BREAKING: Patriots Hire Bill O’Brien as Offensive Coach; What's Next?

Bill O’Brien returns to New England, where he spent 2007-11 in the same capacity under head coach Bill Belichick.

FOXBORO — The New England Patriots have completed their search for a new offensive coordinator.

University of Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien has agreed to return to the organization, as first reported by ESPN. 

Just over one week removed from issuing a press release to announce their intention to begin interviewing prospective candidates, O’Brien had been the most high-profile name linked to the vacancy.

A source confirmed to Patriots Country last Tuesday that O’Brien was indeed among the Pats most prominent considerations for the position, corroborating multiple reports that he was a favorite of several ‘influential voices’ throughout the organization,

Though he may be remembered for his recent struggles as both head coach and general manager of the Houston Texans, O’Brien is a quite an accomplished offensive coach. In addition to his time with the Patriots, Texans and Crimson Tide, he spent two successful seasons at the helm of the Penn State Nittany Lions.

Having served under coach Bill Belichick from 2007-11, O’Brien helped navigate a Patriots offense, which featured ball protection, efficient running and spreading the ball to multiple pass catchers; including a fearsome two-tight-end-set of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. As such, the 53-year-old was thought to be the ideal coach to find similar success with New England’s current tight-end-tandem of Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith.

Perhaps most significantly, O’Brien possesses the familiarity with an offensive system designed to accentuate the abilities of quarterback Mac Jones. Having spent the past pair of seasons as Alabama’s offensive coordinator under head coach Nick Saban, O’Brien ran a similar scheme for the Crimson Tide in 2021. This, combined with his previous experience working under Belichick, should lessen his initiation period with New England.

With former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels taking his talents to the Las Vegas Raiders, O'Brien was considered to be the most logical choice to succeed him last offseason. Despite the strong logistical fit, however, he remained at Alabama, while New England chose to split the duties between special assistant and offensive line coach Matt Patricia, and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge -- with the former taking on the primary play calling duties for the offense.

The unit, including Jones, displayed notable regression from their 2021 output under the pair's guidance. The Pats finished 7th-worst in total yards while scoring only scored only 21.4 points per game (17th in the NFL). At times, the disconnect between the players and the coaching staff was so overt that Jones was observed hurling expletive-laden frustrations, believed to be in the direction of his coaches. 

O’Brien was the fifth coach linked to the Patriots’ vacant offensive coordinator job. He joined tight ends coach Nick Caley, Minnesota Vikings wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell, Oregon assistant Adrian Klemm, and Arizona Cardinals associate head coach/wide receivers Shawn Jefferson.

Now, he'll look to replicate his Alabama success in Foxboro.

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Follow Mike D’Abate on Twitter @mdabateNFL and Listen/Subscribe to his daily podcast: Locked On Patriots

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