The Patriots played their first preseason game Thursday, and it spawned more questions than answers regarding their murky play-caller situation.
While senior football advisor Matt Patricia called plays in the first two series with Brian Hoyer under center, offensive assistant Joe Judge called them for the rest of the game. Starting quarterback Mac Jones, however, did not play, so there was no insight on who was calling plays for the first team.
Patricia, who has been calling plays for most 11-on-11 training camp drills, has a background in defense. He called defensive plays for Belichick before his stint as a head coach with the Lions. If Patricia does end up with the offensive coordinator job, he would become the first coach in NFL history to hold both offensive and defensive coordinator positions.
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After the game, Belichick fielded questions about the Patriots’ coaching situation in as Belichickian a way as one might expect.
Asked what he was looking for when Patricia and Judge were calling plays, Belichick responded: “I don’t need to see anything, just we’re going through a process. Simple as that.”
When reporters pressed the issue, Belichick sharpened his edge.
“What do you want me to do?” he asked when a reporter called it “unusual.” He concluded with: “Great. Yeah. Going through a process,” when the reporter said they were looking for “clarity.”
Bill Belichick Live Postgame Press Conference: https://t.co/B9MlgQcpuw
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) August 12, 2022
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Applying Occam’s Razor: Belichick likely already knows who will be calling plays Week 1 against the Dolphins and is just trying to show as many looks as possible. But there’s no denying this situation is highly unusual. Even when Belichick didn’t have a coordinator in the past, he generally had someone on staff with offensive experience who could call plays. That doesn’t seem to be the case this time around.
Earlier this offseason, Belichick already made his own role very clear: “I’m the head coach, I’m responsible for everything, let’s just leave it at that,” he said.
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