Patriots OC Search Season Has Begun at Last. And Basically Anyone Who's Ever Been on the Payroll is Part of the Speculation

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I don't know if it's a sign of aging, or just a philosophical phase I'm going through, but I've been studying a lot of the works of the Stoics lately. Zeno of Citium. Marcus Aurelius. Seneca. One of the core beliefs of those old toga-clad sons of bitches is patience. Accepting that things unfold as the universe sees fit. As Epictetus put it, "No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen." Good point by Big E there. 

Well the Patriots season has been over for just about 48 hours now. And that seems like plenty of time to make major, sweeping changes to rectify the major mistake of not hiring a professional offensive coordinator, moving Matt Patricia to some other role.  Assistant to the Head Coach. Senior Football Advisor. Director of Logistics. Comptroller of Analytics. Party Starter. Anything that doesn't involve holding the laminated Church Bulletin and being the voice in Mac Jones' helmet. 

My patience has run out on that. It's been about a month since Bill Belichick conceded that you can't make major changes in the middle of a season. Fine. Duly noted. But you absolutely can now. Black Monday was yesterday. I'm calling for a Dark Grey Tuesday or a Charcoal Wednesday. Even an Off-White Thursday. Something where a replacement is named so we can begin the process of becoming wildly over-optimistic about 2023. It's not too much to ask.

Which brings us to speculation about the potential candidates. At this point, I'm desperate enough to follow anyone's lead on this. Give me that sweet, sweet unfounded conjecture. Baseless assumptions. Pure guesswork. Haphazard shots in the dark. Random hunches. Gut feelings. Dead reckoning with nothing to back it up. I'm willing to just settle for a hope this will look like an NFL offense that can convert 3rd downs, score in the red zone, and above all, win a game when the other units are having bad days. So let's see what the experts are saying. 

There's the candidate I've been endorsing since Josh McDaniels took the Raiders job this time last year, Bill O'Brien. Who's had all the free time in the world since his Alabama team dropped 45 points on Utah in the Sugar Bowl. But things have been eerily quiet on that front:

I've got a theory of my own:

I'm only semi-kidding. Because it's not like there's been no contact between the two Bills at all this year. Between Belichick's visit to Bama's Pro Day and the fact he's constantly FaceTiming Nick Saban, probably doing A Football Life watch parties together on their nights off, it's impossible to believe the topic of getting the old 2008-11 band back together hasn't come up hundreds of times. 

Another guess is that the Pats organization is going through the evaluation process just like Belichick said in Monday morning's presser. These things are done methodically. In order. And "Hire Bill O'Brien" is like Step H, which has to come only after you've gone through Step G, "Move Matt Patricia as Far Away from the Game Day Decision Making Process as Possible."

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Then there's Albert Breer, who threw a bunch of other names against the hypothesis wall:

NBC Sports Boston - "I think the obvious name would be Chad O'Shea," Breer said. "Chad O'Shea's got some experience in that Shanahan offense. Working for Kevin Stefanski in Cleveland, he's their passing coordinator right now.

"I don't think things ended great between O'Shea and the Patriots, but that was the case with Brian Daboll 15 years ago and Daboll wound up coming back. So I think you can mend those faces. …"

"Nick Caley's another one that I've brought up pretty consistently," Breer added. "I know ownership likes him. He's the tight ends coach. That'd be an internal hire. But I think Caley's incredibly competent and has the respect of the locker room and ownership." …

"If you want to go completely off the board, here's one for you. The Patriots have done their research on Kliff Kingsbury," he said. …

"I know things haven't been perfect in Arizona, but one thing defensive coaches have told me consistently over the last couple of years is because it's so outside of the norm, Kingsbury's offense might be the most difficult to prepare for in the entire NFL. So that would be one name to put on your radar if the O'Brien thing doesn't happen."

Let's take them one at a time. First of all, Chad O'Shea left New England to go work for Brian Flores in Miami, so I can't imagine how bad that blood could be. After all, if we learned anything from TamperGate last winter, Belichick and Flores' friendship remains on a texting basis. How much can you resent someone leaving with him to become his coordinator? He certainly knows this system. And is still calling plays - passing plays, but still - for a living. So there's some logic to this. 

Second, Nick Caley is that guy all the Pats media loves to mention in glowing terms. That next up and coming future star in this league. I don't know how they know this. It's not exactly been a banner few years for the tight end depth chart he's been in charge of. But everyone is unanimous in their praise of Caley and how impressive he is and warns that losing him to another staff would be the one loss we'll never recover from. Making him the 57th assistant we've heard that about. And a good percentage of the other 56 end up getting fired and hired back here. I'm not knocking this guy at all. I'm just saying there's no way of telling.

As far as Kliff Kingsbury, I agree. This is completely off the board. I have no doubt he can coach tackle football. But his system is wildly different than what this team has been doing since Charlie Weis got off the plane at TF Green 23 years ago. The one Mac Jones had a very good grasp of from his first few days of camp as a rookie. But we just got a taste of what happens when they try to radically overhaul the scheme the Dynasty was built upon. By the start of the season, the whole team was scrambling to throw most of the changes away and relearn what they'd been taught last year by McDaniels. 

Trying to refurbish it all over again would undo what minor progress we saw over the last month or so. And would be forcing Kingsbury to learn a language he hasn't used since his one year as the Pats quarterback, 2005. 

Kingsbury getting the gig would be a tacit admission that major structural and philosophical changes need to be made. That ownership has lost faith in Belichick, the game has passed him by, and the old models can no longer work. 

I can't entirely rule it out, but that would be a bold move indeed, given they went 10-7 last year and were a couple of freakish losses from doing the same this year. It would be wild. But until we hear otherwise, I'm standing firmly on Team O'Brien. Let's party like it's 2011. I can't stay this stoic for much longer.

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