There’s a chance that Matt Patricia’s time in New England may finally be coming to an end.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the former Patriots coaching assistant spent his Tuesday in Denver, interviewing with newly signed head coach Sean Payton to fill the Broncos vacant defensive coordinator position. Rapoport says that Rex Ryan and Vance Joseph as also considered top candidates.
The #Broncos spent today with an intriguing candidate for their vacant defense coordinator job: Matt Patricia. Sources tell me and @TomPelissero the former #Patriots assistant is in Denver speaking with Sean Payton today. Rex Ryan and Vance Joseph are also top candidates.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 22, 2023
Patricia spent 2022 season as the Patriots offensive coordinator, despite only coaching on that side of the ball for one season, way back in 2004 as an assistant. The experiment was a disaster, to say the least. New England scored just 21.4 points per game, averaged just 314.6 yards per game, and failed to expand the system beyond basic passing concepts – virtually hanging second-year quarterback Mac Jones out to dry.
On top of this, a bombshell report came out in the Boston Herald following the season, going into further detail on the complete dysfunction on the offensive side of the ball. From Andrew Callahan and Karen Guregian:
“A lot of guys would ask, ‘Well, what’s going to happen if (the defense) does this?’ And you would see they hadn’t really accounted for that yet, and they’d say, ‘We’ll get to that when we get to that.’ That type of attitude got us in trouble.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“They were always scrambling to get things done.”
“I love coach (Belichick), but he f—ed us.”
Patricia was never meant to coach offense (which is what made the decision so mind-boggling in the first place).
Before a sub-par stint in Detroit as the Lions’ head coach from 2018-2020, Patricia had success as a defensive coordinator for the Patriots. He led New England’s defense to two Super Bowl championships – and they finished in the top 10 in points allowed during all six of his seasons at the helm.
Matt Patricia has a chance to have success again in the NFL – but it will never be on offense. His best option to continue coaching is defensive. Perhaps Sean Payton, George Paton, and the Broncos will give him that chance.
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