From time to time I’m going to throw my opinions on here about my teams. I’m gonna call it “Sports Shorts” because I’ll save the more in-depth posts for other things. These are just quick opinion pieces.
I was fortunate to grow up in Boston, which grants me deeded rights (til death do us part) to the four greatest sports franchises on earth: the Boston Bruins, the Boston Celtics, the Boston Red Sox, and the New England Patriots.
It’s not opinion. It’s fact. Even the “worldwide leader” said so.
For as much as I love my teams — 100% unconditionally — you will hear me say they suck. A lot. I can’t help it. I’m a critical fan.
Let’s dive in.
The Patriots just started their exhibition season and it’s tough to gauge what’s going on because they didn’t play many of their first-stringers. However, the hopes and dreams of the franchise sit squarely on second-year QB Mac Jones.
I like Mac a lot and have high expectations for him. He’s smart and decisive and appears to be a good leader. He’s not the most athletic guy on the field and I’m ok with that because it means he needs to get the ball to his playmakers quickly.
My concern this year doesn’t even lie with the players. Instead I’m more concerned with the coaching staff Bill Belichick has assembled around him. There is no offensive coordinator to help develop Mac. We have Matt Patricia who was a defensive coach before flaming out as a head coach in Detroit. And we have Joe Judge who was a special teams coach before flaming out as a head coach in New York. The two of them are entrusted with our most precious asset — the franchise quarterback. It’s a high-risk move and not one I’d have rolled the dice on. Mac’s development is too important.
They’re also introducing a new offensive scheme and trying to teach it to the players on the fly. After nearly 20 years of Tom Brady, in which they understandably built the offense around him, it was so complex and layered and literally designed for one guy the Patriots had to begin untangling themselves. And with Brady gone and former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniel gone, now was the time to pull the plug.
I think this is Bill’s transition plan. He’s the greatest football coach of all time. Fact, not opinion.
But he’s 70 years old, after all. In order to leave the franchise in decent shape whenever he’s ready to step away — and regardless of whom he’s going to pass the torch as the new head coach — he needs to undo 20 years of Brady Offense.
Tom was such a unique player and so intelligent on the field that it’s difficult (and just unfair) to ask someone else to come in and grasp that. It’s like teaching quantum physics to a first-grader. It’s not that the first-grader isn’t smart, he’s just not ready for it yet. You could say the same for any players coming in as a free agent or draft pick. The scheme was oftentimes just too complex for outsiders to master. It caused problems. Time to blow it up.
So this is now the future. “In Bill We Trust” and “In Mac We Must“.
Buckle up, kids. It might be a rough bridge year. But I think eventually it’s going to be worth the ride.
(Oh, by the way, did I mention Bill didn’t hire a DEFENSIVE Coordinator either? “Closer by Committee”, here we come. Yeah, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.)
