Patriots Analyst Rips Bill Belichick for This ‘Dumpster Diving’ Roster Approach

Getty Bill Belichick of the Patriots

No question, entering the season, the Patriots figure to have a deep and versatile defense. Over at The Ringer this week, the Patriots came in with what is projected to be the No. 8 rated defense in the NFL.

The offense? Well, that is a different story. There is not the same level of experience or talent for the Patriots on that side of the ball and, what’s more, the construction of the offensive roster seemed to make little sense—having just one quarterback (Mac Jones) on the final 53-man for one thing, but also at the tight-end and tackle positions, which suffered a blow with the injury to Riley Reiff in the preseason finale.

Well-known Patriots watcher Mike Felger, speaking on 98.5 The Sports Hub this week, had a harsh interpretation of coach Bill Belichick’s approach to the roster.

“They’re in this spot where they’ve got to futz around with the roster for their third running back, they’ve got to futz around with the roster or dumpster-dive for their third tight end,’ Felger said after the release of the 53-man roster. “They want to run a lot of tight-end sets—having two tight ends is fine, unless you’re a team that wants to run a lot of 12 personnel, a lot of tight-end stuff. You don’t have enough tight ends. You don’t have any real tackles, and you’re going to try to figure all this out on the fly in the time between cut-down day and the first game of the season. Kind of routine for Bill Belichick on the offensive side of the ball.”

Patriots Offense Is Oddly Constructed

There is quite a bit of truth there. The Patriots have what can only be called a unique depth chart at this point, with Jones flying solo at quarterback and only Rhamondre Stevenson and Ezekiel Elliott listed at running back. At right tackle, Reiff is still listed as the starter, though he has been out of practice with a leg injury. His backup is fourth-round pick Sidy Sow.

And there’s the tight-end spot, where the Pats have two very good pass-catchers in Hunter Henry and Mike Gesicki. But they have no blocking-oriented tight ends, and for a team that claims to be planning to use tight ends a lot, two is just not enough.

“They’re short at tight end because they want to run a lot of these tight-end sets,” Felger went on. “Neither guy they have is a good blocker, they still don’t have an in-line blocking tight end. They only have two running backs. They only have one quarterback. They have a million offensive linemen, but they have only one true tackle with NFL experience with Rieff being hurt. And it’s like, well, does that not say—they don’t have these holes on defense.”

Is This the Tom Brady Effect?

It’s a pretty simple theory as to how the Patriots wound up here, of course—it’s a bit of a Tom Brady hangover. From 2001-19, Belichick did not have to give much thought to the intricacies of filling out the offensive side of the roster because, when it came time to take the field, he could lean on Brady’s excellence to pull the O together.

That, though, doesn’t work as well when Mac Jones is your man.

“Once again,” Felger said, “Bill Belichick leaves these holes on the offensive side of the ball and says to himself, ‘We’ll just figure it out.’ Because he got duped into thinking you could just figure it out for the last 20 years when it turns out, he had a pretty good quarterback that covered all that up. He hasn’t figured that out yet.”