The honeymoon period for the Patriots' coaching staff is officially over

I got a chance to visit Patriots’ training camp for the first time Tuesday. It happened to be the last practice that was open to the public. It also happened to be the first and only joint practice with another team – the other team being the Philadelphia Eagles.

Like everyone else, I had heard about the issues with New England’s offensive line. I had heard mixed reports about Drake Maye. I had heard all the arguments for playing Maye from day one or for sitting him out his entire rookie season.

I had formed my own opinions, of course. This week – for two and a half hours – I got to see the situation for myself. I also, obviously, watched the first exhibition game last Thursday. My view on things have changed, dramatically, in just one week.

I had given new head coach Jerod Mayo and new offensive coordinator the benefit of the doubt. I may have been blinded by the excitement of having a long overdue change from the stale Belichick era. I was able to dismiss I didn’t like the fact the Patriots didn’t really do a legitimate search for a new head coach and, instead, handed the reins to someone they had already predetermined to be Belichick’s successor – even if it was a year or two earlier than expected.

Van Pelt wasn’t the first choice to be offensive coordinator, either. The Patriots would have preferred someone from the Sean McVay or Kyle Shanahan coaching tree – someone like Zac Robinson who wound up going to Atlanta. Van Pelt has experience working with offenses but – with the exception of one game – has never called plays in a game.

But the honeymoon period is now over.

What I saw on Tuesday was disturbing. What I saw was an offense that has no clue. What I saw was an offensive line that was, well, offensive. They were, somehow, worse than advertised. By some reports, they gave up 14 sacks on 42 pass plays during 11-on-11 drills. That means 33% of the pass plays would have ended in sacks. There were at least two fumbled snaps. There were nine penalties. And here we are about three weeks into camp. This is stuff you might expect on day one, never mind day thirteen or fourteen.

The handling of the offensive line has been questionable from the very beginning of Mayo’s regime. They didn’t go after a left tackle in free agency. Jonah Williams seemed like a good fit, but the Patriots never seemed interested. Veteran Cowboys’ left tackle Tyron Smith was available. He went to the rival Jets.

The Patriots didn’t draft a tackle with their first top two picks, which was understandable. They had other needs, as well. The Patriots could have traded up their third round draft pick to draft one of the second tier offensive tackles in the draft but they stood pat – pardon the pun – and drafted right tackle Caedan Wallace. The thinking was that he could move over to left tackle and may be a contributor this season.

In the fourth round, New England drafted guard Layden Robinson – someone who was a standout run blocker in college but had issues with pass blocking. The Patriots had a roster full of guards so the pick, again, was questionable. It was made even more questionable as training camp revealed the Patriots were insistent on moving Mike Onwenu back to his natural right guard position – despite giving him a new contract on par with the highest paid right tackles.

The Patriots also signed veteran Chukwuma Okorafor, presumably, to play left tackle. He was a starter with the Steelers before losing his job to rookie first round pick, Broderick Jones.

So here we are a few weeks away from the first regular season game and what is the line Mayo has, apparently, settled on? Vederian Lowe at left tackle, Sidy Sow at left guard, David Andrews at center, Onwenu at right tackle, and Okorafor at right tackle. Lowe was a disaster last year. With all the signings and draft picks, how did he emerge as the starting left tackle? It is no surprise he is still a disaster. Get him out of here!

The Patriots have mixed and matched all preseason with their offensive line and – looking back – don’t seem to have any idea what they are doing. They have tried Wallace on both the left side and the right side. They tried Sowe at left tackle for a little while. They have bounced Okorafor between left tackle and right tackle. They have used Onwenu at both right guard and right tackle. Calvin Anderson has gotten reps at tackle and been overwhelmed. Atonio Mafi has been tried at center. Veteran Nick Leverett has played center and guard.

Layden Robinson has looked better than Caedan Wallace this preseason. Down the road with Maye at quarterback, you’d like to see more of a pass blocker in the interior of the line. But it has become obvious Maye doesn’t look like he will be starting any time soon. Any discussion of that should be buried. His usage this preseason has shown the Patriots' organization is still suffering from PTSD of the entire Mac Jones experience.

Van Pelt is already proving to be a bad fit for New England, and, especially, Drake Maye. Van Pelt has expressed a desire to run first and use play action off a successful running game. Picture Drew Bledsoe running that kind of an offense. It is not what Maye is built for.

With that in mind, the starting offensive line against the Bengals in week one should be, from left to right, Okorafor, Sowe, Andrews, Robinson, and Onwenu. Onwenu is a great guard and a very good tackle, but he needs to play tackle this year. The Patriots’ offense looked much better last year when Onwenu was moved to right tackle. After this year, the Patriots can maybe draft a couple of tackles and hope Wallace will be ready to play his natural right tackle position, then they can move Onwenu back to guard. But for this year, Onwenu needs to play tackle.

The other huge issue I have with this preseason has been the handling of Maye. He played one series in the Patriots’ preseason opener. That is ridiculous. Mike Reiss had a tweet where he went back this last three seasons and noted how many snaps all the top quarterbacks drafted took in their first preseason games and Maye was used, far and away, the least of all of them.

One doesn’t even have to look that far back. Just look at the usage of this years’ first round quarterback class. Bo Nix, J.J. McCarthy, and Michael Penix had stellar debuts. Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels played a few series.

If Maye is not going to play much this year, this is the time he needs to get his reps in order to develop. He won’t be getting them once the season starts. He was the third overall pick in the draft. He should not be treated with kid gloves, otherwise he wasn’t deserving of the pick. He should be able to start from day one.

Which is not to say I think he should start right away. I am on board with signing Jacoby Brissett as a mentor and having him serve as a place holder for Maye. But Maye should start at some point this season, and he should be getting more reps now – both in camp, and in games.

The practice I witnessed on Tuesday was disappointing. Even when he did get snaps, he was handing the ball off or dumping the ball into the flats. He was playing behind the second string offensive line which was going up against the Eagles’ first team. It was a mismatch and nothing was gained from the experience.

The joint practice was very telling of how far this Patriots’ team has to go. Any optimism there may have been going into the season has been washed away. This is a bad offense, and it may be the league’s worst. If Van Pelt’s philosophy is run first to set up the play action and/or pass the ball into the flats to the running backs or to emphasize the tight ends, he is not the right fit for a gunslinger like Drake Maye.

Maye had better play the entire first half of the game against the Eagles on Thursday night. If rookie Joe Milton can get as much run as he did in the first exhibition game, Maye should be allowed to take the training wheels off for these final two preseason games – no ifs, ands, or buts about it.