FOXBORO — The New England Patriots are making essential changes to their offense entering the 2022 NFL season.
While it's debatable whether changing the offense makes sense when you have a promising young quarterback in Mac Jones entering his second season, coach Bill Belichick is doing his part by spending more time with the offense this year.
Despite years of success under long-time offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, Belichick has decided not to name a coordinator this season. In fact, it's unclear what the roles are for top assistants Joe Judge and Matt Patricia.
According to the Patriots' official website, Patricia will work as senior football advisor/offensive line coach while Judge serves as an offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach.
For what it's worth, Judge and Patricia both called plays against the Giants, but it was Patricia standing next to Belichick holding a play sheet during the second preseason game.
Still, when Belichick was asked about the play-calling, he gave vague answers.
"Communication with the quarterback, yeah," Belichick said when asked if Patricia was calling plays. "As far as calling the plays, there's a whole 'nother process on that, but yeah."
Even with the uncertainly circling around New England's coaching staff, retired Patriots running back James White has a lot of confidence that his former team will figure things out.
White was a guest analyst for part of the Patriots preseason game against the Panthers on Friday night, which he said was an "awesome" experience. As for his analysis of the current Patriots team, White shared his thoughts.
"That's the beautiful thing about coaching here,'' he said. "You're going to learn the game from all different angles. And Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, they've seen a lot of football from different vantage points. I think it will all work out. They're learning. It's a learning curve for everyone."
White does notice changes in the Patriots' approach from his playing days. Although to be fair, he played from 2014-2021 and the only offensive coordinator he played for was McDaniels. Still, he expects this year's team to look similar on the field, noting, "I think those guys do a great job designing plays and putting players in the position to succeed.''
Perhaps White's onto something? Jakobi Meyers caught 83 balls for 866 yards and Kendrick Bourne caught 55 balls for 800 yards. It's not out of the realm of possibility to think one of those receivers could top the 1,000-yard mark this season. Plus of course, newcomer DeVante Parker is a proven wide receiver who is expected to provide everything N'Keal Harry could not do in his three seasons in New England.
It might take a few weeks into the regular season for the offense to really hit its stride but after the learning curve is over, Pats fans hope the offense can hit the ground running.
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