Bill Belichick's biggest offseason need is to fix a problem he brought on himself | Opinion

Bill Belichick said he plans to return for a 24th season with the New England Patriots, but the challenge ahead may be among the most arduous of the 70-year-old head coach's career.

After missing the NFL playoffs for the second time in three seasons, Belichick finds himself at a crossroads with a team that exhibited a dramatic decline in offensive production, poor execution in special-teams play and self-destructive mistakes not consistent with Belichick’s two-plus decades in Foxborough.

Many of these shortcomings can at least in part be traced back to Belichick’s dubious personnel decisions for the 2022 season, including the installment of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge as offensive coaches. And it now falls on Belichick to fix a problem of his own design.

Why did Belichick hire Matt Patricia to run offense?

Why did Belichick hire two of his former coordinators — both fired as head coaches elsewhere — to head up an area of football where they had little-to-no coaching experience?

During an end-of-season Zoom call Monday, Belichick told reporters he made those decisions, like “I always did,” with the team’s best interests in mind. Still, many question the logic of handing Patricia and Jones the keys to an NFL offense and placing them responsible for developing second-year quarterback Mac Jones.

“Where we are today is different than where we were six months ago, 12 months ago, 18 months ago. Those things are all different,” Belichick said when asked about his coaching-staff decisions. “Whatever we did in the past in any area — whether it’s play calls, coaches, players, whatever — at that time was whatever we thought was best. We looked at our options and thought we picked the best one. Some were good decisions and some, in retrospect, were maybe not good decisions. But at that time, they were always what we thought was the best in every area.

“That’s the way it will always be and going forward, we’ll always do what is best for the team. That’s my commitment. Have I made mistakes? Yeah, sure. Plenty of them.”

The Patriots’ 2022 coaching staff will almost certainly be remembered as one of those mistakes.

On offense, New England regressed in several key areas despite adding multiple skill players (DeVante Parker, Tyquan Thornton) to a unit that returned all its top talent from the previous season. The biggest deficiency was in red-zone touchdown percentage, which dipped to an NFL-worst 42.2% this season, a decrease of nearly 21% from 2021. No other NFL team had a year-over-year change that negative.

The Patriots’ third-down efficiency also went from 43.5% in 2021 to 34.9% this season, and the offense converted 74 fewer first-downs, 17 fewer touchdowns and took 13 more sacks in 2022. Under Patricia, who was tasked as the Patriots’ play-caller, second-year quarterback Mac Jones finished with a lower completion percentage and quarterback rating compared to his rookie campaign. Jones was a Pro Bowl selection in 2021.

Belichick was noncommittal when asked whether he planned to add an experienced coach to the offensive staff. He also did not confirm Jones as the team’s starting quarterback for 2023, although he did offer an endorsement of his talent. Despite reduced efficiency in 2022, Jones still owns a 66.5% career completion percentage, which ranks second all-time among NFL quarterbacks through their first two seasons.

“Mac has the ability to play quarterback in this league,” Belichick said when asked if Jones would start next season. “We have to all work together to find the best way as a football team — and obviously the quarterback is an important position — to be more productive than we were this season. That’s incumbent upon all of us.”

Will Belichick make changes to the coaching staff?

The Patriots are also soul-searching in an area of their team they’ve rarely worried about during the Belichick era: special teams.

New England looked uncoordinated in that realm for much of the season, especially since ineffective play from punter Jake Bailey preceded a season-ending injury. The Patriots’ punting and kickoff games suffered as a result, evidenced by the two kickoff returns for touchdowns scored Sunday by the Buffalo Bills’ Nyheim Hines.

Special teams coordinator Cam Achord wrapped up his third season running the unit after replacing Judge, who held the role before accepting a job as head coach of the New York Giants. The 35-year-old Achord served as an assistant under Judge in 2018 and 2019. Belichick, who said the Patriots “will look at everything” when it comes to potential personnel changes, may need to consider revamping a unit that used to be his calling card as a head coach.

“We’re still in the wake of yesterday’s game,” Belichick said Monday. “I’m sure there will be a number of different aspects that we’ll evaluate and try to make the best decisions we can to move forward and be more competitive. Robert and I will talk about that; we’ll talk about that as a staff. Certainly, we’ll have individual conversations with many of the players, as we always do, with some that are more urgent or more timely than others.

“It will be a comprehensive course of action.”

Fortunately for Belichick, he won’t need to pay the same attention to the defense. The Patriots were the NFL’s top-scoring defense and helped the team post the NFL’s fourth-best turnover differential (+7) and the best mark among AFC teams . While the defense could use some increased depth at cornerback, New England had one of the league’s top pass-rushing attacks and was tough to score against.

The Patriots’ offense showed some signs of life in the team’s final two games as well. In addition to a 2-for-2 performance in the red zone during a Week 17 win against the Miami Dolphins, the Patriots outgained the Bills 341-327 Sunday and showed perhaps their best offensive consistency of the season in a competent, 60-minute effort.

“We’ll evaluate everything that we’ve done, from me down to everyone else on the offense,” Belichick said. “There were a lot of positive things over the course of the year in all areas that we can build on, but in the end it wasn’t what we want it to be or need it to be.”

Will Belichick keep the status quo on offense with Patricia and Judge, or will he pursue Bill O’Brien for a return to New England? Would Kliff Kingsbury, a former Belichick draft pick who was fired as Arizona Cardinals head coach Monday, be an option to head up the Patriots’ offense? Those questions and more will be answered in the coming months.

“We need to be more productive on all levels,” Belichick said. “Offense, defense, special teams — there’s room for improvement everywhere. But certainly something we need to do is score more points.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Bill Belichick, Patriots will 'evaluate everything' to improve production