Pats Pulpit
The latest edition of our Patriots mailbag answers questions about Josh McDaniels, Terrell Williams, and more.
The New England Patriots coaching staff is coming together under Mike Vrabel as he has officially named all three of his coordinators. Soon will then come the important part: upgrading the talent on the roster through free agency and the draft.
So let’s talk about it all and get right into this week’s #PostPulpit mailbag.
What are the pros and cons of bringing back McDaniels? - Matt1102
New England is running it back for the third time with Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator. It may not be the most inspiring hire to some — especially with the idea of trying to find the next up-and-comer play caller — but McDaniels is one of the best in the business.
Here’s our Pro-Con list of the hire:
Pros
Experience: There wasn’t an offensive coordinator candidate on the market that comes with more experience both calling plays and working with QB’s than McDaniels. That’s big when it comes to developing Drake Maye — especially with a defensive minded head coach in Vrabel. As a play caller, McDaniels is one of the best when it comes to attacking opposing defenses and sequencing plays — a problem from Patriots’ coordinators since his departure.
Run game & Play action: One of the more under the radar parts of McDaniels’ offense is his run game. New England will get back to a more downhill power run game featuring staples such as power, counter, and wham before getting to the outside with crack toss. Yes, the fullback should return to help that.
McDaniels even incorporated some more zone runs to his run game in Las Vegas — again highlighting his versatility as a play caller — when Josh Jacobs lead the league with 1,653 rushing yards.
McDaniels then does a great job building his play-action passing game off his run game to attack second-level defenders. A Rob Gronkowski-staple called “Charles Barkley” was one of his favorites in which they would pull the backside guard to give a power look while running the tight end running the seam.
With Drake Maye now available to him the QB run game will also be incorporated in his offense. Working with Cam Newton in 2020, McDaniels showed plenty of RPO concepts and designed plays to get Newton’s legs involved — especially with a short yardage/goal line package. It may not be smart to run Maye 137 times as Newton did that season, but McDaniels has proven the ability to scheme towards a dual-threat QB.
Base passing install: Beyond the play-action pass game, I’m a big fan of McDaniels basic drop-back passing attack. He is excellent in dialing up man beaters and we’ll likely see the return of some staples such as HOSS Juke.
McDaniels’ passing attack should be a great fit with Maye who is excellent throwing over the middle of the field with anticipation. Maye’s arm talent will also allow him to access the whole...
