Patriots allegedly had Patricia working with more than just offense
A lot has been revealed about the 2022 Patriots’ team since the season ended, providing some much-needed context and details to what was seen throughout the year.
But the latest revelation about Matt Patricia caught most off guard, considering his unfavorable performance as the offensive play-caller.
Last week, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe suggested that Patricia only took over the duties as offensive coordinator as a favor to Bill Belichick. That would explain why Belichick was so adamant about his defense of Patricia, considering it was his idea all along, and why he took so much responsibility for the failure of the offense throughout the year.
However, apparently, the favors didn’t stop there.
When discussing the Patriots’ failing grades in the NFLPA’s player survey, NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry mentioned Patricia’s extra input outside of calling offensive plays. Perry alleges Patricia was actively helping design floorplans for the Gillette Stadium renovations.
"“The project has been in the works for some time. Matt Patricia, it’s my understanding, played a key role in spearheading how the football ops space would be designed. His job within the organization changed drastically going into last season when he went from a do-it-all assistant for Bill Belichick (including helping oversee the layout of new facility space) to the team’s de-facto offensive coordinator.”"
Upon first reading about this, although it seems incredibly unbelievable, it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibilities.
Patricia is known to be an intelligent man; he did almost become a rocket scientist before coaching football. Plus, he’s worked in professional football for many years and seen how different facilities are set up, providing him some more knowledge of how to improve the stadium’s amenities. So, those working on the renovations likely sought his insight because of that.
Regardless of its reasoning, though, it is still difficult to comprehend an inexperienced coach juggling all this during the season.