The Patriots are staying away from coaching titles and labels heading into the 2022 season since Bill Belichick declared in March that he’s not “big” on them.
But there is more clarity emerging from New England, at least for Joe Judge.
The former Giants head coach was the Patriots’ special teams coordinator from 2015-2019, adding receivers coach to his duties in that final season. Judge was hired back with New England as an “offensive assistant” earlier this offseason, with Albert Breer of SI.com reporting that Judge was expected to work with quarterbacks. While the Patriots had not confirmed that to this point, Judge did in his Monday press conference.
“I am working with Mac [Jones], along with some other people; I work with all the skill [groups],” Judge said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN. “I’d say all of us are working collectively as a coaching unit to work with the entire offense…in terms of who is coaching each position, you’ll see me with the quarterbacks…”
Judge added that he feels it’s important for all the offensive coaches to be able to work with different positions.
Judge was also asked if he’ll be the offensive play-caller and said that he didn’t know, as no decision had been told to him.
“In terms of play-calling, when coach [Belichick] declares who he wants to do it, we’ll move forward with that,” Judge said, via Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal.
In theory, the Patriots do have plenty of time to choose an offensive play-caller since the season does not start until September. But these offseason practices are still important to gain comfort with an offensive system, especially when a team has a young quarterback.
The Patriots coaches may well have all the answers and just don’t want to give them publicly. Either way, things are going to be different in New England now that Josh McDaniels departed the organization to become the Raiders’ head coach.