Kurt Warner has emerged as belichick's biggest critic
All it took for Kurt Warner to embarrass the Patriots was one picture of handwritten notes. On Monday, Warner tweeted out a picture of lined paper filled with searing criticisms of an unnamed offense he struggled to watch over the weekend.
After two bullet points, it was apparent Warner was talking about the Patriots. His incredulous, all-caps reaction to a screen pass on an early 3rd-and-6 — “SCREEN??” — gave his cover away.
One of the possible reasons why Bill Belichick avoided naming an actual offensive coordinator this season was an attempt to obfuscate each coach’s responsibility. But we have eyes: we see Matt Patricia, who’s often standing beside quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, holding the play sheet on the sideline. We know who’s running the Patriots’ moribund offense.
As Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph astutely pointed out, it’s clear a defensive coach is calling plays. And it’s going horribly.
Some ex-quarterbacks, including Warner and Dan Orlovsky, appear to be taking New England’s woes personally. They seemingly call out the team on a weekly basis, and come with receipts, too.
Earlier this season, Warner dedicated his entire hourlong “QB Confidential” show to picking apart the Patriots’ offensive effort in their 33-26 loss to the Vikings on Thanksgiving night. They were held scoreless in the fourth quarter, presenting Minnesota with an opening to take over the game.
Afterwards, Warner eviscerated the Patriots for running a basic offense that Mac Jones can’t execute. “It's about details. Details, details, details. You want to be simple with your offense? You better be really, really good at what you do in the details,” he said. ““Details as a quarterback. Technique throwing the football. Getting the football out on time. Knowing where your eyes should be and what you're seeing. … This is my problem with where the Patriots are overall. Yes, I'd like to see more concepts and more creativity overall. But if this is what you're going to do and you're going to be a simplistic offense that runs the same concepts over and over and over again, get good at them.”
A couple of weeks later, Warner returned with more salvo, declaring he would be “bored to death” playing quarterback in Foxborough.
“I’d hate to have the same concepts over and over, even if they’re good quality concepts. I like creativity. I like options as a quarterback. And, they don’t do a lot of that,” he said.
Believe it or not, Warner’s criticisms are more tempered than Mike Lombardi’s, the long-time Belichick confidante who’s taken apart the Patriots a few times on film this season. Over the last couple of weeks, Lombardi has said the Pats “cannot throw the football,” and said “they don’t have an offense. They just run a bunch of plays.”
Two plays that flummoxed Warner and Orlovsky were the Patriots’ first couple of third-down attempts Saturday against the Bengals. On the first one, Jones took a sack on 3rd-and-4 after tight ends Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry collided with each other. Warner’s notes simply read, “CONCEPT?”
Orlovsky expressed his dismay in long-form. “This is such bad football,” he said. “The quarterback, why can’t you find anybody open? Well, they’re running into each other.”
The Patriots’ early offensive struggles are especially notable, because teams typically script their first couple of series. That means the Patriots can’t even execute the plays they are ostensibly working on during practice.
Their failed third-down attempt on their second drive, a screen pass to Rhamondre Stevenson that fell incomplete, also enraged Orlovsky.
“These are the plays that you are so prepared for. You know what kind of call is coming in these moments,” he said. “What page are we on? Try to get set, no one’s ready for it. Quarterback snaps it. Who are we throwing the ball to? I mean, what?”
It used to be said that Belichick was several steps ahead of the competition. But now, he’s well behind the analysts.
Maybe the Patriots can pluck Warner or Orlovsky next season. They appear to have all the answers, at least in the studio.
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the globe is making excuses for the Red Sox
Globe covers for Red Sox: It was hard for one to not spit out their eggnog when reading the Globe’s story about how the “Massachusetts millionaires tax is impacting how agents negotiate with the Red Sox.”
In it, Alex Speier quotes Kiké Hernández, who said he was unaware the new tax had been passed. Speier also quotes an anonymous agent who calls the tax a “big deal.”
And that’s all the evidence that’s presented to support the tax thesis. Speier says the Red Sox are now “lumped in with teams in California and New York in needing to outbid clubs in more favorable tax environments.”
So how are those teams in New York and California faring? The Mets have shelled out more than $800 million in free agency, and the Yankees re-signed Aaron Judge for $360 million. The Dodgers perpetually have one of the highest payrolls in the league, and the Padres continued their insane multi-year spending spree by signing Xander Bogaerts for $280 million.
Yeah … the millionaires tax excuse doesn’t fly. Sorry.
Patriots bypassed on SNF, again: The Patriots were flexed out of “Sunday Night Football” two weeks ago for their matchup against the Raiders. This week, they were reportedly bypassed for SNF again. According to Mike Florio, the NFL chose Steelers-Ravens over Dolphins-Patriots, which is an elimination game.
Robert Kraft said before the season he’s upset with his team’s lack of recent playoff success. Getting snubbed on SNF probably only adds to his rancor.
NFL ends the year with another multibillion-dollar media deal: The NFL closed 2022 with a new agreement that will send its “Sunday Ticket” package to Google’s YouTube TV. YouTube will pay $2 billion annually over the next seven years.
Oh, and YouTube isn’t even getting the Red Zone Channel, which is the best part of the “Sunday Ticket” package. The NFL wins again.