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The departure of the Patriots’ longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels this offseason prompted head coach Bill Belichick to change the team’s offensive system, with Matt Patricia — formerly a defensive coach — now calling out the offensive plays. So far in training camp it doesn’t seem to be working.
Reporters at the Patriot camp have described an ugly array of mistakes and misunderstandings, and Monday’s practice session appeared to be the worst yet.
As Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal described it, “We have seen that when a new offensive coach attempts to install a new offensive line, the offense routinely looks disjointed.”
Words like “disorganization” and “confusion” have been used by reporters in the Patriot camp to describe how Patriots offensive players appear to be picking up on the new offense.
In practice Monday, the Patriots’ first four offensive snaps consisted of a false start by Trent Brown in offensive tackle, followed by a return run by Damien Harris that was stuffed at the line of scrimmage, followed by an incompletion due to a miscommunication between Mac Jones and Nelson Agholor. followed by a sack.
Of course, sacks don’t really happen in training camp because quarterbacks are off limits, but coaches will blow the game dead if a defensive player would have fired the quarterback, and those games were commonplace in the Patriots camp. Jones rarely has much time to throw as the Patriots’ defensive line dominates the offensive line.
There’s still more than a month until the start of the season, and maybe by then all the kinks will be resolved. But early reports are that the Patriots’ revised offense is in rough shape.