Patriots

Bill Belichick: ‘Don’t worry about’ whether Matt Patricia or Joe Judge will call plays

The Patriots experimented with two play callers in Thursday night's preseason opener.

If the Patriots’ offense sputters in 2022, the fault will fall on Bill Belichick’s shoulders for not putting a better staff around his young quarterback.

By Khari Thompson

August 12, 2022

The preseason is often a time for experimentation, and on Thursday night the Patriots tried out having both Joe judge and Matt Patricia call plays in a 23-21 loss to the New York Giants in the preseason opener.

The Patriots have yet to name an offensive coordinator after Josh McDaniels left to coach the Oakland Raiders. Judge’s title is offensive assistant/quarterbacks coach. Patricia’s is senior football advisor/offensive line coach.

When asked if the plan is to have Patricia and Judge switching play calling duties back and forth going forward, Belichick said he thought this particular game was a good opportunity to see how the offense played under both.

“We did this game.” Belichick said. “We did a lot of things in this game that are going to be beneficial in the long run, whether it was on the coaching staff, playing time, players that played and so forth. That’s all part of the process.”

Belichick chose not to reveal whether he will pick one play caller or go with both when the regular-season starts next month.

“Yeah, don’t worry about that. We’ll work it out,” said Belichick.

The run game didn’t produce much Thursday night, totaling 52 yards on 18 attempts.

Rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe struggled initially but looked more comfortable as the game progressed, finishing with 205 yards on 19-32 passing with a touchdown and an interception.

The former Western Kentucky signal-caller said he was focused more on the calls coming into his headset than who was making the calls.

“Yeah, I mean, to be quite honest with you, it really doesn’t matter to me,” Zappe said. “I’m more focused on the play that’s coming in, focused on communicating to my teammates what the play is, and then going forward looking at what the defense is giving us, and that’s my main focus.”