Joe Judge has a new role with the Patriots. Though it may be in title only.
MMQB’s Albert Breer reported on Thursday that Judge will be an assistant head coach for the 2023 season.
Wait, what?
One difference b/w Patricia in '21 and Judge in '23, just to illustrate it—Patricia's name was on player contracts back then, and this year, Matt Groh's name is in that spot. Judge's job will be more in coaching special teams, being a liaison between coaching and scouting, etc.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) March 23, 2023
In addition to being named assistant head coach Judge will also help Cam Achord on special teams. A role Judge knows well having coached the Patriots special teams as an assistant from 2012-2014 and as a coordinator from 2015-2019.
Last season Judge was put in charge of quarterbacks, a curious choice by Bill Belichick seeing as Judge had nerved served in that role before. The results were, to say the least, not great. The Boston Herald reported that starting quarterback Mac Jones clashed with Judge all season long and didn’t like him “at all.” The assistant coach’s demeanor also rubbed several others in the locker room the wrong way.
So why then the promotion? Breer added some clarity to his report during a television appearance later in the day.
“I think people are making the mistake of looking at this as like all of a sudden now he’s second in command in the organization. He isn’t,” Breer said. “I think this should be taken very literally that he’s going to be taking things off of Bill’s plate in some ways. It’s gonna be like the role that Matt Patricia served in two years ago in 2021 in that he’s gonna be a liaison between scouting and coaching. He’s gonna have some head coach-like duties to what he does. And part of that I think is gonna be to free Bill up to do a little bit more.
“And then another part of his job is gonna be to oversee the special teams. I think we can all agree that the special teams were a huge problem last year and maybe a bigger problem than they’ve been at any point in Bill Belichick’s 23 years in New England. And so, I think, the way you want to look at this is, it’s very literally assistant head coach. It’s like taking things off of Bill’s plate, serving in a lot of different ways, and trying to make the operation as a whole run a little smoother.”
Regardless whether the title is merely ceremonial it is still somewhat odd to “promote” Judge and place him higher on the org chart than incoming Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien and Jerod Mayo who turned down head coaching interviews after being promised a more prominent role within the organization.
Breer believes Mayo’s role could be clarified in the very near future.
“I will say this, I think at some point we are going to get from Robert Kraft some sort of statement on Jerod Mayo and the potential succession plan and all of that,” Breer said. “Maybe it’s next week at the owners meetings. But I think at some point that’s coming.
“And so, while Jerod Mayo’s title might not change, my feeling is probably soon we’re going to get a strong endorsement from the guy in charge and the one guy who’s above Bill Belichick, and that’s Robert Kraft, on Mayo’s future with the team.”
