The previous two days, we heard from every Patriots assistant coach — twice — even though we have no idea what exactly their roles are, and they wouldn't tell us. Obviously, this is very important proprietary information, and the other 31 teams are fools for disclosing which coaches are coaching which positions.
Yes, we heard from all 12 of them twice in 24 hours. Happy to have the content and the insight. Grateful for their time. You're probably wondering why the notoriously tight-lipped Patriots were so forthcoming in the span of one day. Did Bill Belichick suddenly decide to embrace the media? Maybe it was a celebration of PR honcho Stacey James and his great staff for deservedly taking home their first Rozelle Award, awarded to the NFL's top PR staff?
Actually, no, it was none of these things.
Someone within One Patriot Place suddenly realized the NFL's Media Access Policy only says assistants have to be made available twice during the offseason program. It says nothing about those availabilities needing to be spread out, like at the start and conclusion — when we might get some insight into how the players actually performed doing, you know, something (Patriots players haven't done much since it's not even June). So the Patriots decided to do both availabilities in the span of a day. If anyone thought Belichick had lost his fastball at finding league rule loopholes, well this is a very good sign he's still on top of his game at 70. I pity the now-permanent Free Kick rule. #chesscheckers
No complaints here. Hey, it's the PFWA's fault for letting Belichick slice through the rules like the Bills' offense through his defense last year. He got us. It is what it is. It was a self-inflicted wound, and we have only ourselves to blame.
So, we heard a lot from the Patriots' positionless assistants the past couple of days. Truth be told, I'm still going through it, and will for several more days.
But there's one set of soundbites that stood out above the rest during the Patriots' Tongue Wag-apalooza.
And I'm not sure what it means. Can't be sure the coach was really being serious. But if he was, what that might mean for Mac Jones and the Patriots' offense.
It came from your new ... we think ... kinda ... sounded like ... might be ... quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator, Joe Judge. You remember him. Very good special teams coach here. Dabbled in coaching the receivers as well his final year in 2019 (no, it did not go well). Two-year coach of the New York Giants (10-23).
It had to do with Judge's insistence that all the offensive coaches need to be able to coach all the skill players ... and linemen. Not only do they need to be able to do it, it's "important" for them to be able to do it.
I've heard a lot of strange things from NFL coaches in my 20 years covering the NFL. Heck, I've said and written a lot of strange things myself.
But what Judge said defies logic — if he was being serious — and it's scaring me to death about what this might mean for this offense.
First, the quotes ...
"For us, it's important right now for all of our coaches to be able to coach all the skill players, okay, or, for that matter, the line players as well as we go through this. And as we divide up and run two- and three-spot drills, it's important that if it's a ball-handling drill, and Vinnie Sunseri is running it, that Vinnie can coach the quarterbacks as well, we're all on the same page. It's been a main emphasis for us as a coaching staff, that we want to make sure we can all coach all the players, and then nobody's out there, you know, with a lack of knowledge in the offense."
...
"Well, as I said earlier, you know, to me, I think it's important that we build early on that all the coaches interact with all the players, there's got to be a trust level. And that comes in when we present parts of the game plan, every coach will have a hand and a responsibility in designing and presenting part of the game plan, whether it's red area, early down, run game, short yards, whatever may be, and those coaches will talk and present to the players and then we'll break off in individual (positions) and will have conversations along with that. Before we ever break that offensive staff meeting, it's important we leave that every coach is on the same page. So no matter who's in his ear, we're speaking the same language. Okay, we're speaking with the same philosophy. ... Look, we're gonna have, you know, disagreements and philosophical conversations, but when that door opens and closes, we walk out there, we're all on the same accord. And we're gonna make sure whoever's in Mac's ear is speaking the same language, all right, with the same philosophy.
...
Finally, to finish Monday, I asked a question to Judge about coaches coaching every player, and then finally asked, "But why are other coaches meeting to coach the quarterback if that's not their specialty?
"Well, we want to make sure that all the coaches understand the offense, all right, completely, that when they have to give him feedback or information on the field, they have the correct information on field to give him. You've been our practice, guys, you've seen us. We're in two-spot, three-spot all over the field. 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 or you have gaps, I'd say in the knowledge base of what the game plan and the plan for the day is to go out there 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 going to be more of an individual coach in the meeting room and through individual drills. And when you're asking specifically about the play-calling right there, Greg, (Note: I didn't ask about playcalling) yeah, really, in terms of play call, I said, Look, when Coach declares that 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 the staff."
Ok, a few things that Judge was absolutely correct on.
A position coach like Sunseri or Troy Brown is going to run ballhandling drills or other "skills and drills" as Judge liked to put it. And they are indeed going to have to instruct Jones on properly holding a ball or keeping hold of it. Absolutely.
And, yes, every coach on offense (same on defense) is going to have a portion of the gameplan that is their responsibility and they will have to instruct the overall offense on the implementation of that.
But the rest of this is, quite frankly, a bunch of football-speak, gobblygook.
For example, the two-spot, three-spot stuff are drills where multiple positions (two or three) are functioning at the same time. One would be a QB throwing a one-on-one pass to a back against a linebacker. Three positions. Three spots. But that's not really important, and it wasn't when Judge said it either. And there's a big difference between Sunseri telling Jones to tuck the ball a little better, and tutoring him on throwing guys open. Judge knows this. So why say it?
The ultimate question here, and this is where the Patriots' offense post-Josh McDaniels and Jones come into play, is ... was Judge being serious? Does he really believe that stuff? And, finally, what might that mean for the Patriots' offense?
Look, most of what he said is mostly harmless ... if Judge is just talking to talk, trying to fill time, saying a lot without saying much of anything ... then no harm, no foul.
But if he was being serious, and if his tenure in New York was any indication then Judge does believe what he speaks then, seriously, what the hell is going on down in Foxborough?
I've been to countless NFL practices — in Foxborough, Miami, Green Bay and many other cities. I've sat in team meetings, offensive meetings, defensive meetings, QB meetings, RB meetings ... I haven't been in a ton of meetings, I'm no all-knowing expert, but I've been in enough and talked to enough NFL coaches, some who reached out after hearing Judge's comments for themselves and, as one current NFL offensive coach with Patriots ties said ...
"What the (expletive) is he talking about?"
(Ask Giants players and coaches how many times they uttered those words.)
Judge can't be serious about offensive coaches needing to be able to coach other offensive positions. It's ludicrous, and even he walked back from it a little when I challenged him on it.
If I'm Mac Jones, I don't want to hear much from Sunseri, Troy Brown, Patricia, Nick Caley (outside of the occasional, Hey, this is what my guy is looking for here) or anybody else but Belichick ... I want a freaking QB guru with a ton of years in the league, who has a track record of developing QBs because my entire future is tied up into how I play going forward after the entire league now has a full season of tape on me. What I did as a rookie was pretty good, some stretches were better than other, but I'm a freaking supercomputer that learns and grows its knowledge base the more you feed me. I don't need to go backward, we don't need to talk about basic play concepts. I need to go ... now. Worry about that, not coaching any other positions. And if you don't already have a good knowledge base in this offense, then why the heck am I listening to you?!
It's like the Patriots' defense, and the talk of them going positionless, like New England suddenly discovered gridiron fission in the Year 2022. On top of that, the Patriots now have positionless coaches.
You do know what that talk really means for both positions and coaches? We don't have enough good ones to declare what they exactly are, so we're going to speak in vague terms and dazzle you with words and terms to hide the fact that we're not talented enough at certain positions and with some coaches, so hopefully people won't notice while we flash our past Super Bowl rings when that QB was here.
I mean, who actually believes this stuff, that the Patriots, after 130 years of professional football and with 32 teams now employing more smart people than they actually know what to do with, have suddenly made a new discovery about coaching offense?
I don't know, it seems to me things went pretty damn well around here in, say, 2004 when Charlie Weis was the offensive coordinator (with an actual title), Josh McDaniels was the QB coach whispering in Tom Brady's ear, Dante Scarnecchia coached the line with Jeff Davidson (future longtime NFL line coach and OC), Brian Daboll was coaching the receivers and Ivan Fears dictated to the RBs.
Pretty darn good staff (don't even get me started with that defensive coaches). With titles. And experience.
You think those guys were at all concerned with other positions? Apparently Belichick himself had it all wrong for so many years having players in positions and coaches Doing Their Job coaching their own freaking positions.
If Judge was being serious, this is all ridiculous. All of it.
And this is just one aspect of this coaching ... situation. We haven't even gotten into whether Judge and Patricia can actually perform their new duties at a high level — and whether some players are already questioning where this is all going about three days in — but we will.
All of this has just started, for better or for worse.
