Ringing in the new year with a host of resolutions and predictions for the Patriots in 2023.
Moving on from 2022 won’t be the worst thing for the Patriots.
The year started with them getting back to the postseason for the first time post-Tom Brady.
Rookie quarterback Mac Jones, taken 15th overall in the 2021 draft, won the starter’s job from Cam Newton and led the team to a 10-7 record, and AFC Wild Card berth by season’s end.
It’s gone downhill from there.
First, the Patriots got waxed by the Bills, 47-17, in their Jan. 15 playoff game.
Then, before the end of the month, the Las Vegas Raiders scooped up Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to be their head coach, and also hired former Patriots personnel head Dave Ziegler to be their GM.
McDaniels then took a slew of Patriots coaches (Carmen Bricillo, Mike Lombardi, Bo Hardegree) with him, and signed several Patriots free agents (Brandon Bolden, Jakob Johnson, Harvey Langi) while acquiring quarterback Jarrett Stidham in a trade.
Along with the group heading to Vegas, the Patriots also lost running backs coach Ivan Fears, as the longtime assistant retired, further gashing the staff on the offensive side of the ball.
That left Bill Belichick to replace McDaniels, the coach who mentored Jones to an unprecedented rookie season. It was, or seemed to be, the top offseason priority for the Patriots.
While there were suspicions as far back as March, it really wasn’t until the end of July, and the start of training camp, that Belichick’s plan truly materialized. That’s when it became clear Matt Patricia, who made his name on the defensive side of the ball, and returned to the team as a senior advisor after being fired by the Detroit Lions as their head coach, was going to be the new play-caller and offensive line coach.
Joe Judge, meanwhile, a former special teams coach with the Patriots who got canned not long into his head-coaching stint with the New York Giants, was tabbed to be the new quarterbacks coach.
There was plenty of eye-rolling and skepticism over those moves, along with the decision to move away from the offensive scheme and system that had been in existence in Foxboro for more than two decades.
Even so, Belichick, a six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach, was given the benefit of the doubt at the start. That view has changed because the results have been nothing short of disastrous.
In March, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he expected the team to re-emerge as Super Bowl contenders “as soon as this year.”
“It bothers me that we haven’t been able to win a playoff game the last three years,” Kraft told reporters at the league meetings.
Well, the Patriots are not considered contenders, and if they don’t beat the Dolphins Sunday during their Week 17 showdown in Foxboro, they won’t even be a playoff team.
So with that as a backdrop, it’s time to ring in the new year.
What should Belichick & Co. be promising to do differently in the new year, especially if they want to change the narrative from 2022? Let’s just say it wasn’t hard to come up with a few ideas. So without further ado:
Bill Belichick: He promises to recognize and fix the colossal mistake he made with his offensive coaches. That means extracting Patricia from his play-caller duties, Judge as quarterbacks coach, and hiring someone with a clue about quarterbacks and offense. Preferably that person is Bill O’Brien. And if not, someone who is qualified to get the unit back on track.
Bill O’Brien: Should he get the job as offensive coordinator, he vows to fix Mac Jones, make the unit better on third down and in red zone offense, and guarantees to not bury Kendrick Bourne.
Matt Patricia: If he has to coach, promises to move back to defense.
