“There are some things that we’ve done well,’’ said Nick Caserio, Patriots’ director of player personnel who has continued to work with the offense and is up in the coaches’ box during games. “There have been some things we’ve come up a little bit short on.
“I think the most important thing in what we’re trying to do offensively is just establish a consistent level of play on a game-to-game basis and a play-to-play basis. Some of the shortcomings we’ve had at times have been self-inflicted. It’s one play here, it’s one player there. That’s the most important thing we’re trying to correct.
“If we can just eliminate some of those minor mistakes and clean up some of the details, then I think we can go forward, and feel a little bit better about where we’re going.’’
Two years removed from a team that set an NFL record for points in a season, these Patriots are still finding their offensive rhythm, with Brady returning and other key pieces - namely Wes Welker - missing games because of injury. The biggest change, though, might be who is calling the offensive plays. Or, in this case, who’s not calling them.
McDaniels spent three seasons as New England’s offensive coordinator before taking over the Broncos. He and Patriots coach Bill Belichick spent a lot of time last season discussing, among other things, the possibility that the offensive coordinator position would need to be filled.
“We felt like there was a pretty good possibility that he would be a head coach,’’ said Belichick. “Therefore, falling in line with that, there would be an offensive coordinator situation on this team, so we talked about a lot of those things. We talked about the coordinator position and different things that he went through, and saw, and explained problems, situations to me that - from his perspective - was very insightful. We both asked questions, exchanged information, and talked very freely about it.’’
