Report reveals Bill Belichick's role in Patriots offense this season

It appears New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick understood the relationships between quarterback Mac Jones and assistant coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge were broken.

"I’d add that Belichick himself is on the hook for all this, too," Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer wrote for his latest "Monday Morning Quarterback" column. "My understanding is Belichick was active on the headsets on game day, having the sort of oversight over the offense that he’d traditionally had over the defense, and moonlighting as play-caller at points (which is why, at times, calls were late going in, and the offense could look messy from an operational standpoint)."

Breer's update followed a report from Andrew Callahan and Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald last week that detailed how the Patriots offense "was disheveled" following the departure of Josh McDaniels, who left New England to become head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders last winter. Jones regressed working with Patricia and Judge following a solid rookie season and was either unable or unwilling to hide his anger toward coaches on multiple occasions.

The Patriots hired Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator and former Houston Texans head coach Bill O'Brien to be their new OC — a role he had before leaving New England for the Penn State head-coaching gig — and quarterbacks coach last week. Breer noted that Belichick didn't land O'Brien last offseason "out of fear that O’Brien might do well enough in a year to land a head coaching job elsewhere, leaving the Patriots to replace a coordinator two years in a row." Belichick nevertheless found himself doing just that after New England posted a record of 8-9 and missed the postseason. 

Breer called the hiring of O’Brien "what's best" for Jones. If that proves not to be the case, New England theoretically could move on from the 2021 first-round draft pick as soon as March 2024. 

According to ESPN, Jones finished the 2022 regular season 26th out of 34 qualified players with an 84.8 passer rating and 28th out of 31 signal-callers with a 36.0 total QBR. In 14 games, Jones recorded 14 touchdown passes and 11 interceptions.