Three lingering thoughts from the Patriots' first open practice for the 2022 season that has nothing to do with who's coordinating or calling plays for the offense...
Are the Patriots moving in a different direction with their offensive system?
Look ... about the dumbest thing you can do as an NFL writer is to go to one practice, see something different and then run off and talk about how Team X is totally changing how they do Y. It's one practice. In May. In shorts. So I just want to throw out that huge caveat.
But a funny thing happened at Patriots practice ... actually a few funny things. And they lead you to wonder if the Patriots are opening up their playbook a bit to incorporate some of the recent trends around the league — if not changing their offensive scheme entirely (which I highly doubt).
But, this is absolutely true: the Patriots ran more staples of the Shanahan offense — outside zone runs, stretch play-action passes that I can remember.
Not only did they basically spend the entire practice running those types of plays, or working on those principles, but this even went down to basic offensive line drills where their "board progression" (literally linemen moving along boards/pads) included a lot of diagonal board drills, which is a staple of the zone running scheme.
A couple of things to note, before anyone goes nuts on this. Josh McDaniels was/is a huge fan of Kyle Shanahan's system and tried to incorporate more of it himself in recent years. As we've mentioned many times at BSJ, after James Develin, the Patriots really wanted to move to a more athletic fullback/H-back in order to add another dimension, but it never worked out, mostly because Dalton Keene could not stay on the field.
The other factor to note: the Patriots' scheme has always had inside and outside zone in it. Their staple bang-action pass to the TE or WR is basically the old Peyton Manning stretch play-action pass. The Patriots run a mix of zone and man blocking. This simply could have been a zone install day, and maybe we haven't seen it previously (the Patriots changed the media access from the third OTA day, to the first ... it just could be a different install day than we're used to seeing).
But it is interesting to note, nonetheless. If the Patriots wanted to move to a more simple scheme post-McDaniels with offensive neophytes like Joe Judge and Matt Patricia in charge, this would be the time to do it, and the Shanahan system is the one you would pick.
The other question is, if the Patriots are really switching, do they have the personnel to run it? I think the answer, right now, would be no. They do not have a Deebo Samuel type, and their receivers do not excel behind the line of scrimmage, which is a must. Kendrick Bourne obviously can because he was with the 49ers, and they have added those types like Ty Montgomery and Malcolm Perry, but you wouldn't say this is a strength of these players. DeVante Parker, Nelson Agholor, Tyquan Thornton and Jakobi Meyers are traditional downfield receivers.
This leads me to believe this was just an install day. They might be more serious about adding this element to the offense, but the scheme is still the scheme. But we shall see.
Still can't get over Josh Uche's usage
We've certainly seen multi-dimensional linebackers with the Patriots. Dont'a Hightower would play inside on early downs, and then go to the end on third down — especially early in his career. Jamie Collins could play both ways at times.
But I don't know if we've ever seen a young player basically split his time between inside linebacker and the edge during a practice like Uche did on Monday. He was literally playing second-team ILB for half the session, and working on edge stuff the rest. Now, a lot of edge players were missing — Matthew Judon, Ronnie Perkins, Anfernee Jennings — that could man those spots and Uche just could have been needed to give them bodies.
But if this sticks, they're asking a lot of Uche. Normally they only give young players one thing to master at a time. Yes, this is his third season so Uche is no rookie, but he hasn't played very much. He's a smart player and a terrific athlete, so perhaps they just think he can handle it as the heir to Hightower, and they think it's important to have that type of player. Next man up, so to speak.
As for his actual play inside, Uche wasn't bad, but he did look a little slow there. A younger upgrade on Hightower, but it didn't appear to be his forte. But we'll see, it's very early.
Back to the four-man line?
I get questions about this a lot at BSJ and my answer has not changed: base alignment really doesn't matter in today's NFL because so much (upwards of 70 percent) is spent in subpackages. And the Patriots have always vacilated between a 3-4 and 4-3 alignment depending on the year. And, again, they were missing a lot of edge types on Monday.
But it sure looks like Patirots will be lining up along the front with a base four-man set with the starters being: Deatrich Wise, Davon Godchaux, Lawrence Guy/Christian Barmore, and Judon. Wise also stood up more than I've seen him do in the past.
If they are going in this direction. Again, the question is this: Do they have the players to execute the scheme? The depth chart at each spot:
END
Deatrich Wise
Henry Anderson
Sam Roberts
NOSE TACKLE
Davon Godchaux
Carl Davis
Daniel Ekuale
Bill Murray
TACKLE
Lawrence Guy
Christian Barmore
Byron Cowart
LaBryan Ray
EDGE
Matthew Judon
Josh Uche
Ronnie Perkins
DaMarcus Mitchell
If the Patriots are going to stick with this direction, again, it's going to come down to Godchaux. If he's great, then this can definitely work. If he's the same as last season, then it's going to fail the same way it has since Vince Wilfork left for Houston.
The end spot is also weak, and it will look worse without a good nose taking up blockers. Belichick thinks the world of Wise, but he has been a blindspot for Belichick. I actually think Anderson is better, but it didn't look like the Patriots thought the same last year before he was lost for the season. Anderson looked like he didn't have a position.
Again, it makes you wonder why the Patriots didn't spend more draft capital on the defensive line. Roberts has potential and could be a big surprise. In a perfect world, he hits fast and is a future starter in front of Wise. But that's being very hopeful.