Bill O'Brien is back, and that means the Patriots are back to having a mature, functioning NFL offense after a wasted season playing in the sandbox.
Everything's back on track? Super Bowl-or-bust again?
In certain segments of the Patriots fandom, that appears to be the case. It's like someone used that gizmo from Men In Black that erases short-term memory, and suddenly all they remember is Tom Brady leading the team to multiple Super Bowls and deep playoff runs — and they might even mention him possibly coming back here because of O'Brien.
LOLOLOLOL
They conveniently forget that Bill Belichick is on a losing streak. He thought Brady was no longer capable of winning titles. WRONG. Oops. He thought it was OK to stand around with his hands in his pants in 2020 and take the last QB standing, Cam Newton. WRONG. After getting some momentum in 2021, Belichick thought he could just slap together the offensive coaching staff with Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. Belichick has never been more WRONG than last season, maybe since birth, and set everything back.
Yet some people still think he's on his game and the Patriots are still the team and franchise they were when Brady was making the difference.
Bartender, I would like what they're drinking.
Those of us based in reality and live in the now, know that Belichick still has much to prove as he turns 71 in a couple of months. He especially could use a good dose of humility — possibly gained from last season's debacle, and/or shoved in his face by the Krafts — to the point that Belichick admits that he doesn't know everything, and lets others accentuate his weaknesses.
It appears he's done that in recent years with personnel, where the Patriots, for the first time in a decade, have started to possess a young layer of talent.
Now it's time on offense. It would be the best thing for Belichick and the Patriots.
You want to know why the Patriots — despite not being the most talented lot, especially when they won their last Super Bowl title — have competed over their heads in recent years? There's been a secret sauce. That sauce included Belichick turning the offense just about over to Josh McDaniels. That has allowed Belichick to focus his time and energy on defense and special teams. The result? A hard-nosed, mentally-tough, mistake-free football team that rarely beat itself.
McDaniels leaves, and suddenly the Patriots look like the gang that can't shoot straight? How can an OC departing have that much of an impact? It's because Belichick had to focus nearly all of his time on getting the offense to do ... anything, while the defense couldn't stop good offenses and let No. 1 receivers feast off them like never before, and special teams were a complete disaster.
O'Brien's arrival gets them going back in that direction ... if Belichick can stay out of the way. It's time for Belichick to take a page out of his owner's playbook.
"I know what I don't know and I try to stay out of the way of things I don't know," Kraft said at the league meetings last year when asked about Belichick's unique offensive coaching staff.
If we've learned anything from last season, it's that Belichick doesn't know what it takes to coach the modern offensive game. He proved that when he said that any coach can coach offense and the quarterback. That belief led to the worst mistake of his coaching career.
Nick Saban came to the realization that modern football was beyond his expertise at Alabama about seven years ago when he moved past the Jim McElwain old-school era to proven offensive minds of Lane Kiffin, Brian Daboll, Steve Sarkisian and O'Brien.
Belichick made the right first step in hiring O'Brien. Now he should empower him — or at least the Krafts should mandate that he do so.
Let O'Brien hire his own staff. McDaniels had enough good coaches (and Brady) to make up for another Belichick error — installing Judge as a receivers coach — but a lot of that cupboard is bare after many left for Vegas, especially if Nick Caley departs for another job.
The offensive staff needs a restocking, if not a reckoning. O'Brien returns as no longer the neophyte in the pro game that he was in his last go around as the de facto OC (2009-11). He ran his own ship at Penn State and won four division titles in seven years in Houston with multiple QBs. He tried being a CEO head coach, but also took back those OC/playcalling duties at times. He changed again for the modern college game at Alabama.
Basically, O'Brien has a crapload of experience — through trial and error — and returns to New England a much different coach with a wealth of knowledge. Belichick should realize, in a similar way with McDaniels, that O'Brien is fully capable of handling that side of the ball, and letting him do that.
If O'Brien wants Adrian Klemm as offensive line coach, then he can have him. If he wants Mike Devlin, his guy with the Texans who is now a Ravens assistant line coach, then let him do that. If O'Brien doesn't want Troy Brown or Vinne Sunseri and prefers people he put through the wringer in Houston, then let him make those decisions.
Whatever it takes to win. Whatever is in the best interest of the Patriots. Belichick used to do that with regularity. Time to get back to that, damn the personal relationships.
Do I have confidence that's going to happen? Not really. Part of it is Belichick wanting to feel like he has total control over his football team, but part of it has to do with O'Brien. He's respectful of the chain of command and knows his place. That may have cost him in Houston in certain respects — some of the most controversial decisions there were at the behest of the meddlesome ownership, but O'Brien is a loyal soldier so he stays quiet — and he did his job as Saban wished at Alabama.
As we said before last season, the power of Belichick has its limits which 2022 proved to everyone, even the Krafts.
Does Belichick realize that? We shall see.
SHRINE BOWL COACHING ASSIGNMENTS
I have no idea what to make of this, and I'm going to hazard a guess. O'Brien just came aboard and the season just ended. I wouldn't read too much into anything. Could be tryout season for a lot of people.
