For the past two decades and beyond, the Patriots coaching staff was essentially made up of FOBs, as in friends of Bill Belichick.
Now, we’re getting a healthy dose of FOEs, otherwise known as friends of Eliot Wolf, who may or may not be the Patriots general manager, but is sure acting like one.
Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, and now Ben McAdoo, who is reportedly coming aboard as a senior offensive assistant, all crossed paths with Wolf in Green Bay when he was in the Packers front office.
Connecting the dots, McAdoo was the Packers quarterback coach while Van Pelt was the team’s running backs coach during the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Montgomery, meanwhile, was an assistant working with the Packers defense from 2015-17.
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So there’s a distinct Wolf flavor to the hires, given he held various titles (director of pro personnel, director of player personnel, and director of football operations) with Green Bay between 2012 and 2017.
Then there’s this: When you consider McAdoo is coming on board with the Carolina Panthers still paying him, according to a source, it’s obvious the Belichick playbook hasn’t totally left the building.
That said, with head coach Jerod Mayo having a limited rolodex of coaching connections, and Wolf having a wider network to cast from having been with Green Bay, Cleveland and now with New England since 2020, it makes sense for the latter to utilize his resources.
By process of elimination, Wolf is the only one in the front office hierarchy with multiple outside connections, so the Patriots now have a slew of hires from the Green Bay coaching tree.
As it is, the overall pool wasn’t exactly rich with prospective coaching hires wanting to come to New England, particularly on the offensive side of the ball.
Even with the promise of spending, and the No. 3 overall pick in the upcoming draft, the road to reviving that unit isn’t going to be an easy fix given the gaping holes at quarterback (Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe aren’t the answer), offensive tackle (Trent Brown and Michael Onwenu are free agents), tight end (Hunter Henry, Mike Gesicki and Pharaoh Brown are free agents), and receiver (no sign of a No. 1).
All of the above comes on the heels of the Patriots being tied for having the NFL’s worst offense averaging just 13.9 points per game. In recent years, they’re also among the lowest spending teams on personnel.
And it’s anyone’s guess what the Patriots are offering to pay their coaches nowadays.
With Belichick starting the trend of bringing back coaches who had been on his staff that were still being paid by previous employers (Matt Patricia, Joe Judge, Bret Bielema), that’s been a trend that’s helped the budget. He also brought back coaches he was comfortable working with (Josh McDaniels, Bill O’Brien).
With the exception of Mayo hiring DeMarcus Covington as his defensive coordinator, after working alongside him the past half-dozen years, there’s a wealth of new blood on the coaching staff, particularly on the offensive side.
The new hires, however, don’t exactly move the public relations meter. Teams with openings weren’t exactly clamoring to hire either McAdoo or Van Pelt.
McAdoo was unemployed last year, and without a job four out of the past seven seasons. He was run out of New York for benching Super Bowl hero Eli Manning in favor of Geno Smith, a move that ended Manning’s ironman streak. Although in hindsight, that really wasn’t a bad choice considering Manning was fading, and Smith has ultimately proven he can play.
As mentioned above, the Panthers are still on the hook for his salary. They signed him to a three-year deal in 2022 as their offensive coordinator, per source.
So there’s term remaining on the contract, meaning the Patriots don’t have to pay him much of anything as an assistant given the offsets in the deal.
Van Pelt, meanwhile, was somehow let go by the Browns even after producing enough offense to win 11 games with five different quarterbacks. He apparently didn’t click with Deshaun Watson, or get enough out of the star who is being paid a fortune by the Browns. It’s also important to note that even though he’s been an offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach, he really hasn’t done much in the way of play calling.
It’s not out of the realm for the Van Pelt-McAdoo combo to get more out of the offense and quarterback room than what was witnessed the past two seasons. McAdoo does have a history of being a good quarterback evaluator.
In the end, the new coaches will only be as good as the players around them. They might elevate lesser players (see Dante Scarnecchia), but talent still matters. If McAdoo and Van Pelt help the Patriots pick the right quarterback in the draft, that will do more for the Patriots than any single coach on the staff.
Of course, the expectation was for more of a coaching splash, having Mayo surrounded by a more heralded supporting cast.
Given the Patriots current plight, that wasn’t in the cards. By the looks of it, they’re on to the Friends of Eliot filling out the staff, and rolling with that in 2024.
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