Cassel: Patriots' offensive changes require some perspective

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Any time you install a new offense, it’s a challenge for everybody.

It's a challenge for the offensive line in terms of how they’re calling protections. It's a challenge for the quarterback, who has to have a clear understanding of where his wide receivers are going and the characteristics of every route. And every offensive coordinator operates differently, so you have to adjust to that.

But it's not like the Patriots are reinventing the wheel.

If you think this is a lot of change...

During my first season with Kansas City in 2009, we spent a whole offseason learning Chan Gailey’s offense, which was brand new to me because it had completely different terminology than what I was used to in New England.

But about a week before the season -- right after our last preseason game -- Chan and head coach Todd Haley weren’t getting along, and Chan left the team. Todd wasn’t used to Chan's system, so he changed the whole system -- all the terminology and all the fundamentals that we’d learned over the past few months -- to something he understood better so he could call the plays.

So, we basically went into the first week of the season with a new offense that we had to learn on the fly for the first three weeks. That was the most challenging situation I’ve been in.

I don't know if the Patriots are starting from ground zero on offense. From what I understand, they might have changed some of the communication by using words instead of numbers to simplify things, but it’s not so dramatic where they don’t understand what’s going on.

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When I watched the Patriots’ first two preseason games, I saw the same formations and route patterns in the passing game that we ran 15 years ago. I saw route concepts that have been in this offense for a long time.

So, it’s not like this is a completely different offense. In some ways, it's the same as it used to look, but there might be different verbiage, which just takes time to learn.

What's the motivation behind changing the offense?

That's the question everybody wants to know, because a bunch of the guys on the offense already knew the system. On the offensive line, everybody but Cole Strange has started in games or has been on this team for a while.

There has to be a reason behind the change. It could be because they want to go more up-tempo. Maybe they want to make it easier to call plays at the line of scrimmage, so Mac Jones can go up to the line and say one word instead calling out numbers.

Bill Belichick also has to be on board with any changes. It’s not like he just gave the reins to Matt Patricia and Joe Judge and said, "Do whatever you want to do."

Belichick has had his hand in the architectural part of this offense since it started. So, I’m sure any changes have to be OK’ed with him before they're implemented in the offense.

Behind the scenes of the play-calling process

Play-calling is always a collaboration.

I think people sometimes get a false understanding of what’s happening on the sideline. Sometimes the offensive coordinator is the only person with the call sheet, but you'll hear constant communication between plays.

As an example from my time in New England, Josh McDaniels might turn to offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia and say, "Which run play do you like right here? If we get three yards right here, I want to run the ball." And Scarnecchia would say, “All right, I like this run and this run, because this is what the defense is doing."

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It’s not that Josh doesn’t know what to call, but because Dante has been dissecting the run game, he has a better understanding of the exact run play he'd want against the defense.

Belichick would be involved in the process too. He might jump in and say, "Hey, I want to run the ball here. Just run the ball." So, the offensive coordinator will look at his sheet and pick a run play.

A majority of the plays are still called by the offensive coordinator, but over the course of a game, a lot of people have input in the process.

No need to overthink it

There's a tendency to overreact to the Patriots' offensive struggles in training camp. But if things aren't going well, you can always just line up and play.

Run the ball and do play-action. That’s the easiest thing to do with this offense. You’ve got really good running backs and a good run-blocking offensive line. It doesn’t have to be that complicated.

You have really good personnel. If you just want to run the ball down people’s throats, you’ve proven you can do that. That sets up Mac Jones for the play-action pass, and you go from there.

Editor's Note: Matt Cassel played 14 years in the NFL as a quarterback, including four with the Patriots from 2005 to 2008. He serves as an analyst for NBC Sports Boston, appearing on Pre/Postgame Live, as a guest on Tom Curran's Patriots Talk Podcast every Thursday, and as a columnist each week during the season.

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