The Patriots’ two-coach approach to the offense was on display Thursday night in the team’s preseason opener against the Giants.
Matt Patricia, who currently holds the title of senior football advisor and offensive line coach, called the plays in the opening drive, , with Joe Judge, New England’s offensive assistant and quarterbacks coach, handling the duties when rookie Bailey Zappe took over at quarterback.
Though New York and New England flip-flopped leads throughout the night, the Giants squeaked by with a 23-21 victory in Brian Daboll’s head coaching debut. Once the game concluded, Bill Belichick was asked about two of his senior staffers sharing play-calling duties.
“I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to do that,” said the longtime Patriots coach, who was also asked about the play-caller for the regular season.
“Don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out. … We’re going through a process. Just like everything else on this team,” Belichick expressed.
The Patriots are entering a new era at offense following the January departure of veteran coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is now the head coach of the Raiders. Throughout the offseason, it had been speculated that either Patricia or Judge would be named McDaniels’ successor, but Belichick — who always appears to 𓃲have something up his sleeve — did not name an offensive or defensive coor🔯dinator.
Patricia and Judge previously served as the defensive and special teams coordinators in New England, respectively, before they became head coaches elsewhere. Patricia coached the Lions for two full seasons before he was fired midway through the team’s 2020 campaign. He returned to the Patriots in January 2021.
As for Judge, he coached the 🍸Giants from 2020-21 and was fired in January after two seasons. 𓆏New England announced his hiring a month later.
Leading up to the Patriots’ preseason opener, Patricia had been taking the reins at training camp, with the offense appearing to struggle. Quarterback Mac Jones, who 🦋is coming off an impressive rookie season, has♉ preached patience.
“We have a lot of room to grow here,” Jones recently said . “Our offensive line is doing a great job, we just have to get on the same page.”
The Patriots will host the Panthers for their second preseason game next🎃 Saturday.
