Patriots ‘concerned’ about Matt Patricia, Joe Judge offense

Cores of concern about the New England Patriots’ offense are already emerging.

Earlier this month, news broke that Bill Belichick was hosting something of an “open competition” between former NFL head coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to lead New England’s offense, with former offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels stepping down to take over train raiders.

Boston Sports Journal founder Greg Bedard appeared on NBC Sports Boston last week and spoke about the concerns seeping through among offensive players.

“I don’t want to make a big deal out of it just yet because we’re considering this is a whole new regime on the offensive side of the ball,” Bedard said.

“They could do things differently and there could be a lot of people who aren’t used to the way things are done. You could be better. I’m allowing that because it’s extremely early days in terms of what they’ve done.”

The way this take was introduced, you knew a “but” pivot was coming.

“But so far I’ve had countless people who’ve either been with the Patriots or hear from players on the team — they’re alarmed to this point. And they’ve done little to date,” Bedard said.

“And so they’re really concerned about the direction of the offense – where it’s going. A lot of people in the NFL were listening to what Joe Judge said the other day, and almost everyone was like, “What? What is he talking about?’ There is a high level of concern about what is going on with the Patriots.”

Judge and Patricia were 23-52-1 together as head coaches of the Giants and Lions, and the units they previously managed as senior assistants were on special teams and defense.