The New England media finally had some access to assistant coaches today, and we got some clarity on what their roles will be — even if they wouldn't just come out and say it.
OFFENSE
Coordinator/playcaller: TBA, but likely Matt Patricia
QBs: Joe Judge
RBs: Vinnie Sunseri
WRs: Troy Brown, Ross Douglas
TEs: Nick Caley
OL: Matt Patricia, Billy Yates
DEFENSE
Coordinator/playcaller: Unknown, Steve Belichick
DL: DeMarcus Covington
ILBs: Jerod Mayo
OLBs: Steve Belichick
CBs: Mike Pellegrino
Safeties: Brian Belichick
STs: Cam Achord, Joe Houston
Who's coaching Mac Jones? Why is that good (to them)? Who is ultimately going to call plays?
Judge wasn't shy about his role with Jones.
“I am working with Mac, along with some other people; I work with all the skill group,” said Judge. “I’d say all of us are working collectively as a coaching unit to work with the entire offense…in terms of who is coaching each position, you’ll see me with the quarterbacks.”
Judge thinks he's ready for more of an offensive role
“I really enjoy offensive football," he said. "I’ve worked and coached on all three sides of the ball . . . coach (Belichick) does a really good job of developing everybody as a total coach.
“There were springs and falls where I’d sit in here with the offensive line, the quarterbacks, different position groups which has prepared me in a lot of different avenues in being a more complete coach.”
Judge also talked about how all the offensive coaches will coach each player. I asked him why it's a good thing for Mac Jones to be taught by the offensive line coach, for example?
"Well, we want to make sure that all the coaches understand the offense," he said. "When they have to give him feedback or information on the field, they have the correct information on field to give. ... We want to make sure that everybody understands the offense as a whole. Okay? It's tough as an assistant coach, if you're lacking where you have gaps, I'd say in the knowledge base of what the game plan and the plan for the day is to really go out and aggressively coach all the players because all the pieces fit and everybody complements everybody else. So I'm not saying simply that he's gonna be coached by other coaches. I'm saying everyone's able to give him information able to coach along the way. All right, obviously, there's gonna be more of a position coach in the meeting room and through individual drills. And when you're asking specifically about the play calling right there, Greg ... when Coach declares what he wants to do it, we'll go ahead and move forward with that. That's not really going to be an issue. We have no egos on a staff that's not really going to get well prepared to do whatever we do to help the team and we'll always address each day with that mentality."
I asked Patricia why it's a good idea for Patricia, as a former defensive coordinator, to be heavily involved on the offense.
"I appreciate that question," he said. "I guess I would start by just saying, you know, one of the things I love about coaching is teaching. I love teaching the game.
"My first day here in the door. You learn about all facets of the game, you learn about offense and defense and positions and technique and fundamentals. And you put yourself in a situation where really you're comfortable coaching anybody on the field at any time, and whatever side of the ball it is and that's different here. That's not like that everywhere. And I really appreciated that education that I was allowed to have while I was here, and certainly starting off on offense, you know, having to learn defense, going over to defense which was you know, even that change going into a room where there's Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinest, Roosevelt Colvin. .. Honestly, as a coach, you learn more from them probably than they do from you at first, but you can give them perspective, you can give them guidance, you can certainly tell them, you know, what does the other side you know, think what is the other side trying to do here? You can really explain to them you know, what are they trying to take away? What are they trying to do? There's things that you can get perspective on, sometimes from the other side of it, which is really, I think, what's so unique here. We get up and we talk to the team. And Coach gets up in front of the team we can talk on both sides of the ball and everyone listens. Everyone pays attention and that's how you really learn the game at a better level. And I've been blessed to do that for a very, very long time here.
"Even though I was on the defensive side of the ball, you know, listening and really having those conversations, especially with Josh and he and I talking philosophy and plays and things like that. .. That's just kind of my journey, you know, in the last several years in the NFL, but you know, right now, my real focus is just on the field with the players and then not really kind of looking at the bigger picture. Certainly the fundamentals in the offensive line. It's something near and dear to my heart, and something that you know, honestly, I learned a long time ago, they still are consistent.
"You grow and learn every year, you talk to coaches, you watch tape and certainly on the other side of the ball as a defensive coach, I'm watching a lot of offensive line play, that's for sure. You're breaking down a lot of offensive linemen, you're evaluating a lot of offensive linemen, you're trying to figure out protections, you're trying to figure out how to attack certain things. You get to look at the other side of it, you can try to figure out, Hey, these are the pressures that bring in this is what it looks like up front. This is how it is in the run game. This really gives them problems. You just have that kind of back and forth knowledge and you just try to coach that and teach that to the guys to you know, really let them play in really that's all it is about just letting our guys you know play to the best of their ability."
On offensive playcalling...
“Look, I’ll tell you directly and honestly right now, nothing has been declared or decided, or voiced to me,” Judge said. “In terms of who calls plays, that’s not the main focus for us right now. When Coach wants to go ahead and declare a role like that, he’ll tell us.”
“I think right now, for me, I’m just kind of focused on making sure whatever it is we’re doing on the field right now, that I’ve got that handled,” Patricia said. “I’m just trying to help those guys become better players . . . I’m just glad to be back on the field with the players.”
On the defensive side, Steve Belichick said this of his role this season:
"I don’t really know, and I don’t really care. Honestly, I just love coaching football.”
And Mayo:
"We all coach each position. We don’t do titles, we don’t have titles around here. ... Honestly, I just like to say I’m a football coach. I’m not trying to be ambiguous here. … I coach football players. I’m a teacher.”
