Matt Patricia vs Josh McDaniels -- who is more important?

[IllegalContact]

for defensive reasons, patricia
for offensive ones, mcdaniel

 

[RobertWeathers]

Add Caserio to that list.

Of course. I was just thinking about coaches.

 

[pats4life12]

To me it depends on what you want. They are both great at different thing. If you want the time management of football and obviously defense you would go with Patricia. Well if you want someone who will watch and analyze film like nobody else and focus on the offense you would go with McDaniels. I think it all depends on how you want your team to run, this is why the Patriots coaching staff is second to none so many good coaches with so many good skills.

 

[Kontradiction]

I would agree on McDaniels, but I wouldn't call Patricia "expendable." Belichick didn't win his 4th ring as HC until after patricia became DC. The D really struggled from 2005-2013. Our D hasn't been this good in a while, and I would like to think Patricia is a big reason for that.

Patricia was also the DC during those lean years. I wouldn't call him "expendable" either. But he is more "expendable" than McDaniels is.

 

[Big Bucks]

I think Scarneccia has allowed McDaniels to play how he has. BB has influence over Patricia. Its a close one..

 

[BradyFTW!]

Reports: Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia job interviews scheduled

To summarize, it looks like Patricia is interviewing this weekend with the Rams and Chargers, while McDaniels is interviewing with the Rams, Jaguars, and 49ers. (side note: I'm fine with hopelessly bad teams interviewing one of our guys, but come on Rams, do you really need to make a run at both of them?)

I know we can't keep them both forever, but man, I really hope they'll both decide to stay for another year or two. I assume one is informally working on the assumption/knowledge that they're Belichick's eventual heir, and that the other one is likely gone within the next year or two at most.

The upside: the four jobs being thrown around here are all pretty bad. If our guys have been listening to Belichick/learning from Mangini and are holding out for an opportunity with solid ownership, that rules out the 49ers and Chargers right away. The Rams' ownership is loyal, at least, but the organization has little in the way of assets to help its next coach build a winning team. And the Jaguars are almost in a worse position because they're terrible but they're overrated for being underrated - enough people think they're on the cusp of being good that whoever goes there could easily end up with a shorter leash than anyone inheriting a godawful team should have. Shad Kahn is still an unknown as an owner, but I don't recall him doing anything so overtly dumb that he could be reasonably called a bad owner or anything like that.

I think the best coach/job combo that has a chance of yielding success is McDaniels to the Jaguars, but only if ownership is willing to punt on Bortles and trade for Garoppolo as part of the deal. And I'm not sure that McDaniels is eager to be put in that position again, given how much everyone in Denver still hates him for not rolling out the red carpet for Cutler, even though the last 8 years have vindicated McDaniels' assessment of Cutler a hundred times over. Ironically, one of the few openings that would worry me a little is McDaniels to Denver, but that bridge has been torched so thoroughly that I'd bet Denver is a non-starter for both of them.

Seeing this list makes me more hopeful than I've been in a while that McDaniels and Patricia might both be here next year. I totally understand and respect that one or both of them will have to go at some point, and I'll wish them the best of luck when they do, but if they're holding out for good opportunities, I don't see today's list bringing any compelling offers their way.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Chip would get too far away from a balanced offense I think. One thing I love about McDaniels is how he's matured over the past 10 years as a coach, I don't think Chip is at that level of maturity quite yet but I suppose coming in under BB would be a great way to grow up.

Pretty much agreed. I think Chip could be useful as an offensive special assistant of some kind, kinda like Dom Capers was for the defense in 2008. He's a very intelligent guy who has real insight that I think could help the team on play design, offensive philosophy, and practice philosophy. But I wouldn't go any further than that, certainly wouldn't name him OC or anything. The Pats already have an offense that works just fine, and we have guys internally who can step up and coordinate it if the need arises. I'd take that over the alternative of bringing in some big name assistant any day.

 

[luuked]

McDaniels. The real genius behind these defenses is Belichick. Patricia is far more expendable.

I think you are underselling how much of an art efficient defensive play calling can be. Especially when you are trying to be a gameplan defense with a lot of average, niche players and not a unit that just plays their predictable game every week (think Denver defense).

Yes, BB has his fingers in the general setup of game plans and whatnot but he is not calling any defensive plays. IMHO Patricia's biggest strength is his quick thinking under pressure and how he mixes and matches coverages and assignments to keep our unit from being predictable.

 

[luuked]

Pretty much agreed. I think Chip could be useful as an offensive special assistant of some kind, kinda like Dom Capers was for the defense in 2008. He's a very intelligent guy who has real insight that I think could help the team on play design, offensive philosophy, and practice philosophy. But I wouldn't go any further than that, certainly wouldn't name him OC or anything. The Pats already have an offense that works just fine, and we have guys internally who can step up and coordinate it if the need arises. I'd take that over the alternative of bringing in some big name assistant any day.

If I were Chip I'd take a year off and do some kind of consultant role with the best in the business to expand my horizon and gain experience. I don't really want him as OC but having him on the staff for a year -- especially during the preseason/TC -- could be an amazing way to keep evolving our offense.

 

[Froob]

I'd be worried about hiring Patricia, Bill has such a large hand in the defense. I'm sure he's very involved in the offense too...But I feel like McDaniels probably has more free reign.

 

[BradyFTW!]

On the tangentially related topic of (former) Patriots assistants, the Jets fired a bunch of theirs today, including Pepper Johnson. I was bummed when he left, but given that that line and linebacker play has improved since his departure, it's hard to argue we've missed him.

 

[rookBoston]

I think the question isn't which of MP or JMcD is more indispensable. In the end, the train will keep rolling even, so long as BB is at the helm.

More to the point is which position, OC or DC, is our coaching bench strength stronger?

My sense is that the Pats have been grooming Brian Daboll for an OC role for a while, and he's been waiting patiently with the expectation that Josh will get a HC job some time. And my guess is that Josh Boyer is the presumptive next man up at DC. But just guessing.

Belichick is always growing and grooming talent. Not just players, coaches too. He'll have a succession plan in place. This is not something I lose too much sleep over.

 

[Tony2046]

Would it make sense to bring Chip Kelly should Josh leave the job ? Or would he ruin the Pats offensive system trying to "Oregon" it ?

In my novice opinion Chip would be a horrible fit and could affect the defense as well. Sure you'd get high scoring possibilities with the hurry up stuff but if you run into a solid defense you're off the field just as quick leaving little rest time between drives for the defense.

 

[Flash]

Unrelated, but if they leave, I'm assuming that at least one of Daboll and Flores will take over OC/DC respectively?

 

[Bradyking12]

I wonder how old Steve Belichick is cause maybe BB pass him the torch somepoint in the future and I see BB coaching for a long time so SB should be old enough by then to be our next HC or maybe something like Steve Belichick as our HC and BB as our GM in the future