New England Patriots

Julian Edelman Gives Honest Take on Patriots' Struggles on Offense

Edelman gives honest take on Patriots' struggles on offense originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston

The New England Patriots installed a new offense this summer, and the process has included plenty of growing pains.

The issues, of which there have been many, include a lackluster run game, pass protection problems and poor execution, among others. These struggles are a problem for the Patriots with the 2022 NFL regular season beginning Sunday against the Dolphins in Miami.

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Even former Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is concerned. 

"I do. I do share that concern,” Edelman said Friday on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show". "And it’s not a concern, but you’re always concerned when you lose your offensive coordinator and there’s a new guy coming in, regardless of who it is, with a young quarterback that you have in Mac Jones that had a successful rookie year. That second year is usually his biggest jump, and when he’s got to change play-callers in the middle of it, it wouldn’t matter if it was someone else that called offensive plays. It’s still going to be an effect and a learning experience for that relationship between the quarterback and the play-caller.

The offense's struggles in training camp carried into the preseason games. Starting quarterback Mac Jones played seven possessions over the final two preseason matchups and the offense mustered just one touchdown, in addition to several 3-and-out drives. The Patriots looked particularly bad in a 23-6 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders in the preseason finale.

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The Raiders are now coached by Josh McDaniels, who spent the last decade or so as the Patriots offensive coordinator. Instead of replacing McDaniels with a traditional OC, the Patriots have split the play-calling duties between offensive line coach Matt Patricia and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge.

Edelman saw the Patriots' new offense and its struggles first hand when he attended one of the joint practices with the Raiders last month. The offense struggled quite a bit in the first of those two joint sessions.

"It didn’t look great,” Edelman admitted. “They looked like they didn’t have any juice. But hey, this is going to be a learning experience."

The Patriots' issues offensively are among the reasons why both experts and oddsmakers aren't very confident New England will leave Florida with a season-opening victory Sunday afternoon.

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