Are People Rushing Judgement on The Patriots Offense?

By: Steve Atkinson

Panic! The offense will not work, with no offensive coordinator, the Patriots won’t have a functioning offense! Matt Patricia has no experience on the offensive side of the ball and Joe Judge ruined quarterback Daniel Jones when he was the head coach of the New York Giants. That has been the narrative surrounding the Patriots since Bill Belichick brought in Matt Patricia and Jose Judge in the offseason to coach the offense. Even with the first three weeks of training camp, the reports out of camp were not good and they shouldn’t be installing a new offense.

However, this week was the first week of joint practices with the Carolina Panthers, and the Patriots offense was better, believe it or not. Quarterback Mac Jones went 32/45 with a 71% completion percentage in the two days of joint practices. There were also brawls both days between the teams, which shows the Patriots have toughness, whether you like to say it or not. The narrative around this team that Bill Belichick will let Mac Jones fail is ridiculous; he just wants it done his way and not let anyone question what he does. Jones spoke today after practice about the progression of the offense

“Yeah, we’ve had some good work against the Panthers. They were a top-5 defense last year and they’re continuing to grow. So it was good to get our offense against a really good defense, let the young guys see some really good players, and scheme, and then obviously adjusting each day and then carrying that over to the game. So I think we competed. It was a good week.”

Jones seems to be working with Patricia, Belichick, and Judge to see what will work in the offense. I think he’s going to be fine, and this outrage is just too soon. The season hasn’t even started yet. I get that talk shows like Felger and Mazz have to talk about daily events but let’s not jump to conclusions too quickly without seeing a game yet.

The Play caller role is a hot topic around Patriots camp

The question around camp is who will be calling plays when the season starts? If Mac Jones is legit and makes a second-year leap. Does it matter who is calling the plays if he has Bill Belichick as the head coach? One thing that Jones has that no other quarterback does in the league is tons and tons of Tom Brady film. From practices, games, and Super Bowls. He has access to everything. He’s even in Tom Brady’s old locker and has a picture of the AFC Wild Card game loss last year against the Buffalo Bills with the score. Jones will never be Brady but what I am saying is if you have a legit NFL quarterback, it doesn’t matter who the offensive coordinator is.

Bill Belichick won’t let Mac Jones Fail

This is what Bill Belichick has to believe. That Jones will be a legit NFL quarterback and succeed that it won’t matter who has the headset on calling the plays. Introducing the new offense with their old offense mixed in will make the team faster in some ways. The panic recently was because they were just installing it and not ready to show it off against the New York Giants. But I expect Mac Jones and the offense to play Friday night against the Carolina Panthers, and it will hopefully calm down the negative crowd surrounding the team.