That an offense that struggled to have 14 TDs all season is instantly improved with BOB, JuJu and a new TE.
BOB got fired in Houston.
He had the 11th and 14th ranked offenses the last 2 years with Watson and Hopkins. His teams sucked with the Mac Jones type of QBs.
They went from 6th in the league in points per game and 10th in 3rd down efficiency in 2021 to 17th and 27th, respectively. That's a massive drop off with essentially the same personnel, so it's clearly a direct correlation to their issues with the offense. And it's also no coincidence that Mac Jones's two best quarters of the season were the 1st and 3rd quarter, (74.4% comp, 68.1%), which was obviously with the early game script and coming out of the locker room after halftime.
Patricia couldn't adjust on the fly as the game evolved, which was an issue all season. So yes, an experienced guy like O'Brien will definitely improve that. Say what you want about his time in Houston, but like McDaniels, he was a solid coordinator here and likely will be again. How he performed on his own as a head coach is something we've already learned doesn't mean much as things seem to go better for them here with Belichick. And I'm not a massive fan on Watson and the verdict is still out on him. So that may end up being a bad example. And you say his teams sucked with Jones types of QBs, but those are the types of guys he reached the postseason with ... so ... I don't know about that.
The Pats have the 2023 version of JuJu and not when he had AB as the # 1 WR. There is no # 1 WR on this team.
Research to see if speculation and pie in the sky dreaming is true.
Its always the same. Homers run amok.
It's not a "homer" thing, it's simply the fact that last year was last year and rather than just say "they stink" and focus on being miserable for the next four months, it certainly makes for better discussion if we look at it analytically. I also would have preferred Meyers, but at least they replaced him and brought in Smith-Schuster, who does give them a couple of dynamics that Meyers didn't have. And I'm assuming they're going to put more on Bourne, who I would say is probably one of my biggest question marks depending on whether or not he can get back to 2021 levels.
Meanwhile, Gesicki adds another dimension they've been lacking, and just having him draw coverage will help make the other guys more productive. They need to get guys into more one-on-one match-ups, which will allow them to make plays in space and hopefully create some bigger opportunities. They've got both Stevenson, Robinson and Strong, who are all terrific catching the ball out of the backfield and we already saw what Strong can do when they get him out there with room to run after the catch. The guy is crazy fast.
Obviously, Thornton is the other question, but I think they'll use him better and it seems like they feel somewhat confident coming out of last year's draft to potentially target another wideout. So that option also appears to be there after there just wasn't anyone else to target given how the trade market evolved. At the same time, that could still change as teams made moves during the draft last year, so who knows?
But I thought
@mgteich made some great points in his OP, and again, it's basically trying to look at things through a better lens. Addressing the offensive line is really the biggest key to the whole thing, as it was one of their biggest issues last season. I feel like they've already added some good depth, and I won't be disappointed if they grab another tackle in round one next month.
Needless to say, things like this are reasons why most of us are trying to look at things a little differently. I get you sort of hate everything at this point, Mac included, but it's basically a case of "we have who we have." They'll continue drafting guys behind him and exploring their options, so that will play itself out regardless. Still, they had a terrific defense last year and could have gone farther if the offense didn't fall to near the bottom of the league due to the issues I already mentioned. Even if they had been average, as bad as it was, they still might have won 10 games. So knowing that, there's reason to believe they'll be better, and that's not a "homer" thing - it's a numbers thing. You obviously don't have to agree, but at the same time, being a little less negative wouldn't be a bad thing, either.
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