Bill Belichick’s prime lieutenants have been well mannered, cordial, and didn’t stray too removed from the script when requested how they have been going to be deployed this season.
During a videoconference Monday, assistants from the offense and protection did their collective greatest to depart everybody at nighttime.
And whereas Joe Judge fessed thus far teaching the quarterbacks, which was beforehand reported, and Matt Patricia did the identical by admitting he was with the offensive line, the thriller across the identification of the offensive play-caller remained.
Is it Judge? Is it Patricia? Is it Nick Caley?
Might or not it’s Bill Belichick? Or how about all the above?
More to the purpose, how can they not know? Is Belichick actually holding auditions, and one of the best man wins will get to name the performs for Mac Jones?
Judge wouldn’t budge on the topic.
“Look, I’ll tell you directly and honestly right now, nothing has been declared or decided, or voiced to me,” Judge mentioned when requested point-blank if he was the play-caller. “In terms of who calls plays, that’s not the main focus for us right now. When Coach wants to go ahead and declare a role like that, he’ll tell us.”
The query is why the Patriots really feel the need to proceed to plead ignorance, and have everybody act like Sgt. Schultz from “Hogan’s Heroes,” holding to the “I see nothing, I know nothing” charade.
Is there even a profit retaining it a secret?
If there’s some aggressive benefit to not letting opponents know who’s calling performs, or working the offense, it actually doesn’t apply on this case.
It’s not like anybody has any intel on Patricia, Judge or Caley relating to that side of teaching. No one is aware of the tendencies of any of them relating to calling an offense.
So regardless of if it’s Patricia, Judge, Caley, or Belichick, the Patriots nonetheless have the ingredient of shock in play in the event that they formally determine one among them because the play-caller.
So what’s the purpose? Why preserve it on the down-low?
Just to fiddle with the media and with Patriots followers by extension?
One doable rationalization is that Belichick desires to guard Caley, if he’s in actual fact the man. It’s not out of the realm that they’re going to see the way it goes with him, very like they did with Josh McDaniels when he first began, not formally giving him the offensive coordinator title till two years after Charlie Weis left.
But prefer it was with McDaniels, the cat’s going to be out of the bag as soon as we see who has the play sheet throughout the preseason, and even throughout practices. We’ll know which coach Jones is taking his cues from.
It truly sounds extra ludicrous having the assistants say they don’t know who’s doing what. It’s foolish to have coaches who’re at the moment working drills declare they know nothing about their jobs.
Not that Belichick cares what anybody thinks. He in all probability cherished that each Jerod Mayo and his son Steve claimed Thursday they didn’t know their very own job titles.
As Mayo mentioned to the media: “You know how we live here.”
Indeed, we do.
So does anybody actually consider nobody is aware of? Because if that’s the case, that is much more messed-up than anybody imagined.
It’s May. As Patricia mentioned, they’re in section two of the offseason program guiding gamers by way of drills on the sector. Mini-camp is lower than a month away.
Surely, route must be coming from someplace. And this cloak-and-dagger train is all a lot ado about nothing.
And but, if what Judge mentioned is true, about everybody having a collective hand in it, that’s additionally inviting catastrophe, particularly with the offense.
Jones wants one voice, one play-caller in his head. He doesn’t want a number of cooks within the kitchen.
And two of these cooks have been failed head coaches. Two of these coaches, be it Judge or Patricia, have by no means known as an offensive play. It’s a discouraging look regardless of which approach you slice it.
Let’s simply say it’s laborious to really feel any higher concerning the state of affairs based mostly on what both Judge or Patricia rolled out Monday. It’s laborious to really feel any higher about Jones making the specified Year 2 leap based mostly on how this seems to be arrange.
When Patricia was requested why being concerned with Jones and the offense must be thought-about a superb factor, the Patriots former defensive coordinator fell again on Belichick’s teaching philosophy.
The six-time Super Bowl profitable head coach likes to present his employees expertise on all fronts, so if somebody is an effective coach, it shouldn’t matter what group he’s with.
“One of the things I love about coaching is teaching. I love teaching the game. I really do,” he mentioned. “When you educate and change into a coach, for us, particularly right here … you study all aspects of the sport. You study offense and protection and positions, and strategies and fundamentals.
“You put yourself in a situation where really you’re comfortable coaching anybody on the field at any time whatever side of the ball it is. That’s different here. It’s not like that everywhere. I really appreciated that education that I was allowed to have while I was here.”
Both Judge and Patricia mentioned they weren’t within the large image at this level by way of figuring out a play-caller. It was extra concerning the current.
“Right now, it’s just about trying to learn the players we have, and what they do well going forward, and trying to make sure we put them in good positions,” mentioned Patricia. “We’re not even really to that phase yet.”
Perhaps it will all work out. Perhaps having Belichick, Judge, Patricia and or Caley all managing Jones will likely be precisely what’s wanted to have their second-year quarterback attain the following stage, win video games, and earn one other journey to the playoffs.
In the tip, success is all anybody actually cares about. If Jones improves, and the Patriots proceed to advance, the nuts and bolts of it don’t actually matter.
It’s simply laborious imagining a contented ending at this stage.
Source: www.bostonherald.com