The New England Patriots set the NFL standard for 20 years. However, once Tom Brady left, the team has dropped in the league pecking order, especially on the offensive side of the ball. In addition to losing the greatest quarterback of all time, another reason for this fall is the inability of Bill Belichick to find the right Patriots offensive coordinator. After losing Josh McDaniels to the Las Vegas Raiders, Belichick turned to former assistants Matt Patricia and Joe Judge, the team’s former defensive and special teams coordinator. For 2023, Belichick is returning to the well once again, hiring Bill O’Brien, who at least has coached offense in the past. What he should have done, though, is hired outside his coaching tree to freshen things up at Foxborough. Here are three candidates the Patriots should have hired instead of Bill O'Brien as offensive coordinator.
Shea Tierney, New York Giants quarterbacks coach
Giants QB coach Shea Tierney is the closest thing to a former Bill Belichick assistant the coach could hire as Patriots offensive coordinator without actually hiring a former assistant.
Tierney came up at Alabama under Belichick BFF Nick Saban. In Tuscaloosa, he worked directly for former Patriots assistant Brian Daboll, and followed the coach to the Buffalo Bills, becoming assistant quarterbacks coach under then-OC Daboll and now-Bills OC Ken Dorsey.
From there, he followed Daboll again, this time moving to the Giants and helping the miraculous transformation of Daniel Jones. Tierney is likely in line to move up in New Jersey when current OC Mike Kafka gets a head coaching position this offseason or next.
Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe aren’t Danny Dimes or Josh Allen from an athletic perspective, but Daboll preaches shaping an offense to the talent, not trying to shape the roster to a set-in-stone offensive system. That’s a big learning Tierney could have brought to the Boston area.
The Saban connection is also noteworthy. Saban revitalized his Crimson Tide program nearly a decade ago by bringing in interesting and innovative OCs like Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, and even Daboll himself. Belichick could have used this hiring cycle to take a page out of that playbook.
Jim Bob Cooter, Jacksonville Jaguars passing game coordinator
No one understands the value of failure in the NFL more than Bill Belichick. If he hadn’t learned from his mistakes as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, he never would have become one of (if not) the greatest coaches in NFL history.
With that lesson in mind, Belichick could have tapped Jaguars passing game coordinator Jim Bob Cooter as the next Patriots offensive coordinator.
Cooter presided over the Detroit Lions offense as OC from halfway through the 2015 season through the 2018 season. In 2017, he guided the Lions to the No. 7 scoring offense in the NFL. Since then, he’s spent time with the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles, and this year helped develop Trevor Lawrence with the Jaguars.
Cooter is still just 38 years old and already has a lot of learning experience under his belt. Bringing that experience to the Patriots could have helped the offense grow in different ways next season that hiring Bill O’Brien back simply won’t.
Dan Pitcher, Cincinnati Bengals quarterbacks coach
Former SUNY Cortland quarterback Dan Pitcher has been Joe Burrows’ quarterbacks coach for the young superstar’s entire pro career, and he took an interesting path to get there.
Pitcher coached wide receivers at his alma mater a year after he graduated and then jumped to the NFL, but not as a coach. From 2012 to 2015, the upstate New York native was in the scouting department of the Indianapolis Colts. In that first season, he worked with the front office that drafted Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton, which already gives him a better track record of drafting receivers than Bill Belichick.
Working under Zac Taylor means that Pitcher technically qualifies as part of the Sean McVay coaching tree, and as we know, just having dinner with the Los Angeles Rams head coach can get you at least an offensive quality control job in the NFL these days.
Helping develop Burrow is much more in line with what Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe could become in the NFL. If Pitcher can help either of those players become 75% of the QB Burrow is, that would be a huge win for the Patriots.
Unfortunately, Belichick didn’t hire (and seemingly didn’t even investigate) any of these excellent candidates for the Patriots offensive coordinator position. The good news for Pats fans is, maybe he can next offseason if O’Brien ends up as a one-and-done OC like Patricia.
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