Could Bill O'Brien Return to the Patriots?

Four years after leaving the Colts at the altar. Josh McDaniels is officially taking his second run as an NFL head coach. I hope no one is expected the Krafts to come swooping in with bags of cash to keep McDaniels, because this time he’s gone. McDaniels joins his college roommate and longtime friend Dave Zeigler, who is also heading to Vegas to be their next General Manager.

This should be an exciting time for the Raiders, especially after the extreme roller coaster of a season they just had. The Raiders desperately need two things: culture and stability. McDaniels will not have final say in all personnel decisions. It will be a collaborative effort between him and Zeigler. Hopefully, a balance of power will allow the pair to rebuild the culture in Vegas and prevent McDaniels from having the same personnel conflicts he did in Denver.

This is obviously a huge loss for the Patriots, but specifically for Mac Jones. McDaniels made life easy for Jones throughout his rookie season by running a conservative offense for Mac to learn on the go and how to game-manage in the NFL. One would’ve expected the pair to take off the training wheels heading into Mac’s second season, but now he’ll have to do that with a new OC. The question is, who will that be?

The first name in the mix is Alabama’s offensive coordinator and former Patriots OC Bill O’Brien. Understandably so, as O’Brien is the only coach out there who’s run the Patriots offense as an OC. He also may be the only coach out there who’s qualified to step in and do so for a young quarterback with high potential. The Patriots don’t appear have any young coaches that could step up, and have a handful of assistants leaving with McDaniels. Another outside coach would either have to learn the offense themselves or install a new offense. I don’t see Belichick wanting a huge change in how the offense runs, especially with a 2nd-year quarterback.

O’Brien left Duke University to join the Patriots as an offensive assistant in February 2007. O’Brien served as the Patriots Offensive Coordinator from 2009-2011 after Josh McDaniel’s first departure. He finished his tenure with a loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI. O’Brien then took over as the head coach at Penn State amid the Joe Patierno Scandal. After two years with Penn State, O'Brien returned to the NFL in 2014 to be the Houston Texans new head coach after they fired Gary Kubiak.

Bill O’Brien’s career took a downturn towards the end of his tenure with the Texans. The final straw for many Texans fans was when he traded Deandre Hopkins, arguably the best WR in the league at the time, and a 4th-round pick for David Johnson, a 2020 2nd-round pick and 2021 4th- round pick. Hopkins was at the end of his contract and refused to be paid less than any other WR in his next deal. He was traded to Arizona and got what he wanted. Meanwhile, Johnson has rushed for only 919 yards and scored 6 TDs in his two seasons in Houston. The Texans drafted DT Ross Blacklock with the 40th overall pick in 2020 and used the 2021 4th round pick in a trade for OT Marcus Cannon. Thankfully, O’Brien’s only responsibility in New England would be to run the offense and not make personnel decisions.

If the Patriots plan is Bill O’Brien or bust, I do wonder how easily they’ll be able to steal him from Nick Saban, Alabama’s head coach and longtime friend of Bill Belichick. The two discussed their annoyance with coaches stealing other coaches off their staff in their HBO documentary “The Art of Coaching”.

Saban: "We've always had sort of a mutual respect for how we take each other's people. It's one thing that I always try to emphasize to the guys. What I have a tough time with is we've had however many guys who've worked here who are at Georgia, Tennessee, whoever, wherever. When they get those jobs, and in most cases, you helped them, then they have a hard time understanding why they can't take your people. I want to help you get a job so you can try to take what I've tried to build here and destroy the continuity of what I have. The assistants don't understand why that's not a good thing."

Belichick: "I'm happy for the people who've worked hard for me to get opportunities. I want to see them build their own program. When they try to tear down our program. That's kind of where the line, I feel gets crossed."

Saban was asked about the speculation that O’Brien will leave Alabama for New England last Wednesday.

“I don't think Bill's trying to leave. I think he likes it at Alabama, and we have an opportunity with some pretty good players at the quarterback position and other positions to continue to grow and develop here offensively, and I think he's looking forward to that challenge."

Alabama just lost the National Championship to the Georgia Bulldogs, but O’Brien’s name was also in the mix for open NFL head coaching positions before McDaniels left for Vegas. There is still plenty of time left to replace O’Brien if he were to leave, but there has also been plenty of movement in the coaching market, dwindling the list of potential replacements. I don’t see Saban being too thrilled with O’Brien leaving at this point, and Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated is reporting that O’Brien and Belichick will need “Nick’s blessing” for O’Brien to come home. However, O’Brien may be looking at an opportunity to return home (O’Brien is also from New England). Would Saban allow O’Brien to return to the NFL and get a pay raise, or will he play hardball with one of his closest friends?