it.’ We’re his guys. We’re his players. He’s our coach. If something goes wrong on the field and he told us one thing and something else was done, he’ll take responsibility for it. ‘That was my bad. I’ll get it right.’ That’s what you want in a coach.”
O'Shea is now off to Miami with Brian Flores to become the offensive coordinator with the Dolphins. There's no telling what's going to happen in South Florida next season to the former Patriots' assistant, but his professionalism when it came to handling whatever was thrown at him this past year -- and the results he generated with the group he had -- will serve him well when it comes to his new gig.
Now, on with the links...
1. Looks like the Patriots are going to make Greg Schiano their new defensive coordinator. I take a look at what that means for the New England defense.
2. I spent some quality time talking Patriots with Bill Michaels on 105.7 in Milwaukee.
3. Mike Reiss weighs in on the addition of Schiano to the coaching staff.
4. Mina Kimes of ESPN looks at Rob Gronkowski and whether or not he's going to retire.
5. Nate Davis of USA Today has the Patriots at the top of his year-end power rankings. But who lands in the second spot?
6. Brian Baldinger of NFL Media has a good look at some of the work the New England offensive line did against the L.A. defensive front in the Super Bowl.
7. Some really cool NextGen stats from Super Bowl LIII.
8. Speaking of the Super Bowl, Aaron Donald said he's using the Super Bowl loss to the Patriots at motivation.
9. Chargers running back Melvin Gordon was pulling for New England to beat the Rams in the Super Bowl because he couldn't bear the thought of his crosstown rivals winning it all. Now, he says he back to hating the Patriots again.
10. It sounds an awful lot like Brian Flores wants to make the Miami defense a little more versatile. But will that work?
Extra Point:
ONE LAST TIME.@McCourtyTwins gives his last pregame speech of the season before the @Patriots took home the Lombardi.#NFLMicdUp pic.twitter.com/uOtyfajU0H
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) February 6, 2019