New wild details about New England Patriots offensive dysfunction in 2022-23 revealed

On Thursday, the Boston Herald published a report that offered up some shocking details about the dysfunction on offense, which started in the spring and continued through the summer and well into the season.

Patricia and Judge decided to overhaul the previous offense this season with a far simpler scheme modeled after the one used by Los Angeles Rams and Super Bowl-winning head coach Sean McVay. The new system called for heavy use of play-action passes and had far fewer plays. However, the play action was eventually scrapped early on but not filled with a different set of plays and attacks in camp.

“One source described a typical training camp practice under McDaniels involving the installation of 25 pages worth of fresh run plays, another 25 of passing plays, and upwards of 40 pages for the offensive line learning protection schemes. Under Patricia and Judge? Those numbers were cut by roughly half.”

– Report on Patriots offensive dysfunction

Rumors throughout the summer hinted at consistent problems for the offense and QB Mac Jones in learning the new system.

One New England Patriots player on Bill Belichick: ‘I love coach but he (expletive) us’

Making matters worse, the offense--that was first used successfully by legendary coach Mike Shanahan--was poorly understood by many of those on the staff.

It was so bad that New England Patriots talent that had previously played in the scheme would ask questions about how to respond to certain defensive looks. The coaches rarely had answers and often replied with, “We’ll get to that when we get to that.’ That type of attitude got us in trouble. By the end, they were just making 1,000 adjustments instead of building them in at the beginning,” an anonymous player revealed.

With the playbook cut in half, blocking schemes a mess, and few good answers from coaches, players reportedly started to have doubt about if Bill Belichick was still the elite coach, he had been for the past two decades. “I just think he really didn’t understand how hard [replacing McDaniels] was going to be,” a player told the Boston Herald.

Earlier this week, the Patriots rehired one-time offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien in a widely celebrated move. However, it will likely take some time for current players to once again believe in Bill Belichick and his staff because as another anonymous player put it, “I love coach [Belichick], but he f***ed us” last season.