He’s an “offensive genius” and “great” head coaching candidate just like Adam Gase, Josh McDaniels 1.0, and a slew of other OCs with elite QBs. He failed miserably in Denver and St. Louis. I’ve found myself very frustrated with his unimaginative concepts and irrational groupings the last two years.
I know many won’t agree with me and that’s fine. If you’re looking for specific reasons: the 2017 Cooks-centric offense, especially in the red zone, was not good last year, and the team showed in the SB they were better off without designing everything around Cooks, who really wasn’t good in the red zone but was still frequently the primary target. Notice that the moment he left the game they stopped playing like scripted, first-read robots and didn’t struggle in short yardage situations any more.
This years red zone offense had been laughable with the passing game. Patterson should be in there every play inside the 10 and motioning for a potential end around sweep, forcing the defense to account for him, but he’s on the bench. Instead they had Gordon and Gronkowski, who are thrown to about 0.1% of the time, and for some buzzard reason, Hogan (instead of the quicker Dorsett who can separate quickly.). Double James White and Brady will throw it away. The broadcasters have frequently pointed out the inane receiving routes that are so easily covered close to the goal line, and how they’re literally the same plays on loop. They should be using Patterson as a backfield threat way more often than they do.
Every run / pass play is so incredibly predictable as well. I can literally call the play about 95% of the time before it’s snapped. I went to the Lions game and someone sitting next to me thought I was clairvoyant. Nope, just seen enough of McDaniels to know. Running up the middle when the line is dominated instead of trying more sweeps that actually work. Happens so often now with this offense, with several road losses being huge examples of a 1966 smash mouth game plan accidentally landing in the modern NFL.
Hindsight may be 20:20, but before Brady injured his knee catching a stupid pass, was there anyone on this entire forum who would have thought it was worth the risk for ten whole yards to have your 41 year old QB running an unnecessary trick play like that?
I’ve been ranting about his gradual stubbornness and outsmarting himself for the past two years. With the receivers and tight ends likely to turnover a lot, maybe McDaniels leaving will be good fortune.
