Patriots Miss out on Potential WR Coach Replacement for Joe Judge
With special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach, Joe Judge leaving to pursue a head-coaching career with the New York Giants, the New England Patriots are still figuring out how they can vill the vacant holes on their coaching staff left by Judge. The return of offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels makes things a little less worrisome, as there is quite a bit more stability on the offensive side of the ball with McDaniels running that unit.
One option the Patriots could have pursued for their WR coaching vacancy was hiring Chad O'Shea, who was the receivers coach for the Patriots for 10 years before becoming the offensive coordinator for the Dolphins for the 2019 season.
O'Shea was fired by Miami at the end of the year, which brought up the idea of a potential reunion between him and the Patriots. This was thought of before anyone had anticipated Judge leaving to take a head-coaching job.
Well, it looks like that idea will remain as nothing more than a thought, because O'Shea has been hired by another organization.
On Sunday morning, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that O'Shea was hired by the Browns to be new head coach Kevin Stefanski's WRs coach and passing game coordinator. Cleveland's hire seems to have been the best chance New England had to hire someone outside the organization to be a part of their offensive staff. Now, the Patriots will likely promote from within to fill their vacant receivers coach position. The same will likely be done with their special teams coordinator vacancy.
The coaching search is just one of many issues the Patriots have to address this offseason. New England needs to undergo contract negotiations with Tom Brady, who reportedly wants to test the market at age-42 in order to see what kind of money he is offered from other organizations. The team must also decide whether they want to re-sign or let players like Joe Thuney, Kyle Van Noy, Devin McCourty, and Matthew Slater walk in free agency this offseason. On top of that, they need to address the tight end position in some way. The team never re-cooperated from Rob Gronkowksi's retirement last offseason and still have a massive hole at the position, especially since Benjamin Watson will likely call it a career for the second time in as many years.
The WR coaching position is probably not something at the top of the team's priorities at this point of their offseason. But it will nevertheless need to be addressed within the next couple months.
