No. 4: Will special teams be fixed?
No. 4: Will the special teams be fixed?
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick clearly saw his team had a glaring weakness last season, so he made substantial moves to upgrade that flaw this offseason by adjusting his coaching ranks, ensuring he would bring back the unit’s best players, signing the best available player in free agency and spending significant capital in the 2023 NFL Draft.
No, Belichick didn’t exactly go through that process with his offense, but he did make serious upgrades on special teams this offseason that should raise the unit’s rank from dead last in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric (which measures efficiency adjusted to opponent).
The Patriots have moved former quarterbacks coach Joe Judge back to his true specialty, special teams, though he’s officially listed on the team website as assistant head coach. They brought back long snapper Joe Cardona and special-teams aces Matthew Slater and Cody Davis, signed linebacker Chris Board (a player Belichick called the best specialteamer the Patriots faced last season) and punter Corliss Waitman in free agency and selected kicker Chad Ryland and punter Bryce Baringer in the 2023 NFL Draft. The Patriots even drafted cornerback Ameer Speed, a core special teamer at Michigan State, in the sixth round and signed Jourdan Heilig, an undrafted free agent who barely played defense at Appalachian State, this spring. A league-worst kicking game was not going to be tolerated two seasons in a row.
It would be shocking if the unit led by Judge, special teams coordinator Cam Achord and special teams assistant Joe Houston ranked nearly as poorly this season. There are not many teams with three coaches dedicated to special teams, let along a fourth the Patriots have on staff in wide receivers coach Troy Brown, who also holds a kick returners coaching title.
The biggest X-factor for the Patriots’ special teams, and ultimately what could make the unit sink or swim, is the performance of the two key rookie specialists, Ryland and Baringer. Both players must beat out veteran competitors in training camp and the preseason — Ryland with veteran kicker Nick Folk and Baringer with Waitman.
New England has whiffed on a kicker draft pick in recent years, but it would still be a major surprise for Ryland, who’s kicked in the cold and has the leg to hit from deep downfield, to lose the job after the Patriots traded up to take him early on Day 3 of the draft. Baringer, a hangtime specialist, is also the favorite to win his job, though his standing is slightly less guaranteed on the roster as a sixth-round pick.
Folk was not a bad kicker last season, but he will be 39 years old in November. The Patriots could see a major upgrade in the kickoff and punting department after the departures of punters Jake Bailey and Michael Palardy.
Overall, the Patriots’ processes and investments will be heavily questioned if New England’s special teams aren’t significantly better this season. The Patriots can’t give Judge a promotion and then spend significant money to sign and bring back free agents and invest draft capital on rookies just to have the unit lose them games again in 2023.
it would be tough to be worse this season, however. So, New England should make gains in the kicking game after their offseason moves.