As many long-time BSJ members know, I don't like to be reactionary. I prefer to take a beat, ponder, mull, sleep on things, etc., and then give you my honest feelings. I think it has served me well. It usually prevents me from being too negative or positive, and gives the reader a more accurate assessment of your team. It's one of the blessings of BSJ, why we started it.
So I gave you my initial thoughts in four different ways after practice, then I slept on it, and wanted to see what was still at the forefront of my mind (there's always a ton to take in, and you don't see everything).
It became pretty clear what I was most excited about:
The offense, and what Bill O'Brien is bringing to it.
Let me first give you the obligatory disclaimer. It was one practice. Very early. It was probably just an install day for the "deceptive" stuff we saw. So if you're taking away from this that the Patriots are winning the AFC East and the Super Bowl, then you're doing it wrong.
Ok, now onto the good stuff.
I'm not going to undersell it, what O'Brien showed on the first day was new life for a tried-and-true offense. It's what I've been hoping for, for a while now. In the back of my mind, I always wanted Josh McDaniels to find some college offensive wiz, bring that coach in, turn over the Patriots offense to him during the offseason and say, 'Hey, put your spin on this.' It never happened, even in Vegas. As we've seen with Bill Belichick and the defense, coaches find comfort in what they've done for years and don't love trying new things that could put the team behind.
There's no question that O'Brien has taken what he learned at the Patriots — that was his base when he went to Houston — and then mixed it with his experiences at Penn State, with Deshaun Watson and then Alabama. Mac Jones sees it as well.
"OB's been around and he's taken a lot of good things from each stop," Jones said after practice. "I feel like, for me, it's just being a sponge. Whatever quarterback he's coached, I can learn from, whether that's Bryce [Young] or Deshaun [Watson], or at Penn State. He has such great experience in this league, and in football and in the football world. It's like a walking dictionary; just pick his brain and see the game how he sees it, how I see it, and then come together and mesh to create a really good offense."
The goal seems to be to marry the best parts of the traditional Patriots offense, and blend with some of the college concepts that utilize space to, often, get easy yardage. Like slip screens and wide spacing with the targets — which was a huge issue last year.
The Patriots tried to install some of these concepts last year — there's a rationale to it so that's why I did not dismiss it out of hand — but the biggest issue was that the coaches had zero background in teaching the offensive concepts. That was always my biggest issue why I doubted it was going to work: who's coaching the position coaches, who are then coaching the players? It was like the blind leading the blind leading the blind. And that's how you end up with a bad offense that killed the team.
Now you have O'Brien running everything and teaching the concepts. O-line coach Adrian Klemm has college experience. TEs coach Will Lawing has been with O'Brien. Troy Brown will need to be taught a bit, but that's why O'Brien is here — to coach the coaches, including Vinnie Sunseri (RBs) - who's not far removed from the college game.
These concepts will also be familiar to a roster that is starting to, finally, trend younger.
The dream and I think the vision is to marry what the Eagles made work with Jalen Hurts (without all the run elements), with the control and adaptability of the Patriots' offense that empowers the quarterback to keep them out of bad plays, and ready to take advantage of the defense.
It's exciting to think about, but it's also a daunting challenge in one offseason/season. In most circumstances, you'd be happy if things really clicked in the second half of the season. The Patriots can't afford to wait that long with a tough first eight games. O'Brien will have to prove his worth by threading the needle on what can work now and win games, with continuing to build the system. The good thing is the college game tries to make things as simple as possible because the personnel changes so much every year. So the Patriots might have a better chance than most.