Bill Belichick is the greatest coach to have ever walked the sidelines. Period. He is unrivaled by just about everyone in wins, AFC Conference titles, coordinator championships, and Super Bowl championships as a head coach. It still isn’t making me feel any easier about the Patriots offense for next season.
The two staples of the Patriots offense are gone: Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels. Brady left what feels like a century ago for the warm weather of Tampa Bay, while McDaniels left this offseason to, yet again, pursue his dream of being an NFL head coach in Sin City with the Raiders.
Bill has already replaced Tom Brady with Mac Jones, who I think can become a great quarterback in the league for a decade to come. So, what does Bill Belichick do to replace his offensive guru for nearly two decades? He hires nobody.
Not only that, but he also brings back fired, defensive-minded Matt Patricia and sticks him as offensive line coach, and puts fired, special-teams minded Joe Judge as some sort of offensive assistant. Nobody really knows what his role is except Bill Belichick.
Okay, fine. Maybe the Patriots don’t really need defined offensive roles in the modern NFL. They do have the genius Bill Belichick after all. What were his other offseason moves on offense? Well, he brought back RB James White, coming off a hip injury at age 30, on a two-year deal, he traded All-Pro guard Shaq Mason for a 5th round pick, signed WR/RB Ty Montgomery (who I didn’t even know was still playing), and traded for WR Devante Parker (who is 29, and coming off an injury-riddle season). Okay. Uh, yeah, not what I expected, Bill.
It was painful to watch the Patriots offense struggle to progress the ball down the field those last five weeks of the season. And don’t even get me started on that shellacking by the Buffalo Bills in the Wildcard Game.
With nearly every single playoff contending team getting substantially better this offseason (including the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts, who the Patriots just beat out by one win to get into the playoffs), it was obvious the Patriots needed to get more skilled at wide receiver and get faster and more consistent running ball.
Perhaps I’m just overthinking this and the Patriots will get better through the draft. Who did they select with their first-round pick? Cole Strange, a guard/center from IT Chattanooga, who was predicted to go in the third round. Oh, come on!
What baffles me was that the Patriots came into draft night with the 21st pick, opted not to select guard Tyler Smith (drafted by Cowboys at 24th) who was an actual first-round rated talent, traded down to 29th to then select a third-round rated guard. To top it all off, there was no guard selected until 57th (Tampa Bay), a few picks AFTER the Patriots’ second round choice. You could have just gotten both if you stayed at 21st!
Anyway, Devante Parker is a good player, though his best days are probably behind him. He has only ever had one 1,000-yard season, and that came two years ago. James White has been a great receiving back for the Patriots and his touchdown in OT against the Falcons in the Superbowl will never be forgotten, but his time as a contributing player is probably coming to an end as well. And Ty Montgomery is not the guy who is going to make the Patriots the best running team in the NFL.
And as for Cole Stange, I’m sure he will develop nicely into a decent, staring guard in a few years. I have nothing against him personally, it is just that his high selection and the circumstances around it are another reminder of the dreadful drafting errors the Patriots have made over the years.
I still trust in Bill as all Pats fans should. It’s just that I’m worried how next year will go. The team significantly regressed offensively towards the end of the season, and there was nothing that signaled it was repaired this offseason. As for the defense, it is definitely not something to write home about either. I’ll get to Bill’s offseason defensive choices in another article.
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