Early Analysis of the Return of Josh McDaniels to New England
The Patriots offense this past season was abysmal under now former offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. The last overall ranked passing attack featured no creativity, no way for the receivers to get separation, and featured nothing that the Patriots have done well for years. They got too far away from what made them successful and lacked an overall identity. Josh McDaniels is back for his third stint calling plays on offense after failing as a head coach for the second time. Some don’t like the move and feel it’s time to move away from his system, while others think this is exactly what the team needs. I was initially in the camp of thinking a new system would be best. But after the failed attempt to convert to the west coast offense and a new style of run game, this is exactly what the Patriots needed to do and I’m going to tell you why. This is going to be long and have some videos so bare with me.
The System
The offense the Patriots used for 20 years under McDaniels, former OC Charlie Weis, and former head coach Bill Parcells is called the Erhardt-Perkins offense. The Steelers and Giants (under Parcells) also have used it in the past. The EPO is a balanced attack of passing and running. New England had at times record setting success with the system. When throwing the ball, the receivers where schemed to get separation with the potential to get wide open. For years, the feature was an elite slot receiver. Wes Welker, Julian Edelman, Troy Brown, pick your favorite. Now it’s Demario Douglas who has had two solid seasons to start his career. All he needs is a chance to breakout and this offense can help. Welker is on the coaching free agency market, I would make that phone call as well.
The Patriots also under this offense were among the best of drawing up screen passes for the running backs and using them as receivers as a whole, which is also something they have gotten away from - which is funny because they were innovators in that department. Kevin Faulk, Shane Vereen, and most recently James White. In the super bowl against Atlanta, White took over the game which you can see here. He set records with 14 catches for 110 yards and three overall touchdowns plus a two point conversion. His 20 points and the 14 catches remain super bowl records. When the Pats brought in Antonio Gibson, the expectation is that he would slide into that roll but it never materialized which to this day makes zero sense whatsoever.
Let’s get back to separation for a second. Part of that comes when knowing when to call certain plays and knowing who you have on the field for you. Chris Hogan was an x-factor for the years he was with the team because he could get open. Take a look at this first play in the AFC championship game against the Steelers from a few years ago. Tom Brady changed the play and Hogan did the rest - click here. You should be able to get around using Facebook to open it if you use a computer or just open the app.
Now take a look at this next play from the same game. It was Hogan again and it was McDaniels with the perfect play call. The combination of competent play calling, seeing the field, and having the right people in place made this possible which you can see here. This is what was missing - the awareness to know what your guys can do well and waiting for the perfect time to call a trick play to burn the defense.
Lastly in terms of passing, although it wasn’t something they did all the time, Brady was able to push the ball down field. Having a guy like Randy Moss does help. Now Drake Maye, who might have a better deep ball arm at this stage, has Kayshon Boutte who has shown flashes of brilliance when targeted for a deep ball. You can see one example of that here and also here. McDaniels will also be able to utilize the tight group, another area where the Patriots have flourished. Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper are established, but watch out for Jaheim Bell next season.
Run Game
As we said at the top, the running attack also suffered from a case of mistaken identity. Even before the coaching change, the Patriots moved into a zone running scheme. The idea here is to attack an area of the defense both on the inside and getting the back wide on the outside. It didn’t work in part because they did not have backs who could do that, and the offensive line was just flat out bad. What worked for years was a classic power football approach in a gap scheme. In this case, it is more one on one with more emphasis on the linemen to create angles, lanes, and also uses a lead blocker - long live the fullback union! One of the best power runners the Patriots had in recent years was LeGarrette Blount and this play is a perfect example of power football in the gap scheme with a fullback leading the way. It helped Blount break the team record for rushing touchdowns in a season and why in his last year with the Patriots, he led the league with 18 rushing touchdowns. You can check out a play from a few years ago against the Rams here.
The Patriots let promising young fullback Jakob Johnson walk away from the team because they felt moving away from having a fullback and that run style would be better for them. It completely backfired. Mike Vrabel knows smash mouth football can help win games from his experience with Derrick Henry in Tennessee. Even Kevin O’Connell (Pats draft pick years ago) when he went from the Rams zone run scheme to the Vikings as a head coach knew that fullback CJ Ham was too valuable to not use him. What did he do? He saw what he had and adapted. The EPO leans on this type of run style heavily with good results. Now there is an added wrinkle to it with a mobile quarterback. Maye in the words of Vrabel called him the teams best running back this past season. Check out his 17-yard run against the Jets here.
McDaniels will need to add some college concepts and read option plays, but since Maye did get banged up a lot it will have be done carefully. Even though it didn’t work, he showed he was willing to try with the broken body of Cam Newton. Safe to say things will go better with Maye at the helm. The offensive system has been broken for a long time, but this is the perfect person to fix it and easily the best QB since Brady to run the offense. As long as he can also help clean up Maye’s turnover problem and build around him, I see no problem with McDaniels running it back in New England with the same attack that helped win six championships, all of which he was a part of in some way. He’s proven to be one of the better play callers and QB coaches in the game which is exactly what Drake Maye and company need right now.