Things have been super quiet on the Matt Patricia front after an ugly end for the New England Patriots in the 2022 season. However, when appearing on the Patriots Wire Podcast, FOX Sports’ Henry McKenna provided an update on the Patriots’ former offensive play-caller.
“Patricia is trying to decide what he’s going to do,” said McKenna. “A source told me that they believe that the door is still open for Patricia to come back to New England if that’s what he wants, but just like [Joe] Judge, there’s no room on the offensive side of the ball for Patricia anymore.
“So it would be a matter of outlining a new role for him, and the most natural one, at least from my perspective, is putting him back into a football advisor, football researcher type role—Ernie Adams, or just like an odd type job that the Patriots tend to offer coaches that are kind of in weird spots in their career.”
But does Patricia even want to come back at this point?
A season full of offensive turmoil and relentless criticism has him at a crossroads, per McKenna. It has been a scathing journey for the veteran coach, who stepped in as the patchwork replacement for Josh McDaniels in the 2022 season.
The Patriots offense completely fell off a cliff under his watch in a year where they looked undisciplined and blew multiple games in the fourth quarter. They were ranked dead last in red zone scoring percentage, and quarterback Mac Jones struggled so badly that he was seemingly on the verge of losing his job to rookie backup Bailey Zappe.
It was an absolute mess, and Patricia was at the center of it all for stepping up and taking on a job responsibility he wasn’t ready to handle.
“The season took a psychological toll on [Patricia]. The immense scrutiny and intense criticism has led him to question whether he wants to continue coaching,” McKenna said. “I know teams have called him and other members of the Patriots to inquire about whether Patricia wants to be a defensive coordinator, and he has not seemingly chased down these leads super aggressively.
“So he’s kind of deciding his future. Does he want to be in New England for another year and sort of fade into the background a little bit, or is he planning to spend a year away from football or many years away from football—or retire? Or is he going to go be a defensive coordinator?”
McKenna noted that Patricia stepping away from coaching was probably the least likely situation, and the 48-year-old coach could ultimately look to land a defensive coordinator job somewhere.
There’s no question that Patricia has one of the best defensive minds in football. So opportunities will always come knocking.
Whether he chooses to open any doors or not remains to be seen.
