FOXBOROUGH – Along with having a questionable left side of the offensive line, and a receiver room that’s still lacking even with Stefon Diggs, there’s at least one more concern that could hinder the offense in 2025.
Learning Josh McDaniels‘ offense.
The prospects of Drake Maye and the receiving corps having to learn a completely new system – one in the past that was considered incredibly complex – stands as a possible monkey wrench.
McDaniels was born and raised in the Ron Erhardt-Ray Perkins system, which was passed on to Charlie Weis. Following Weis’ departure, McDaniels and Tom Brady took the baton from there, and took it to another level, with the degree of difficulty expanding.
Most got it. Some didn’t.
See Chad Ochocinco and Joey Galloway, among others, for details.
McDaniels, who met with the media Thursday, has certainly made tweaks over the years, mostly due to fitting the scheme to his quarterback (Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett, Cam Newton, Mac Jones).
He doesn’t foresee any issues with Maye figuring it out and is confident others won’t have much of a problem. Maye indicated during a recent interview that he had been watching Brady film on his own to try and get ahead.
McDaniels, who was asked quite a few questions about the offense, believes the difficulty narrative has been largely overblown.
“There will be a period of adjustment,” McDaniels acknowledged, “but I don’t think that will be a big deal.”
In some ways, McDaniels, who is returning for his third tour with the Patriots, is the most important coach on the staff outside of Mike Vrabel.
His relationship with Maye, his ability to further develop the young quarterback and take him to the next level, will go a long way toward the success or failure of the Patriots.
McDaniels said Thursday he was already “smitten” with the Patriots quarterback, just by conversations they’ve had.
Perhaps he’s already gotten the sense that Maye is a smart guy, and won’t’ have a problem adapting.
As for the others, the receivers in particular, that’s to be determined.
Speaking with former Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel earlier in the year, he put the McDaniels system into perspective.
“It’s a wordy offense,” Cassel said. “There’s a lot of different motions, a lot of check-with-me’s, but once you learn the foundation of the offense, particularly, the motions, how we call plays ….when you start to compartmentalize those, and understand it, it is a quarterback friendly offense. Josh McDaniels will put you in a position to be successful.”
It was interesting to hear McDaniels say that he and members of the coaching staff have been working to make the language more player-friendly. So overblown or not, fixes were needed.
“Our language has been refined a little bit between last year with the time that I had and then this spring with the coaches. I think that it’s really getting streamlined,” he said. “It’s been great to have their perspective on it. Just being in the same type of language for my entire career has been good, and probably in some ways, it’s been a little different than most coaches.
“So, these guys have done a tremendous job of helping us streamline it. What’s most important is that the players can digest whatever it is we want to do.”
As for the Ochocinco’s of the world who struggled picking up the system, McDaniels still bet on this group not having a problem. The coaching staff would make sure of it.
“I would argue we have a lot of guys that did get it pretty well, but I understand the point and the question, and that’s always going to be the case,” he said. “There might be some guys that have a little bit of a harder time of getting something, and part of our responsibility is to take those things we’re learning about the players and try to figure out, ‘Okay, if he can learn this but not this, this, and this, then we’ve got to try to do more of that.’
“So, a big part of that is the decision-making process that we need to go through once we start to get familiar with the players that we have.”
If all else fails, McDaniels seemed willing to morph, adapt and do whatever was needed to get everyone on the same page.
Said McDaniels: “The strategy and what we end up doing eventually will be all about what’s best for our players and how we can maximize the guys here.”
