Given that Patriots owner Robert Kraft reminded the world last month that Mr. “Last 25 Years” Bill Belichick runs his football team, it might feel safe to assume that the longtime legendary head coach and de facto GM is the key to what happens in New England in 2023.
Others might rightly assume, given the debacle on and off the field that was the Patriots offense in 2022 under Matt Patricia’s ill-prepared guidance, that third-year quarterback Mac Jones’ performance, attitude and leadership will key whatever successes and failures unfold in Foxborough this fall.
Both theories would be based in plausible presumptions. But both might also be very much wrong.
It’s quite possible in an NFL world that so often is indeed driven by a team’s head coach and/or quarterback, that neither Belichick nor Jones is the most important figure in New England this season.
Rather, it could very well be that newly-rehired Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien will be the man in the middle of it all this summer and oncoming season.
The first part of O’Brien’s job is rather obvious: bring competency back to the Patriots’ offense in a way that brings the best out of Jones, who less than a year ago was seen as the foundational franchise quarterback in New England after a Pro Bowl rookie season in which the No. 15 overall pick led his team to the playoffs.
That may be the easy part of O’Brien’s job. Pretty much anything he does will be better than what Patricia, Joe Judge and Belichick himself put forth last season in what Kraft called an “experiment” gone very, very wrong.
O’Brien has been running offenses and coaching up QBs for decades at both the college and NFL level. He’s worked with elite talents like Tom Brady, Deshaun Watson and, most recently, presumed Alabama No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young. But O’Brien has also made due with lesser quarterbacks over his many years earning actual expert status as an offensive coach, getting winnable work from journeyman guys like Brian Hoyer, Brock Osweiler and Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Regardless of where Jones stands on the NFL quarterback talent spectrum, closer to Brady or to Hoyer, O’Brien should be able to get the best out of the young passer.
But the second part of O’Brien’s job, the one maybe most central to the success New England may or may not have this season and beyond, is serving as the intermediary in the relationship between Jones and Belichick.
And that might just be where the rubber meets the road to redemption on Route 1.
As recently as last summer, Belichick was raving about his young passer, the work he’d been putting in and the potential he had for future leadership and success at the helm of good ship Patriots.
Then the Belichick-created dysfunctional debacle of the 2022 New England offense came along and it seemingly fractured the relationship between the old-school, set-in-his-ways coach and the ultra-competitive young quarterback.
Whatever evidence cited – whether it’s Belichick’s refusal to praise or support Jones in any meaningful way since last September, or reports that the man in charge of the Patriots “shopped” the former first-round quarterback in trade talks this offseason – it’s clear that the relationship between head coach and supposed franchise quarterback in New England is less than ideal these days.
That’s where O’Brien comes in as an assistant coach with previous experience working under Belichick who’ll be the one and thankfully only guy Jones will turn to for guidance this year.
Given his background and resume, as well as the short time the duo worked together passing in the SEC night two springs ago at Alabama, Jones should certainly have respect for O’Brien and what he can do for his career that’s at a third-year crossroads.
Belichick certainly has to have respect for O’Brien and his knowledge of the way things work in New England, even if part of the coordinator’s return to the Patriots may have come with a push from Kraft, who admitted that the man who previously and productively ran the New England offense from 2009-11 was at the top of the owner’s coordinator search list this winter.
Yes, O’Brien needs to coach up Jones and the rest of the Patriots’ offense to give New England a chance to compete for a playoff spot, undoing the regression from last fall and the damage done to Jones.
But he also needs to be the mediator between Belichick and Jones, the man ensuring that past problems of any sort don’t snowball into future feuding.
O’Brien, known for his fiery personality that earned him the nickname “Teapot” during his first tour through Foxborough, has to be the stabilizing force not just in terms of the on-field offensive scheme and coaching of Jones but also the less tangible waters of danger in the young QB’s relationship with his agedly militaristic head coach.
If he can do that, the Patriots offense may just be headed in the right direction and O’Brien will be worthy of all the praise that will likely be sent his way.
That O’Brien is a clear and obvious upgrade over Patricia and Judge is without question. That he’s up for the task at hand, well that’s another question altogether.