Seeing Josh McDaniels lead the Raiders in the course of the joint practices has been a painful reminder of what the Patriots had of their teaching room, main their offense, to not point out what he offered for his or her promising younger quarterback Mac Jones.
The previous two days, it’s been an in-your-face refresher of how good the Patriots had it. Moreover, seeing how the Raiders have been capable of adapt at a faster tempo to the advanced offense McDaniels ran in New England, how he’s been capable of educate it, merely supplies one other slap on the Patriots for putting in a brand new offense, with coaches who’ve little to no expertise teaching that facet of the ball.
Those are all worthy gripes.
But listening to McDaniels throughout his press briefing Wednesday, the Raiders head coach lent some credence to why the Patriots wanted to make a change with out him. He defined why putting in a “new” offense made sense.
In quick, it’s about evolution. It’s about not being predictable. It’s about making changes to be extra aggressive in opposition to sure groups which have had your quantity in current video games.
“Each year is an evolution. Honestly, I’ve never wanted to stay the same from one year to the next, because I’ve always been fearful of what that result would produce,” McDaniels mentioned throughout his Wednesday presser out in Las Vegas. “You stay the same in this league, and there’s great coaches and players on the other side, and they just run you down. And then, you’re trying to run the same things you were last year, and wonder why they’re not working as well.”
In the Patriots case, Buffalo involves thoughts when it comes to making an attempt to evolve with a brand new scheme.
The Pats scored simply 17 factors within the AFC Wild Card blowout loss to the Bills in January. During their common season video games the previous two years, the offense didn’t register a single passing landing. And that was with McDaniels main them.
So sure, altering, altering, or tweaking is sensible.
And, to a level, so does having the offense take some lumps, which has been the case with the Patriots all through coaching camp, as parts of the brand new scheme are put in.
Jones spoke on Tuesday about how failing in the course of the preseason doesn’t actually apply to what would possibly occur down the street. McDaniels expanded on that notion.
“Failure is part of this process, and we do it on purpose. We have to try things that may be difficult, may be hard, maybe we’re not ready to do them. But when we do those things, we learn a lot about ourselves,” McDaniels mentioned. “Whether we discover ways to try this approach or that scheme higher, or we study that that’s not one thing that’s for us proper now.
“And so if we just did what was safe, and what everybody knew, I don’t know how much progress we’d make, and I’m speaking for every team in the league … If you never put ’em in a hard position, you’re not going to learn a whole lot about them.”
That sounds good. Except with the Patriots, why has Bill Belichick chosen to evoke change with coaches who’re newbies to teaching offense? Why would he entrust the well-being of Jones, their most essential participant, to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge?
While McDaniels mentioned he didn’t know what the precise dynamics had been when it comes to who’s teaching what for the Patriots, he might relate to what Belichick was doing.
He did the identical with him.
McDaniels had been on the defensive facet of the ball and training that section for the Patriots, earlier than shifting to educate the quarterbacks for a yr. Aside from being a quarterback in highschool, and receiver in school, that was all of the expertise he had earlier than Belichick requested him to be the play-caller.
McDaniels mentioned folks didn’t imagine he was really operating the offense on the time, however Belichick pushed him into the hearth, and the remaining is historical past.
“Look, I think at the end of the day, Bill has a plan for whatever he wants to do,” mentioned McDaniels. “He has foresight that some of the rest of us don’t have. I didn’t have it when he pushed me ahead and helped me do that.”
The plan actually labored with McDaniels. It stays to be seen with Patricia, Judge and Belichick all having their fingerprints on the offensive equation.
That being mentioned, McDaniels indicated he noticed lots that was acquainted from the Patriots offense from Tuesday’s joint session alone. There had been examples of the “old” offense nonetheless in play together with some new stuff.
For him instructing a brand new offense to the Raiders, McDaniels acknowledged that it helped having coaches who understood it, together with some gamers.
Brandon Bolden, Jakob Johnson, Jarrett Stidham and Isaiah Zuber all have a background within the system. So do coaches Mick Lombardi, Bo Hardegree, Carmen Bricillo, and Jerry Schuplinski.
Belichick might have utilized tight ends Nick Caley, who had eight seasons with McDaniels, when it comes to maintaining the identical offense and terminology. He additionally might have employed a coach with extra information of the Kyle Shanahan offense and outdoors zone scheme they’ve been making an attempt to show.
Instead, he opted to go in a unique path, not solely streamlining the playbook, however incorporating a brand new outdoors zone blocking scheme with coaches who’ve by no means coached it.
Hence, the present struggles for Jones and the Patriots offense, which had a greater total day Wednesday, as soon as once more ending robust within the joint periods with the Raiders.
McDaniels actually is aware of what Jones is able to, and what his future holds. The hope in New England is that Jones doesn’t regress from the place McDaniels had him his rookie yr.
McDaniels mentioned he “thinks the world” of Jones. He’s excessive up on the record of issues he’ll miss most with the Patriots.
“Love that kid, I really do,” mentioned McDaniels. “Spent a lot of time with him, obviously, last year. Great human being, got a bright future, a really competitive guy that wants to do it right, wants to do everything right.”
Only, it’s been a irritating endeavor for Jones thus far. But then once more, Belichick has a plan.
It stays to be seen if this one seems proper.
Source: www.bostonherald.com