This morning, a bombshell report dropped. And it paints a pretty damning picture of why things were so bad this last season.

Since this article is behind a paywall, I'll break it down for you because I think it's pretty crucial information. It also explains why we saw players like Mac and Bourne lose their cool throughout the year.

Quite a few Patriots players & staffers shared insights into what went on behind the scenes for this story. In their words: The offense was worse than numbers could capture. It was broken. Dysfunctional. Riddled with distrust.

Basically, from the spring practices, the distrust started to brew. There was no cohesion between the offensive coaching staff and players started to worry that they didn't know what they were doing. Even before training camp started.
In the offseason, the Patriots decided to change the offense entirely to have more condensed formations, outside zone runs, and bootleg play action passes.

A big departure from what they had run the previous 23 seasons.
It went horribly right from the get go. And they were forced to scrap most of the play action passes because they couldn't get them in sync. Which caused even more doubt in the coaching staff.

Under McDaniels in training camp, the Patriots would install 25 pages of run plays, 25 pages of passing plays, and upwards of 40 pages of offensive line protection schemes. At every practice.

Under Judge & Patricia, that was cut in half.

“A lot of guys were getting worried because when we were in the middle of camp, we were wondering what the plan was for our offense. Because we hadn’t put enough install in,” a source said. “We had a couple protections, a couple core run plays, but our pass game didn’t have much in it.”

The idea was to play faster. Reduce the amount of concepts & reads and just make it ultra simple for everyone. But the coaches had never coached this type of offense before.

And when some of the current players, who have experience in this offense type, started to ask questions, it led to even more distrust. The coaches couldn't explain it, and when pressed to do so, would push the players aside by saying

"We'll get to that when we get to that"
The result of trying to do this simplification was that the coaching staff was constantly chasing their tail and making 1,000 adjustments a week. Instead of being prepared and tackling everything head on, they were constantly having to fix problems (I alluded to this at one point last season)

On August 8th, David Andrews had to pull the offense aside in training camp and rally the players to have patience with the coaching staff. In that practice, Mac had dropped back to pass 23 times. He was sacked 4 times and only completed 10 passes. Frustrations were boiling over repeatedly. And they knew back then that they were going to have to overcome A LOT in order to get through the season.

For some unknown reason, Patricia decided to change their pass protection system from a numbers based system to a word based system. And it confused the hell out of everyone. The offensive line was unable to figure out who to block, especially on blitzes, and it left Mac constantly dealing with free rushers.

Eventually, it wore him down. He started to expect to get hit on every play. He lost confidence in their ability to block for him and he was ducking constantly, anticipating the next sack.

Another fatal flaw that deteriorated Mac's trust was they never schemed up contingency plays as a way to navigate when the defense generated pressure.
In most offensive schemes, when a QB diagnoses pressure before the snap, he can alert the offense to alter the play. This will create a receiver who will alter his route from the play call to a "hot route"

The hot route is designed for the receiver to get off the line of scrimmage and immediately look for the ball. This gives the QB an outlet to dump the football if the defense gets free rushers.

And this is something the Patriots rarely, if ever, schemed up properly throughout the year. Contributing to Mac looking like he was completely lost and overmatched. If there was pressure, you saw him constantly trying to dump the ball to receivers who were never even looking for it.

Another issue with the offense was the lack of cohesion between the pass & run games, as well as the play calling between the two.

Play calling is an art. You call certain plays to set up future plays... you try to get the defense guessing what you're doing next, and then do the opposite. The Patriots never did this. They were constantly just plucking random plays out of the call sheet and seeing if something would stick.

One thing they whiffed on terribly for most of the year was play action. Play action is everything to a passing game. If you never run play action, it makes life immensenly easier for an opposing defense. They can just sit in their schemes and a*signments and wait for you.

But because of the ineptitude of the coaching staff, they couldn't block play action correctly when trying to implement the Shanahan system.

Eventually they switched back to the gap/man blocking schemes of years past.

And when they did, they averaged 5.7 yards per carry (7th best in NFL).

But they were scrambling to get the gap blocking scheme implemented, which left them no time to integrate play action blocking back into the scheme as well.

They didn't get back to that until damn near the end of the season. But when they finally did, Mac went 9 of 9 for 92 yards and a TD off play action in the Buffalo game.

For the season, the Patriots ranked:
27th in quick passing game concepts
24th in play action passes
31st in bootleg passes
22nd in RPO concepts

But they ranked 2nd in just dropping back and looking for open receivers and 3rd in throwing screen passes. Just a horrible way to run your offense.

For what its worth, the teams left in the postseason rank highly in something other than drop back or screen passing concepts.
Bengals are 1st in quick game %
49ers are 7th in quick game %
Eagles are 1st in RPO %
Chiefs are 5th in RPO %

One person who seemed to duck the bulk of the criticism was Joe Judge. Most of the blame fell on Patricia when it came to the media and fan base. But internally, things were much different. Judge was a problem.

The players couldn't stand him, especially Mac. The coaches were in the same boat. Judge would constantly overstep his bounds and try to coach other positions in practice, leaving the other a*sistant coaches to have to correct his (incorrect) talking points to the players.

Belichick would constantly blast Judge in practice and it was common for Judge and Mac to trade profanity laced outbursts. Eventually leading to the deterioration of their relationship entirely. By the time Mac returned from his sprained ankle, Judge was seen less and less in the QB meeting room. Eventually being phased out entirely.

“(Judge) would speak extra loudly in meetings, trying to project like he was the guy,” another source said. “And I think that kind of rubbed people the wrong way.”

Eventually things came to a head after the Vikings game. The general sentiment in the locker room was that they should have won that game if it wasn't for Patricia's "scared" and conservative play calling. "That game was bullsh*t", one source said.

Jakobi Meyers and Rhamondre Stevenson were playing hurt throughout the season, and constantly overworked. Meyers played through a tear in his knee that happened midseason, and Stevenson "was more hurt than he let on".

Both players tried to gut it out for the sake of their teammates, but they were run into the ground by Patricia and Judge. Which contributed heavily to their late game mental lapses that cost the Patriots more than one game.

The players all backed Meyers and Stevenson in those moments though, feeling like they were put in the impossible situation (just like everyone else) of having to overcome their opponent every week AND their inept coaching staff.

So why did Belichick do this? The general sentiment from the people quoted in the article is that he just completely underestimated how difficult this would be.

He believed Patricia and Judge were better coaches than they are, and that they would be able to pick it up and run with it.

One source said: I love coach, but he fu*ked us

After reading this article, so many things make more sense now. Mac's outbursts throughout the season. The players constantly making uncharacteristic mistakes. The consistent ineptitude. The ineffectiveness of pretty much everything. The players speaking out in the media and behind the scenes.

This is why the hire of Bill O'Brien was so important. Not just from an X's & O's standpoint... but in righting this ship and getting it back on course. He's someone who understands the Patriot Way and will understand what things need to look like going forward.

It's crazy that a lot of us knew this was a horrible idea when it happened... not many could have predicted just how bad it would be though.


 SOURCE

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I'm still confused as why Bill made a defensive coordinator his offensive playcaller

Ngl Ive been rooting against the patriots for the past two years cause when I use to lurk their subreddit I seen a bunch of n*ggas talk about how the patriots don't need a #1 wr and that they could have a very productive offense with a bunch of wr2s and a decent run game.

They spent a lot of money on Kendrick Bourne, nelson agholor, hunter Henry and Jonnu smith. They haven't done sh*t with these n*ggas. I don't think their's a DB in the league worried about playing these n*ggas. Now I'm not saying these dudes are a*s. In fact some of them like hunter Henry and Kendrick Bourne had solid seasons with their previous teams. None of these guys just aren't elite.

In two seasons they paid nelson agholor 22 million just to average 417 yards .
They gave Jonnu smith a 4 year 50 million dollar contract with 30 million guaranteed and bro been averaging 269 yards a season

I don't even dislike Mac Jones. Patriots fans just got me rooting against them cause their fu*king stupid.

Jakobi Meyers is a FA and there is a decent chance the patriots aren't bringing him back. He the WR Mac Jones got the most chemistry with as well. He most likely gonna be asking for a contract just as big as the one Christian Kirk got last season which was 4 year 72 million with 37 mill guaranteed.

Meyers been their best wr for the past 3 years so if they get rid of him their pretty much fu*king over Mac Jones.

This year's FA wr group got no elite WRs too. The best ones that are gonna be available are: jakobi Meyers, juju(Kansas most likely keeping him) ,Allen Lazard, Darius slayton, Richie James and mack Hollins.

This what Belichek gets for hiring those two losers and giving them bullsh*t positions so they could still get the bulk of the Head coaching money they robbed…look at the two teams those guys got fired from…Giants and Lions went from sh*t to promising just from better coaching and cutting bait from them fuxk n*ggas

murderers said I'm still confused as why Bill made a defensive coordinator his offensive playcaller

Being cheap and he had obrien in back pocket.

drose1985 said Being cheap and he had obrien in back pocket.

Costly mistake. Their defense was great as usual. They would've made the playoffs if their offense was even average but it was downright terrible

murderers said Costly mistake. Their defense was great as usual. They would've made the playoffs if their offense was even average but it was downright terrible

Yeah bill stubborn but knows they can coach up their style of play. Patricia just was clueless like you said. They almost mad playoffs in spite of this. They be back more than likely next yr. Pat needs to be quality control on defense or some sh*t like that. Jr aint giving up his spot lol.

Good read

murderers said I'm still confused as why Bill made a defensive coordinator his offensive playcaller

He was an O Lineman and coached offense before...albeit a very long time ago but still.

quan3106 said This what Belichek gets for hiring those two losers and giving them bullsh*t positions so they could still get the bulk of the Head coaching money they robbed…look at the two teams those guys got fired from…Giants and Lions went from sh*t to promising just from better coaching and cutting bait from them fuxk n*ggas

-looks at my avy-

Belichick going out sad. Brady too, in a way.

ThePelicanBayMJ said Belichick going out sad. Brady too, in a way.

Everyone goes out sad in sports unless you retire after winning but that competive spirit keeps n*ggas around.

Everybody tries to put their boys on first. Didn't work out too bad Patricia can fetch the water for the big boy coaches now. We back baby

d3athb4dishonor said Everyone goes out sad in sports unless you retire after winning but that competive spirit keeps n*ggas around.

Nah. Belichick is pathetic right now

BOB is in. Patricia and Judge out as playcallers, so it's no longer a concern for me. Bill has always been this way.

His son Jerod Belichick is the heir to the throne, so as usual, he is preparing for the future. Jerod as HC, BOB as OC, and Steve as DC down the line is not bad at all.

Plus, Scar actually approves of a few of the O line coaches who have been interviewed this time. It's a difference to when he was iffy on Matt.

Caley, who should have been OC last season, is most likely gone within the next 2 seasons. Glad he will be here for this coming season.

Klemm is most likely hired too for the O line and/or RB coordination. Bill drafted him 2 decades ago. He has experience at UCLA, Steelers, and Oregon.

Hopefully Achord is relieved of ST duties.

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They should hire Joe Lombardi lmao he never has anybody guessing 1st down run up the middle and stick routes

ThePelicanBayMJ said Nah. Belichick is pathetic right now

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215Philly said @

Why are you tagging me on a consensus all time great coach fat fu*k?

Do you know more than belichick?

philly337 said Why are you tagging me on a consensus all time great coach fat fu*k? Do you know more than belichick?

You said it was the Beli system and thats why Brady was successful, whats going on? Brady was the key all along huh?

Bad hirings, dysfunction, you didn't see this happening

215Philly said You said it was the Beli system and thats why Brady was successful, whats going on? Brady was the key all along huh? Bad hirings, dysfunction, you didn't see this happening

I've explained this to you no less than 100 times and your autistic a*s still asks the same fu*kin questions


Do you know more than bill belichick?

BiLL B getting exposed with TB12 leaving

That authoritarian sh*t only works when you’re constantly winning. The second you have a down year or aren’t looking good, people get vocal, word to Jim Harbaugh