T
he New England Patriots experienced a lot of turnover among the coaching staff but the changes could have been even greater.
According to Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated, tight ends coach Nick Caley was blocked from speaking with the Las Vegas Raiders.
“The Patriots blocked Caley from talking to the Raiders, and his role in New England this fall could dictate whether he stays put or goes to Las Vegas in ’23,” Breer said.
Caley has been a coach with the Patriots since 2017. He started off as a fullbacks coach and 2022 will be his sixth season as a tight ends coach.
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While Caley is working with the tight ends, his role isn’t solid according to Breer. The veteran reporter said that Caley’s role is in flux.
If Caley ended up in Vegas, he would join a bevy of former Patriots. Josh McDaniels is the head coach and former director of player personnel Dave Ziegler is the general manager of the Raiders. Also, Carmen Bircillo, Bo Hardegree, and Mick Lombardi are former Patriots coaches.
Who Will Be Calling Plays for the Patriots?
The big question in New England is figuring out who will be calling plays on offense.
When it comes to the Patriots coaching staff, not a lot is known about specific roles and responsibilities. Joe Judge said that he is working with Mac Jones and other skill position players while Matt Patricia is working with the offensive line.
Belichick also answered questions about play-calling responsibilities and didn’t reveal anything.
“I’ve called them and I haven’t called them,” Belichick said when speaking to the media on Monday. “Other people have called them and haven’t called them. We’ll see.”
Belichick added that titles and responsibilities could change before the start of the regular season.
“Do we have titles? Yeah, look, there’s a lot of jobs that we have to do, we’re all working on those things now but — it’s May,” Belichick said. “They’ll change in June, they’ll change in August, they’ll change in September. So, we’ll evolve it to the things timely that we need to do. If you’re asking about game plans, we’re months away from that — months.”
Nick Caley’s Role in Mac Jones’ Development
Depending on if Caley is handed the play-calling responsibilities he could have a major role in Jones’ second NFL season.
“And hanging over all this is the development of second-year quarterback Mac Jones, who had the benefit of working with McDaniels as a rookie,” Breer stated. “The sense I get is the coaches who spoke last week were being forthright in saying that pieces of their roles still need to be hammered out. My question, then, would be whether developing coaches into those roles makes it more difficult to develop … you know … the quarterback. We’ll see what happens. But I’d say this definitely bears watching. And who calls plays (Judge? Patricia? Caley? Could it be Belichick?) is obviously a big component of it.”
So the Patriots went out of their way to keep Caley in New England and it will be interesting to see how much longer he stays with the organization and the role he plays in the Pats offense in 2022.
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Patriots Blocked Coach From Speaking With Raiders