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This offseason, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick stayed quiet about who his offensive and defensive coordinators would be for the 2022 season. Bill Belichick? Not giving anything away? Not very shocking.
Usually teams have distinct coordinators, but leave it to Belichick to switch things up. “I’m not big on titles,” he said this offseason when asked about the roles.
Well, someone has to call the plays, and in the team’s Week 2 preseason win against the Carolina Panthers, it was former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia who was trusted with the role.
During the first two offensive drives, Patricia stood next to Belichick, both holding play sheets, as the team went three-and-out both times. Belichick later stepped off with former New York Giants head coach Joe Judge while Patricia appeared to tackle the play-calling and speak with officials on his own — without the shadow of Belichick.
In a change from last week, where Judge and Patricia both called plays, it was just Patricia running the show Friday night. His offense saw three quarterbacks: starter Mac Jones and backups Brian Hoyer and Bailey Zappe.
Patricia and Judge are tag teaming calling plays, causing some chaos and confusion all around. Patricia appears to have the inside track to the play-calling job based on Friday night, but with Belichick running the show, nothing is ever set in stone, especially with a less than impressive offensive start for the Patriots.
“Communication with the quarterback, yeah,” Belichick said postgame when asked if Patricia was calling plays. “As far as calling the plays, there’s a whole ‘nother process on that, but yeah.”
Belichick was asked a few questions about the play calling, but each time he gave a vague answer accompanied by a smirk.
When asked if the process of finding an offensive play caller was complete, Belichick answered, “No, it’s still a process.”
When asked if the process is still between Judge, Patricia and himself, Belichick answered, “No.”
When asked if play calling is falling to anyone else, he answered, “It’s a process.”
There is certainly a pattern here.
Reporters in the press conference took the hint and the next person to attempt to get offensive play calling information out of the head coach began their question acknowledging that Belichick did not want to say much about the situation.
Belichick cut them off and almost laughing at himself clarified, “I never said that. I mean, don’t put words in my mouth. I never said that.”
The typically stoic coach did not break his smile through his entire answer, as the media room laughed.
This is not Patricia’s first run with the Patriots, but the last time he was on the sidelines for the team he was its defensive coordinator. Judge and Patricia have never been offensive play-callers, and both are recently coming off head coaching positions during which their teams struggled.
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