As soon as the Patriots are done interviewing Cardinals assistant head coach/receivers coach Shawn Jefferson today, it's time to get Bill O'Brien done ASAP as offensive coordinator. If everything is kosher among all the parties involved, there should be news later today on that front — early next week at the latest.
Don't have any update on that, things are quiet, but there's nothing to wait for. All league rules have been followed. Boxes have been checked. No one can accuse the Patriots of making a sham of the Rooney Rule, especially after they took their time getting to O'Brien.
And, most importantly, Bill Belichick has basically left himself no other options after what he's done with this "search" to this point.
It has to be O'Brien. Belichick interviewed no one else that is even close to a real offensive coordinator candidate. Not remotely close.
No other candidate has touched the quarterback in their coaching career. It's the most important position on the field, and one the Patriots have not settled after they predictability torpedoed Mac Jones' growth in his second season with the Matt Patricia and Joe Judge disaster.
I'm sure all the candidates know certain aspects of the passing game (at least most of them), but there's a huge difference between that and coordinating all aspects an offense from soup to nuts — as we all learned this past season.
Jefferson, one of the best receiver coaches in the game, is the best possible candidate. He's a tremendous coach and considering he's on a fired staff with the Cardinals, would be a major coup and upgrade to fill that position here on the next staff. But being an offensive coordinator is something totally different.
Nick Caley has been interviewed by both the Jets and Patriots, but while he's a bright young coach with a high ceiling, is he ready to take about 10 more steps after just coaching the tight ends? Sure would have been nice if he moved over to QBs coach about three years ago. And is Belichick really going to admit he made a huge blunder and wasted everyone's time and energy not just promoting Caley a year ago?
Keenan McCardell is another good receivers coach, but he has less experience outside that realm than Jefferson.
Belichick should be calling people in Pittsburgh and asking why Adrian Klemm didn't even last a full season (2021) as Steelers' offensive line coach before he considers him for anything here. Why did Mike Tomlin tell him to go to Oregon before the season was finished?
It didn't need to be like this. But of course, because Belichick is Belichick, it was.
What Belichick should have done — and he would have if he was in his take-no-prisoners prime — was use this coordinator search to push the program forward on multiple fronts.
Belichick should have put his feelers out around the league to the likes of Sean McVay, Kyle Shanahan and Brian Daboll and found the half-dozen brightest young offensive minds in football at any level and put them through the wringer via Zoom. Maybe you would have found another real offensive coordinator candidate in case O'Brien fell through, but at the least, you could have found a QB coach to groom for the top job down the line.
Adam Gase, Frank Reich and Kliff Kingsbury also should have been talked to.
I also would have asked them how they would attack the Patriots' defense and what they think are the biggest weaknesses. Are there scheme issues that the best offenses are exploiting? Is it more personnel-based and what are those issues?
And I sure as hell would have interviewed better offensive line candidates for that job than Klemm. Next to the quarterback, the line is the most important coaching position on staff considering what it means to the running game and pass protection — and there are a dozen players to be coached there. The position has been a coaching misadventure since Dante Scarnecchia retired for a final time with five different coaches in four seasons. They have to get this fixed as well, and Klemm ain't it.
But, of course, Belichick didn't do any of those things as he continues to leave meat on the bone when it comes to his decisions in the twilight of his coaching career.
He basically used this opportunity to do some favors by flipping through the scrapbook of his career. Kind of surprised he didn't interview Wes Welker, Ryan Wendell and Bubba Ventrone as part of this, considering they're also former Belichick players.
I'll be very happy if he can get a new receivers coach here as a result of this search, but no one should be throwing a parade if he does. Belichick could have done so much more with this.
And if for some reason he can't land O'Brien, this search now takes a disaster turn since Belichick left himself no real options while 10 other teams are looking for offensive coordinators, and we're back to 2022 again with leftover, rushed choices.
That's why it has to be O'Brien. Soon.
Give him whatever he wants: money, title, autonomy, Patricia and Judge out of the building, the ability to pick his assistants, input on personnel — anything he might ask for in order to get this done quickly.
Belichick has left himself no other good alternatives to this point.
