The Patriots’ 2022 season will be remembered for many things, but not in a fond way. It was full of its ups and downs mixed in with a lot of confusion and frustration, not just from the fans and media but also from the team.
It was an uncharacteristic year for the Bill Belichick-led team, with several mistakes that inevitably depicted the season’s trajectory, with nearly all the worst decisions leading back to the head coach.
Hopefully, when reflecting upon the 2022 season, Belichick won’t make the same mistakes in 2023 and beyond.
The 4 biggest mistakes that doomed the Patriots in 2022
1. Making Matt Patricia the offensive coordinator AND offensive line coach
There were a lot of mixed emotions when news dropped about Josh McDaniels leaving the Patriots to become the Raiders’ next head coach last winter.
Although many had expressed their frustration with his play-calling over the years, there was a lot of concern about who would be the one to replace him. Because nobody was seemingly waiting in the wings ready for the job, most assumed that Bill Belichick would hire a great coach to fill McDaniels’ shoes, particularly Bill O’Brien.
That didn’t happen, however. Instead, the concerns that stemmed from McDaniels departure grew into utter disappointment and confusion when Matt Patricia was seen taking on the role throughout training camp and preseason.
He was recently fired from the Lions after a failed tenure as head coach and had zero experience working with an offense. Given that the offense needed some improvements and Mac Jones needed good coaching, Patricia’s new role wasn’t well received.
With Belichick’s publicly declared support, Patricia called plays throughout the season and coached the offensive line.
The play-calling that felt stale the previous season appeared light years ahead of what was seen on the field during each game. Not only was the offense not working well together, but the offensive line was also making the entire situation much more difficult.
Jones was struggling and appearing to be regressing in his second season, and many blamed the quarterback alone. But with little to no consistency, protection, or help from his offensive line and pass-catchers who had openly expressed their frustration with the offense’s direction, it left little chance of leading a successful team every week.
Fortunately and unfortunately, Robert Kraft reportedly had expressed his unhappiness with how the offensive coaching had been throughout the season and voiced his feelings to Belichick directly in their annual end-of-season meeting. This led to the hiring of Bill O’Brien to replace Patricia as the play-caller and QB coach, along with Adrian Klemm coming in as the new offensive line coach.
The 4 biggest mistakes that doomed the Patriots in 2022
2. Making Joe Judge the quarterback’s coach
After the Matt Patricia debacle, more personnel decisions Belichick made were questioned when Joe Judge was hired after he, too, was let go from head coaching duties in New York.
Despite his previous experience with the Patriots, working in multiple roles with special teams from the 2012 season through 2020, moving him to quarterbacks coach seemed like a dumpster fire in the making. And inevitably, that’s exactly how it panned out.
Mac Jones was coming off an impressive rookie season, and with the reported intense work he had been doing throughout the offseason, it was assumed he would have quite a second-year jump. Unfortunately, that feeling was lost during training camp and preseason, as the offense looked disjointed and confused, unable to make anything successful happen on the field in practice.
Much of that can be blamed on the alleged dramatically altered and simplified playbook, but Jones didn’t look much better as the season progressed. He flashed randomly in games, like against the Vikings and in the comeback effort against the Bengals, but it was clear there were issues behind closed doors in Foxboro.
Then early in the offseason, a bombshell report from The Boston Herald was published, revealing the inner struggles between coaches and the offense, particularly with Jones and Judge. It was said the two would often get into “profanity-laced outbursts,” and it was apparent to all that the quarterback did not trust nor like Judge’s coaching or behavior in meetings.
Their relationship likely impacted Jones’ performance throughout the season, along with the universal struggles with Patricia.
But things appear to be moving in the right direction, as Judge is getting a new role for next season. What that will be exactly is yet to be seen, but it’s clear it won’t be working with the quarterbacks any longer.
The 4 biggest mistakes that doomed the Patriots in 2022
3. The quarterback carousel
When Mac Jones went down at the end of the game against the Ravens with what was later revealed to be a high ankle sprain, it was immediately clear the Patriots’ season was going to be a doozy.
With a big game set for week four against the Packers, Belichick declared seasoned veteran Brian Hoyer the starter, much to the dismay of the fans. It made sense then, primarily due to Hoyer’s experience in the league and with the team. But because the quarterback hadn’t performed well in the last few games he got the start in, there wasn’t much optimism about the weeks ahead.
But the Hoyer experience lasted only a short time, as he was injured early in the game in Green Bay and was replaced by rookie Bailey Zappe.
Despite being his first start in the NFL, Zappe kept the game close all day long, even taking the Aaron Rodgers-led team into an entire quarter of overtime. Regardless of the loss, the rookie’s performance became the hottest of topics in New England and brought the excitement many had been missing.
Zappe went on to win the next two games, against the Lions and the Browns, with Jones said to be returning in week seven against Chicago.
That’s when things began moving downhill.
Although Jones’s injury was said to keep him out for a minimum of four weeks, the quarterback was back after missing just three games. He started the game against the Bears but was taken out after just three drives and replaced with Zappe.
The decision to seemingly bench Jones so early in the game was confusing, which only got more twists and turns when Belichick was questioned about the decision.
In the following weeks, Jones didn’t receive unwavering support to remain the starting quarterback from his head coach, which enabled former Patriots players and many fans to shout for Zappe’s return nearly every week until the end of the season. Unfortunately, Belichick didn’t end the speculation and proclaim Jones as QB1 for the remainder of the season, nor did he shut down the demands for Zappe.
With all that Jones had to deal with in his second season, not receiving the endorsement from Belichick couldn’t have been easy. Belichick’s stance has remained the same, as he danced around the question heading into the offseason about Jones’ future as the guy.
The 4 biggest mistakes that doomed the Patriots in 2022
4. The nonchalant responses and consistent support of Patricia and Judge
With all the drama going on around him throughout the season, Belichick’s continued support for both Patricia and Judge was a bit alarming. Even though making drastic coaching changes amidst the regular season isn’t often done, nor has Belichick done that in the past, constantly backing the obvious failures of both coaches added to the concerns surrounding the offense.
The decision to put Patricia and Judge into their roles for the season was criticized immediately, with Belichick being grilled weekly as reporters and fans saw the offense’s constant struggles in practice. The head coach remained stern in his support but eventually shut down the questioning and proclaimed all blame should go his way if play-calling etc., didn’t go well.
We know that Patricia and Judge are former Belichick guys, hence why they would be defended when questioned about their skill sets. And being optimistic about how the coaching experiment would turn out doesn’t make him a bad guy. But considering the issues with them started almost immediately last spring, publicly supporting both drew a lot of criticism from everyone watching the Patriots in 2022.
Once the season ended, reports were released detailing the tension behind the scenes that began almost immediately once Patricia and Judge were introduced to the offense. It all confirmed what we saw when watching the season unfold and put Belichick’s position in question even more, knowing he could’ve put a stop to it all long ago.