The Patriots Name Bill O'Brien as Their OC. Our Long Regional Nightmare is Over!
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And so ends the failed Matt Patricia-Joe Judge experiment. Now just another regrettable footnote to history. Joining such bad decisions as the Segway, Clippy, subprime mortgages and Cop Rock.
The Patriots got the man they wanted. The man most of us wanted. The one that seemed to me to be a fait accompli a full year and 11 days ago when it was still uncertain that Josh McDaniels would be leaving for the Las Vegas job, power ranking the Bill Belichick coaching tree:
1) Bill O'Brien, Houston. 52-48, .520, 2-2 in the playoffs.
This frigging guy. First he leaves New England to put on a hazmat suit and clean up the toxic mess left behind in State College, PA by Jerry Sandusky's DNA and Joe Paterno's soiled Depends. Then gets hired by the Texans and makes the playoffs four out of his six full seasons. Only to then blow the opportunity to coach for a decade or more by taking too much control. First, he orchestrated the disastrous DeAndre Hopkins deal. But worse, he brought Jack Easterby into the organization. An untrustworthy snake right out of the Old Testament, who sank his fangs into O'Brien's back and got him fired four weeks into last season, and the Texans have yet to recover. But the man can coach tackle football.
That said, if McDaniels [does end up getting hired elsewhere, it's not like it will be the end of the world. … At least with him, there is an obvious and immediate replacement. If he were to give his his two-weeks notice, Belichick would invite him to take a seat, press "1" on his desk phone speed dial, and as it get picked up on the first ring say, "Hey Nick. Yeah, that's why I'm calling. How soon can you get him on flight?"
Not only has Bill O'Brien run the Patriots Erhardt-Perkins system better than it's ever been run (2007-2011), he just spent a year being immersed in the very same college system Mac Jones was weaned on. Bringing him back would be the no-braineriest of no-brainers.
Everything I believed then, I believe now. I wouldn't change a word or a punctuation point. O'Brien is the perfect person at exactly the perfect moment in history to come along and turn this ship around. To fix this offense, and develop this quarterback. In his three seasons as the Patriots signal caller (the first two of them with the title of quarterbacks coach) from 2009-11, O'Brien's offense finished:
Points: 6th, 1st, 3rd
Yards: 3rd, 8th, 2nd
To me, that middle season of 2010 was especially impressive, not just because they led the league in scoring. But because they were coming off a 2009 season that represented the most frustrating and unlikable team of the Dynasty Era. Randy Moss was extra strength mopey about his contract and was traded after four reasonably productive, but by no means dominant, games. The team then acquired Deion Branch and absolutely dominated the rest of the regular season, scoring 30+ points in each of their last eight games, and 45 points twice. And bear in mind, this was Rob Gronkowski's rookie year, where he was still trying to establish himself. This was an offense predicated on a run/pass mix, with BenJarvus Green-Ellis cracking 1,000 yards. And moving the ball around, with five receivers gaining 400+ yards and Wes Welker topping them all with a (for him) modest 848. The following season Gronk became Gronk and the offense carried the team to the Super Bowl. But 2010 was O'Brien's finest hour.
You can complain this move should've happened a year ago, and you'll get no argument from me. But a lot went on behind the scenes, I'm sure. Belichick and Nick Saban are born of the game god and suckled by the same she-wolf:
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And I'm sure how Saban losing his coordinator would impact Alabama went into the decision. But the past is past. What matters now is we've got a professional offensive play caller calling the offensive plays. A radical concept to me sure; but one that's just crazy enough to work.
Not to be lost in the announcement is the fact O'Brien's job comes with the coordinator title. Which I can't help but take as an acknowledgement that the franchise has played a little too loose with how these job descriptions are defined, and ownership would prefer things get done the way they've been around the league for the last 60 years or so.
As far as what this means for Matt Patricia, it's an interesting question, just way less important than what this means for Mac Jones and all his teammates. Tom E. Curran has speculated about how Belichick has shown a bit of a pattern of hiring his former assistants while they're still getting paid by other teams. Often moving on from them once their old contract runs out, as is the case with Patricia's deal with the Lions:
Interestingly, both [Bret] Bielema and ]Michael] Lombardi moved on from the Patriots when contracts with their old employers ran out and the Patriots would have to start paying. We’ll see if the same happens with Patricia, whose Lions deal has now expired. I’m hearing he might be on his way out as well.
That's food for thought. Though Patricia does have a relationship with Belichick and I've always been told he was very close to the Krafts, so sending him out the door carrying his stuff in a moving box would surprise the hell out of me. I mean, he has been a loyal soldier. Just one who wasn't fit for the particular duty he was assigned to. Though come to think of it, he was reportedly at Belichick's side doing player evaluations and contract talks last year. And the guy in the next seat during the OC interview process has been Jerod Mayo:
So it's possible Patricia is being replaced. But were I a betting man, I'd put money on him going back up into the booth in a sort of ill-defined Ernie Adams role, being one of the voices in Belichick's headset, advising on tendencies, replay challenges and the like. Stay tuned.
But for now that is neither fish nor fowl. What matters is the voice in Mac Jones' helmet. There's an experienced, capable, accomplished, veteran offensive mind who not only has mastered the scheme, has a working relationship with the quarterback. Things are returning back to the way they once were. It's Poincare's Recurrence Theorem. Which states that at some point, complex systems return almost exactly to their initial state. And when Bill O'Brien gets back to the sideline with the playsheet in his hands, that state will once again be dominance. We're gonna party like it's 2010. Hallelujah!