As Kendrick Bourne caused some rumblings last week after telling reporters the New England Patriots were running a “new system” on offense, head coach Bill Belichick did not go as far with his words during his Tuesday press conference before the first practice of mandatory minicamp.
“I don’t know,” Belichick said when asked if the team was running a new offensive system.
As he would not fully commit to a new offensive approach, he went on to note changes that coincided with Bourne’s comments about new offensive “words” and “terminology.”
“Well, we've had a lot of changes offensively in the last couple years, so it was a good time to streamline things,” Belichick said. “We did that defensively a couple years ago, felt like this was a good time to do it offensively. So, yeah, there’s an element of that every year.”
In terms of streamlining things, Belichick noted that offensive language certainly falls under that category. He also added that despite making changes being a normal yearly occurrence, this year’s changes have been more focused around the offense.
How big these changes actually are remains a mystery for now.
“I don’t know,” Belichick said when asked about the multitude of these changes. “We make changes every year. I wouldn’t be able to rank them. ... I mean, if [you’re asking] if we’re going to run the veer offense, no, that’s not what we’re doing.”
Belichick did note that as they’ve done with every other quarterback in the past, there was collaboration with Mac Jones.
“We do everything we can to make it as good for him as we can,” Belichick said. “He’s our quarterback.”
No matter what the Patriots’ offense looks like next season, the team is still months away from competitive training camp or meaningful regular season game. As for now, the team will focus on fundamentals and the installation of the offense and defense in Minicamp.
“If you have good fundamentals than they transfer to other plays,” Belichick said. “If you have to go back and reteach fundamentals, then it’s hard to execute plays. Having a good fundamental base is a big part of installation.”
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