Patriots dragging their feet with Bill O’Brien

January 12, 2023 ndowd

While Bill O’Brien has been linked to the New England Patriots offensive coordinator job, there has been no contact between the two sides according to a new report.

It’s no secret that the New England Patriots offense was their weak spot in the 2022 season, their first year without Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator.

With Matt Patricia calling plays and Joe Judge as quarterback coach, the Patriots offense was among the worst in the NFL.

The team had been linked to one of their former assistant coaches who has seen some success at the collegiate level in Bill O’Brien. Considering he was part of the Bill Belichick coaching tree, O’Brien seemed like an ideal candidate.

But, NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran tweeted out on Tuesday that there has not been any contact between the Patriots and O’Brien and detailed why that may not be the case.

Albert Breer of TheMMQB followed up on Wednesday, saying that it was “still all quiet on the Patriots/O’Brien front.”

As of this morning, still all quiet on the Patriots/Bill O’Brien front. New England coaches are wrapping their end-of-season stuff up, and staff has a week-and-a-half break coming before diving into 2023. https://t.co/6iuCPVonFq

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 11, 2023

Patriots and Bill O’Brien reportedly have had no contact with each other

Back in 2007, O’Brien joined Belichick’s coaching staff as an offensive assistant. From there, he became a wide receivers coach in 2008, a quarterbacks coach from 2009 until 2011, and was named offensive coordinator in 2011.

In the 2011 season with O’Brien as offensive coordinator, the Patriots averaged 428.0 yards (second in NFL) and 32.1 points per game (third).

After the 2011 season ended after a Super Bowl 46 loss to the New York Giants, O’Brien left New England to become the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. He spent two seasons at Penn State before accepting the Houston Texans head coaching job in 2014. After his firing in 2020, O’Brien became the offensive coordinator for the Alabama Crimson Tide for the last two seasons.

In 2022 with Patricia calling the plays for the Patriots offense, the team averaged 314.6 yards (26th) and 21.4 points (17th). Quarterback Mac Jones, one year after making the Pro Bowl, recorded 2,997 yards, 14 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, and a 65.2 completion percentage.

There’s always a chance that the Patriots do have contact with O’Brien, but as of now, that hasn’t happened just yet.

source