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I appreciate your opinion, BUT..... I think you VASTLY overstated the lack of coaching and the attitude of the team. This was a team that too often performed sloppily, but it was NOT a team that was in disarray. It won 8 games for god's sake. It was a record that was not up to OUR high standards, but given your description of it that was a lot of wins. I think the defense was FULLY bought in, and they played like it. The offense clearly wasn't effective enough to get to the playoffs, BUT there were other issues beyond just coaching that played into that regression.Last year was the antithesis of what Ken describes in his point 3, first quote. I think that the setup with Judge/Patricia was doomed before it started, with all the second guessing and sniping at Bill‘s decision making to put them in charge that started even before training camp opened. Players were predisposed to question, not buy in, and even the slightest issue was magnified and things snowballed out of control. It didn’t help that there were lots of major issues. Result was the entire team did not buy into their coaching, checked out, and freelanced with sandlot plays like that Meyers lateral fiasco. (And can you believe folks wanted to keep him after that reversion to Pop Warner?)
Biggest question I see for this year is not OL or lack of WR talent or any of the usual questions. It is whether players buy into their coaching. I’d expect that locker room chemistry will be a big factor in roster building. Thinking about it, I wonder if Hopkins is a dead issue just because of his fraught history with BOB and the attendant risk that their relationship would be shaky when the team needs rock solid alignment between players and coaches. In the same vein I’ll be interested to see how much leash BOB and BB give Bourne after he was reportedly a ringleader in the dissent last year. Likewise, Jack Jones will be another interesting player to watch. I expect early training camp cuts will likely include a lot of housecleaning, cutting players whose attitudes aren’t buying into the Patriot Way element of belief in their coaches.
When Bill announced his decision to use Patricia and Judge to run the offense I had my misgivings like many did here, BUT I also knew that good coaches can coach any position. Bill was a defensive genius but never played a down of defense in college. Josh was a pretty good QB coach, who never played the position and came into the organization as a defensive assistant. You can go on for hours about coaches who SUCCESSFULLY coached positions they were personally unfamiliar with.
I also believe, at the time, that they were a holding action to fill in until BOB arrived. It's just my inference from all the evidence. But if it had gone smoothly, then Patricia would now be the OL coach and Judge and offensive assistant. Clearly it didn't work out and Patricia is gone and Judge seems to be back with ST's. Was it a mistake to wait for BOB, only time will tell. I don't think last year's team was going to compete for a Superbowl, but I did think it would make the playoffs....and they almost did.
Do you have a right to complain. Damned right. But was it as bad as you portrayed?....I don't think so. Now we will just have to see if the wait was worth the cost.