The New England Patriots coaching staff took a big blow when Josh McDaniels left to be the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
That created a void at offensive coordinator which led to Belichick making an interesting choice for that role. He didn’t hire a true offensive coordinator and instead announced that Matt Patricia and Joe Judge would be co-leading the unit.
It seemed like a weird move to a lot of NFL media pundits, but not to former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher.
The NFL on CBS analyst thinks that Belichick knew what he was doing after McDaniels left for Las Vegas.
“Let’s not think this is something he’s working on for the first time,” Cowher said (first transcribed by NESN). “He knew Josh McDaniels was going to leave pretty much after this season. So this is something he prepared for. I remember a lot of times when I went outside of my own building in terms of bringing in a new coordinator, you find yourself coaching coaches. I think for Bill, he didn’t want to change anything for the players.”
Patricia and Judge made their debut as co-offensive coordinators last Thursday in New England’s preseason opener. The Patriots lost on a last-second field goal to the New York Giants, 23-21.
They’ll have a chance to make some adjustments before the Patriots play the Carolina Panthers in their second preseason game on Friday.