The Patriots Master Plan is Taking Shape as They've Hired Ben McAdoo as an Offensive Assistant

As the offseason in New England takes its first few awkward steps forward and their coaching hires get more curious by the day:

… I feel like I'm beginning to under the vision. 

What we're seeing is a movie trope. The one where a guy spends the first act assembling a ragtag collection of misfits to carry out some thankless and downright deadly mission. The Seven Samurai. It's American counterpart, The Magnificent Seven. The Wild Bunch. The Dirty Dozen. Ocean's 11. The Expendables. In the desperate hope they can coalesce into an effective fighting unit, work together, and succeed against impossible odds.

Think of it as The Avengers, with Jerod Mayo as Nick Fury. "There was an idea called the 2024 Patriots Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of of failed coaches to see if they could become something more."  And if so, that initiative may just have found its Hulk. 

Sure, I could cite for you all the numbers that Ben McAdoo's offenses have achieved over his career. How in his less than two years as Giants head coach they finished 25th and 21st in yards, and 26th and 31st in points as he was fired 12 games into his second season. Or how he rebounded to be the OC for the 2022 Panthers and led them to 29th in yards and 20th in points, with the fourth worst passing offense. 

But this isn't about facts, figures, metrics, analytics. This is about the man himself. And I cannot possibly hope to tell the tale of his epic hero's journey better than my own colleagues. In no particular order:

Clem:

Clem with a big assist from Mike Francesa:

Reags:

PFT:

And one handsome, silver-haired devil:
And now, after one season with Jacksonville before getting fired, one season in Dallas before getting fired, that one season at Carolina before getting fired, and one season of unemployment, the Pats were finally able to get their man. To land this highly coveted prize. Who, lucky for us, was still available on the job market after virtually every other team managed to fill all their offensive vacancies. 

If I seem a little skeptical, you'll just have to forgive me. This is what two seasons of dysfunction, ineffectiveness, and finishing last in the league in points scored will do to even the most shamelessly optimistic Patriots lifer. It doesn't help at all that during the most significant transition this franchise has had since 2000, with our whole future hanging in the balance, they're filling the coaches' room with the unwanted scraps of the worst teams in the league. (Note this doesn't apply to DC DeMarcus Covington, who has the benefit of being a totally unknown quantity at the moment.) And adding an offensive assistant who's spent the last seven or eight years being the comedy relief on my own website for his incompetence and general goofiness. 

So yeah, with my team likely about to draft our next franchise quarterback, having Ben McAdoo around doesn't inspire a ton of confidence. And all I can do is hope I'm wrong.