"He can't fire anybody" - Mike Florio believes Patriots HC Bill Belichick's situation has become over complicated
Former New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels got hired by the Las Vegas Raiders to be their new head coach. The Raiders and Jon Gruden parted ways mid-season after emails Gruden had sent a decade earlier came to light. Since then, New England has yet to figure out who will be calling the plays as offensive coordinator.
Raiders hire Josh McDaniels as new head coach. https://t.co/EqGzr7TE19
According to Tom Curran, Joe Judge (quarterback coach) and Matt Patricia (offensive line coach) will have roles working with the offense this season, while Belichick will have a major "hands on" role with the offense as well.
Since then, New England have yet to fill McDaniel's void. Mike Florio talked about the over-complicated situation that Belichick is currently in.
Florio said:
"I think the logic on the offensive side would be, you want to avoid a situation where those guys are feeling the heat."
He went on:
"And they recognize, hey, Bill's making it deliberately vague on the defensive side, so he never has to fire anybody because he can't fire his kids, which means he can't fire anybody else because then you're applying a double standard."
Florio added:
"So it's all very blurry, and it's not blurry for us. We're the ones who are getting picked on. We're the ones who are getting called out we're the ones who are potentially in jeopardy."
Florio concluded:
"So I think Bill realizes you can't blur half the team you got to blur it completely. If you're going to do this, it's got to be blurred everywhere and you're giving nobody anything about who's doing what it's gonna be fascinating to watch. We've never dealt with this before know where we don't know what the duties are of the coaches."
The Patriots are looking to win the AFC East for the first time since Tom Brady left
The New England Patriots won the AFC East from 2009 to 2019. 2020 marked the first year the Patriots didn't win the East for the first time in 11 years. The Buffalo Bills dethroned New England by winning the division. Belichick's team finished the season with a losing record of 7-9 while missing the playoffs.
It's been a long time coming...
Your Buffalo Bills are AFC East Champions. https://t.co/YTaAZqzEXk
The Bills repeated as division champions in 2021. New England improved by winning three more games, going 10-7 and making the playoffs as a wildcard team.
New England will look to become division champs again but will compete in a loaded AFC East. With quarterback Mac Jones looking to build on an impressive rookie season, they could well be the surprise package in the AFC.