How important will coaching be for Patriots in 2025

Beasley Digital

Zolak and Bertrand, with Joe Murray and Paul Perillo, evaluate how important coaching will be in 2025 for the Patriots.

Transcript

00:00How much will the Patriots take advantage of bad football this season?

00:04So that's the thing I'm most excited about with the coaching staff

00:07is I feel like there were opportunities to do that last year that they missed.

00:11And I'm thinking specifically, Zoe, of games where –

00:16Yeah, at the end of the half.

00:17Miami, Seattle.

00:18You're handing away free possessions when you're in good shape.

00:22I don't think they'll be doing things like that anymore.

00:24And you think you get to Chicago where they had a good first half.

00:27You think, okay, now they're starting to come around.

00:28They're starting to figure some things out.

00:30They've got to eliminate their bad football first before they take advantage of other people's bad football.

00:34But there are going to be mistakes.

00:36There are definitely holes in the roster.

00:38You talked about the pressure on Will Campbell up front.

00:43So they're going to give up a sack and get behind the chains and have to punt.

00:46Yeah.

00:46But it doesn't have to mean –

00:49Play good defense on the other side.

00:50Yeah, you're punting away the chance to win the game.

00:52Right.

00:53So I do feel like they'll be in better situations, Joe.

00:57Clock management.

00:58That should be better.

00:59Play calls.

01:00To me, it was as much about the play calls in some of those situations as it was the pure clock management.

01:06You know?

01:07Sure.

01:07We're going to slow it down.

01:08We're going to make this the last possession of the half until it's third and 12.

01:11That's going to throw.

01:12Yeah.

01:12And give the other team a free possession with 45 seconds to go get a late field goal.

01:18Like that kind of stuff, I think, will be minimized.

01:20So one of the quotes – and Karen Gregan had a write-up on MassLive.

01:26Quote, what I've tried to tell the players is right.

01:29I don't know if we're good enough to take advantage of bad football teams.

01:31I'm unsure.

01:32He went on to say, we're undefeated right now, but if we can just work towards taking advantage

01:36of bad football and being good enough to when somebody makes a mistake capitalizing on it.

01:41I think they have enough experience on the coaching staff to know when to take advantage.

01:47And hopefully – I'm not big on the Josh McDaniels thing only because nobody was knocking on his door.

01:52But what I think he is good at is taking – if it's there, take it, right?

01:57The other thing he's good at is risk, meaning turnover-worthy plays.

02:03So I think if they can manage that against mistakes, they will have success.

02:07I agree.

02:08If you find a way – if you're playing against teams that are – I was talking about all the different teams

02:14that they face that I think Patriots fans think they're going to have an edge against.

02:18Cleveland, Tennessee, Giants.

02:21When you're playing against those teams, if you win the turnover battle or at least it's even,

02:27you protect the football, you're going to have an opportunity to win every one of those games.

02:31You want to give a team that's equal or lesser in talent than you?

02:35You want to give them extra opportunities, you're going to lose because you're not good enough to overcome that.

02:41The margin for error is still small like it has been the last couple of years.

02:46But I think that – I think you're right about McDaniels too, Joe, to include him in this.

02:51He's, you know, he's risk-averse.

02:53He's not going to put the ball in harm's way unless he has to.

02:57Yep.

02:58I'll just bring this up.

02:58I've been a hater of the offensive coordinator for years.

03:02Like, easy –

03:03A hater?

03:05Yeah, he's a hater.

03:06He hated Billy.

03:07He hates Josh.

03:08Yeah.

03:09The reason why is I –

03:11No good reason.

03:12So you don't like the offense because it's the same offense.

03:14No, no.

03:15I'll say this.

03:16I thought Mac Jones' second year, I thought Matt Patricia improved, and I thought Mac Jones improved.

03:25I think you're out of your mind.

03:26I know, but Mac Jones did have a good final four weeks.

03:29That's a fact.

03:30He did.

03:31Mac Jones handed the ball off 27 times in a row, and again, they were losing 24-7 against Buffalo.

03:36Correct.

03:36Late in that season.

03:37It was the most maddening offensive approach I've ever watched.

03:41I'm completely convinced they wanted to lose the game by the fewest amount of points possible rather than trying to win it.

03:47Correct.

03:48I love your pushback, by the way.

03:49I mean that as like –

03:50That game is obviously, you know, struck a nerve with me because that game still –

03:54It was like Kansas City too.

03:55They didn't even – Kansas City was the same.

03:58Yep.

03:58They didn't even try.

03:59We don't want to give up on numbers against our defense.

04:00They didn't even try to win games.

04:02You're right.

04:03They were just trying to lose by the fewest amount of points possible.

04:05Did they play Jared Stidham in that game too, if I'm not mistaken?

04:08No.

04:08Or is that the wrong game?

04:09Or that was a Monday night game where they just kind of –

04:11Yeah, the Jared Stidham game was in COVID, and that was –

04:13Brian Hoyer started, and Stidham, I think, came in.

04:16But my point was is I know that Belichick wanted Patricia to come back,

04:21and it didn't happen.

04:22They just brought Bill O'Brien in.

04:23I hated the move.

04:24It never worked out.

04:25He was suspect.

04:26It never worked out.

04:27I didn't like what they did last year.

04:29I haven't liked the – the easiest thing to do on this radio station

04:32has been to complain about the offensive coordinator.

04:34So when they bring Josh McDaniels back, I'm only complaining

04:38because I don't know how he will do without Brady and or Belichick.

04:41I don't know.

04:41He's never been successful.

04:43It's an easy – maybe it's a lazy take.

04:45I don't think it's a lazy take, and I would just say this,

04:48and I haven't really talked to Zoe about this a lot over the years

04:52because I like to get Zoe's sort of offensive thoughts

04:57when we're talking about different elements.

04:59It's like to me, I feel like it's a little bit more like the lazy take

05:04is complaining about play calling.

05:07But I don't think it's lazy to like or not like a guy's scheme.

05:11And I think the Patriots offense obviously has been wildly successful

05:16for 25 years.

05:17The schemes that they did starting – it's that Ray Perkins,

05:21Ron Earhart offense that Charlie Weiss had,

05:24and it went into Josh McDaniels and Billy O'Brien.

05:27They all had a lot of success with it.

05:30If you don't like that scheme now, maybe you think it's –

05:33maybe the time has come that's kind of passed it by a little bit.

05:36That, to me, is an argument to be made.

05:38I like it because of the protections.

05:40I think it's a little overrated.

05:40Yeah, I like it because of the protections.

05:42You're allowed to correct things up at the line of scrimmage

05:43if you see something.

05:44Switch the protection.

05:45Make different line calls.

05:47Get some extra help there, not just like, hey,

05:48we're going to run what we call.

05:50Like that West Coast, let's play fast.

05:51We're going to run it.

05:53Yeah, that becomes more problematic when you don't have guys

05:55that can't think on a run.

05:56I've been doing –

05:57It's interesting.

05:58I've been doing some research.

05:59I've been down on McDaniels, and it's been an easy take for me

06:02to just say, hey, I thought Thomas Brown would have been their guy.

06:05I thought he was qualified to be the guy.

06:07They got them both, so it's probably good.

06:09But as I look into it, like the Patriots –

06:11Drake May was 33rd amongst quarterbacks last year in yards per completion.

06:16Like that needs to be higher.

06:19But when I look at McDaniels' track record, he's gotten a lot of yards per completion.

06:25Like even with Jimmy Garoppolo and Carr and other guys.

06:28So I do think that there are some positives for McDaniels being here,

06:32and the number one thing I think is turnovers for Drake May.

06:35If we're going to attack Drake May on anything, yeah, he's got one win.

06:39But he has high-risk plays.

06:41But when I looked into it, McDaniels has gone downfield a lot more than just the open guy.

06:46So maybe they're going to change that here in New England this year.

06:50I mean, we'll see what the offense ends up morphing into.

06:53Their offense in general has been very slot-heavy.

06:58The yards – you know, the air yards on throws has not been overly high.

07:03Even with – I mean, obviously the 07 kind of era there was a little bit of an outlier.

07:09Prior to that and sort of after that, it was a little bit more –

07:12you know, just the precision of Tom Brady.

07:15Right.

07:15That's my concern, though, is you said like the West Coast requires you to –

07:20if you can't think quickly on your feet, it's hard.

07:23Because if something breaks down, there's no checks.

07:26Sure.

07:27I wonder if you need someone as gifted as Brady, not just physically, more so mentally,

07:34to run that offense to that level where it's highly productive.

07:39Because, I mean, Brady ran, I don't know,

07:41eight or ten of the highest-scoring offenses, you know, of the last 25 years.

07:48But to me, that was Brady.

07:50Yeah.

07:50A lot of it was Tom.

07:51A lot of it was Tom.

07:52Hey, if you liked that clip, check out more videos from Zolak and Bertrand right here.

07:56For more Patriots analysis and opinion, hit this playlist.

08:01And for all the latest from the Sports Hub, download the app at 985thesportshub.com.

08:06I'm going to be right back.

08:07And then, I'll be right back.

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