Thank you for your expertise all these years. I look forward to the mailbag every week! My question is, now that Mike Vrabel is our coach, who do you like as our offensive and defensive coordinators? I hear rumors of Josh McDaniels and Robert Saleh, but I don't know if Vrabel would go that route. Any thoughts on this? – Matt K.
It certainly sounds like Josh McDaniels is a strong candidate if not the leader in the clubhouse for the offensive coordinator position. On defense, I'd be surprised if Saleh winds up as the choice. Saleh is a good defensive coordinator who has had success, but typically his system varies greatly from what the Patriots have run in the past. Now, that doesn't mean Vrabel will continue to want to use the old Patriots system, but that would be my guess. As for McDaniels, I'm a little concerned about his system being very difficult on quarterbacks and how Drake Maye would handle learning a second set of terminology in two years. But McDaniels has a reasonable track record of success and would make sense given his familiarity with the organization and his relationship with Vrabel.
Everyone is saying that we throw the bag at Tee Higgins. No! Everyone should know that wide receivers that start catching the injury bug which he has over the last two years keep the injury bug. This is my take on what the Patriots should do this offseason. It's very simple and won't cost a lot. With the fourth pick we take defensive tackle Mason Graham. This dude is a beast, he is a monster and he is a alpha. He will put some teeth into our DL. Second and many of you will not agree with me. Throw the bag at free agent linebacker Nick Bolton from Kansas City. This dude is only 24 years old and only knows how to win. He is not even in his prime and teams will be chomping at the bit to pay him. We have the cash. Let's pay this man to put teeth into our linebackers. Now Cam Robinson is a tackle that has been in the league for a long time yet he is only 29 years old. You do not last long in this league if you are weak. Let's sign him up to take on one of the tackle spots. Now my final acquisition would not be Tee Higgins but what about signing Amari Cooper on a veteran safe deal? We have some very young wideouts that need to be given the opportunity to grow. Cooper is a young 30 with over 10,000 yards receiving in this league. He can be a player coach to some of our young bucks. Then with the rest of our picks we can focus on adding depth to our offensive line. – Danie Sanchez
I don't really have much of a problem with any of the individual moves you are proposing. All of them make sense in one way or another. I would disagree with some of your reasoning, however, and that would start with the idea that Cooper at 30 and dealing with injuries is a better option than Higgins at 25 dealing with injuries. Cooper is an excellent receiver and I'd be in favor of signing him to a deal, but not instead of Higgins. Higgins is in his prime while Cooper has played in just 14 games over the past two seasons. Higgins will cost more to sign because he's the much better option at this point. I like Bolton a lot but would be surprised if the Chiefs allowed him to walk. He's also a young guy who has battled injuries, like Higgins, but he's an excellent player in his prime and will generate plenty of interest if KC does let him go. Robinson makes sense as a stop gap to give a rookie draft pick some time to develop, and Mason Graham is an excellent player up front and will be in the mix in the top 10. I'd rather go for a wideout, edge player or tackle, but Graham certainly is worthy of consideration. Overall, I like the work you've done here!
Does Ben Johnson give you any Adam Gase vibes? Offensive scheme genius, offensive coordinator experience with no head coach experience, odd/unique personality. Not saying he will turn out like Gase but I thought there were similarities. I can't remember if Gase's offenses were top 5 like Johnson but I thought he had some good offenses in Denver. – Dan Kim
I don't see many similarities between the two at all. Gase's success as offensive coordinator in Denver came during Peyton Manning's record-breaking season in 2013. When he was in Chicago in 2015 the Bears struggled, finishing 18th in offense. As for personality traits, Johnson has a reputation for being demanding of the players, but I haven't heard or seen anything out of the ordinary. Johnson's work in Detroit, with Jared Goff as his quarterback, has been much more impressive than anything done by Gase. Obviously, you never know how a coordinator is going to fare as a head coach until he gets that opportunity. Some like Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan have worked well. Others like Kliff Kingsbury and Gase did not. We'll see how it goes for Johnson.
I trust Robert Kraft's desire to fix it 100 percent but does the organizational decision making since 2019 and the loss of the No. 1 pick give you any doubts that they are able to execute the fixing even if Maye proves to be a legit starter in this league? – Frank Goremann
My confidence in the organization stems from more than two decades of success, and I believe they can get back to that level in time. Certainly, there have been several missteps in the recent past that have caused all of us to have some concern. But trying to fix one of them immediately by moving on from Jerod Mayo and hiring Mike Vrabel is definitely a move in the right direction. And I'm not overly worried about moving from No. 1 to 4 in the draft. The important thing is picking good players to help the team, regardless of draft position.
I am surprised that the Patriots did not ask to interview Brian Flores. His one year as de facto defensive coordinator I felt he improved the defense. Much more gang tackling and attacking to my eye. Then he took over a horrible Miami team destined for the cellar and drove it to an amazing, but still poor record of wins. Then really improved it the next year only to have it collapse the next year and quarrel with the owner. Is there something that happened with the Pats tenure at the end? Is it possibly his suit vs the NFL? What is your knowledge/opinion re: this? – David Brown
Flores did a great job with the defense during his time with the Patriots, and his stint with Miami was promising at times as well. His issues there had to do with his relationship with Tua Tagovailoa, which are well documented. Tagovailoa was very critical of the way Flores treated him, and that was ultimately why he lost his job. The Patriots obviously have a young quarterback so the idea that Flores might not be the best option would make some sense. More likely his trouble with the Dolphins was more about not wanting Tagovailoa in the first place but still it's worth considering. His subsequent litigation against the league has no doubt played a role as well, but his name is starting to circulate more among the coaching vacancies, and we will see if he winds up getting one of the openings.
I ask again, should Eliot Wolf be retained? Jerod Mayo was set up to fail. He was never a play calling coordinator, never knew another offensive or defensive system other than the Patriots system, making him less able to make in game adjustments, was supported by first time coordinators and a first time General Manager or whatever his title is, who made only one good draft choice, Drake Maye, who was the consensus best quarterback left in the draft, so who else was he going to select? Wolf also said that he was comfortable with the offensive line early in the season so he's not much of a talent coordinator. – RA Eaves
Wolf will not likely be here in the same capacity that he was last year, but I would also say he was in his first year in the job just like Mayo was so why not show some patience? Many believe Mayo was set up to fail, but few believe Wolf was put in a bad spot at the same time. Maybe Wolf can grow with some time and become more effective as a personnel man. But my guess is Vrabel will want to work with his own people and have more of a say in personnel matters going forward.
Do you think there should be five to 10 candidates being talked to? This way we can get lots of views and grow our own contacts in the coaching world as I feel we have been trapped in to the Bill Belichick coaching/management tree and thinking? – Rob Feander
I agree with your premise here. Identifying Mike Vrabel as the top choice made a lot of sense, but that shouldn't have prevented the organization from speaking to several candidates in an effort to learn about them, their ideas and even how other teams are operating. A coaching search should serve as a fact-finding mission as well as a way to fill an opening. Vrabel is an excellent choice and we're all excited to see what he brings. But I do think not speaking to more than three other people was a lost opportunity.
I hope I get an answer for this, but I am not sure where to find it. Middle fourth quarter with the Patriots up by one, third down and goal from the 24-yard line. According to the ESPN feed, the Pats got a touchdown but also a holding penalty. Then it showed the TD was overruled as an incomplete pass, but the holding penalty was declined. First, did it happen this way? Secondly, if Buffalo declined this penalty this is the most blatant tanking in history. I don't see any mention of this anywhere. How can this be? If the pats lost a pick on a debatable deflation of a ball, then surely the Bills have to take a hit for this, if it happened. –Thomas O'Connell
The sequence did in fact unfold that way. The Bills initially were going to accept the penalty, but when it was ruled incomplete it created fourth-and-goal from the 24, so Buffalo declined it. I would have done the same thing if I were the coach, rather than giving the Patriots another chance at the touchdown or risking a penalty. The Patriots would be in field goal range either way – accepting the penalty would have turned the 42-yarder into a 52-yarder. But it also would have forced the Bills to defend another third-down play, and that creates more opportunities for the offense. If the penalty knocked the Patriots out of field goal range, then perhaps the risk of replaying the down would have been worth it. I don't believe it was for the Bills … who were simply looking to get home healthy at that point anyway.
Dan Campbell went 3-13 his first year on the Lions. The next year, 9-8, then 13-3, then 15-2. We knew we were projected to win about 3-5 games this year. Losing magnifies mistakes, which rookie coaches will make. Was this a knee-jerk, pressured reaction by the Krafts to fire Jerod? I mean, he's a rookie head coach with a horrible roster. I felt like he deserved at least a second season. What say you? – Heber Guerra
I hear a lot of references to Campbell's first year with the Lions, and few point out how much better a terrible team began to play down the stretch. Detroit went 3-3-1 in its final seven games and was very competitive during the second half of that season. Fans could see the team was headed in the right direction. The Patriots got blown out by Arizona and the Chargers down the stretch, and the Bills resting their starters in the finale was the only reason they didn't finish with a seven-game losing streak. I understand Mayo was in his first year and I agree he probably deserved more time to find his way given the lack of talent he had to work with. But I also don't believe he did a great job handling things and that's probably why he didn't get a second year.
Now that we have irresponsibly won a meaningless last game and have dropped to position No. 4 in the draft, it's time to look at the options. Do you think the following trade would be a wise move for us: With interest rising for Joe Milton, how about a possible trade with the Giants for the No. 3 position, their second-round pick (plus another Giants pick if we can get it) for our 4 position and Milton? Would the chance to draft Travis Hunter be worth this trade? – Nader Vaez
I'm not sure the Giants would be willing to trade a second-round pick for Milton. Milton is a sixth-round pick who played in one game against exclusively backups and now he's worth a second-rounder plus another pick? I don't see it. Milton has some value for the Patriots as a potential backup next season and I wouldn't trade him unless someone wanted to do something silly and overpay for him. I would definitely do the trade you proposed if I were the Patriots.
DISCLAIMER: The views and thoughts expressed in this article are those of the writer and don't necessarily reflect those of the organization. Read Full Disclaimer
