Kliff Kingsbury: Patriots New Offensive Coordinator?

Going into the Monday following the regular season’s conclusion, or as some like to call it “Black Monday”, there were a few coaches on the proverbial hot seat. Among them was former New England Patriots quarterback, turned NFL coach Kliff Kingsbury.

Then at 12:11 p.m. EST, the Arizona Cardinals announced that they had relieved Kingsbury of his duties as head coach of the team.

To say it was a disappointing season for the NFL’s version of the redbirds would be putting mildly – finishing at the bottom of the NFC West with a record of 4-13 containing wins against the Rams, the Panthers, the Raiders, and the Saints: the most impressive being the one of New Orleans. Each other win was over a team whose coach is either on the hot seat (in Josh McDaniels’s case) or is no longer with the organization (in the case of the rest of them).

Now that Kingsbury is on the market and looking for work, it might be time for Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to pounce and hire an offensive-minded coach to run their offense – especially after the atrocious season that Matt Patricia put together as the de-factor offensive coordinator.

Whether or not Kingsbury is willing to take a step-back from being a head coach and be an offensive coordinator remains to be seen, but here’s five reasons why the Pats should at least take a flyer on him, if not officially make an offer.

5. Bill O’Brien Won’t Leave Alabama For The Same Role

Most Patriots fans would love to see Bill O’Brien back on the sidelines calling the offense plays instead of Patricia, but given what he’s done with the University of Alabama’s offense the last few years, he is just about guaranteed to garner a ton of NFL interest – the catch, however, is that it won’t be as an offensive coordinator, it’ll be for head coaching jobs.

Mac Jones might lobby to have his old OC come to Foxborough, and that might draw O’Brien slightly, but the idea of coaching a team and instilling his own game plan without any oversight will definitely look like a much better option for him – especially if he were to return to Houston where they hold the No. 2 pick in next year’s draft and desperately need a quarterback.

That would give him an opportunity to develop an offense from the ground-up, rather than being put in a position where he needs to succeed or he’s gone, and thereby makes himself look worse than he did as a head coach.

4. Kingsbury Knows The Modern-Day NFL And How To Utilize It

Today in the NFL there are two aspects of the game that have changed since Belichick took the job in New England: the first is quarterback play, the second is aggressiveness on fourth down. The defensive side of the ball, thankfully for Belichick, has not changed at all.

The Quarterback Play

As any football fan knows by watching the game now, gone are the days of quarterbacks who can simply just stay up-right and get the ball down the field. Now-a-days, not only do you need to stay up-right and get it down the field, but it’s important to have (at least a little bit of) mobility, be able to be accurate, and make good decisions.

Kingsbury brought in Kyler Murray, a former third-string quarterback at the University of Oklahoma, who had to sit, first, behind Baker Mayfield before thinking he was going to get his shot, just to get shut down by the transfer of Jalen Hurts, and then finally getting his shot as a junior for the Sooners.

Turns out, the time on the scout team didn’t make a difference to Murray as he came out with firing on all cylinders and wound up getting drafted first-overall by Arizona while also winning Offensive Rookie of the Year, along with setting numerous rookie records – along with Pro Bowl nods the next two seasons.

Aggressiveness on 4th Down

Not only that, but he knows the importance of when to be aggressive and when to be passive with the ball. This past season the Cardinals decided to go for it on fourth down on 42 different occasions in 2022. Of those times, they converted 23 times. That’s a 54.8% clip!

That may not sound great on paper, but look at the Patriots. New England went for it only 13 times. Given Belichick’s conservative approach, and wealth of football knowledge you’d think their conversion percentage would be higher than Arizona’s, right? RIGHT?!?!?!? Well, that’s where you’re wrong. New England’s offense only converted on five of them. FIVE!! That’s a 38.5% clip. Ouch!

To quote Kenny Rogers in his song The Gambler, “you gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” The song may be about gambling, but that’s a lot of what makes up going for it on fourth down – deciding to go for it or not.

Kingsbury may not be perfect on fourth down, but thinking back to the Patriots game earlier in the season vs. the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field that they ultimately lost in overtime, the Patriots were a first down or two away from kicking a field goal to win it on the road. They ultimately decided to punt it on fourth down and short because if they didn’t convert, they were “a few first downs from the Packers winning it.” With Kingsbury calling the plays, most likely the offense would have stayed on the field and at least given it a shot.

3. Kingsbury Knows The Patriots System As A Player

Back in 2003, a year-removed from Tom Brady’s first full season as the Patriots’ starting quarterback, Kingsbury was drafted by New England in the sixth round – two picks after Brady’s slot in fact.

Kingsbury did not play the entire season due to being placed on injured reserve early on, but he did receive a ring for being on the roster and is thereby familiar with Belichick’s schemes and set-up for plays.

His experience as a player has the potential to help younger players/rookies to understand the initial playbook, while also giving it his own personal spin on things as well.

2. He Knows How Other Star Quarterbacks Operate

While at the moment, the most notable quarterback he has worked that everyone knows about is Murray, what not a lot of people know (unless you do some serious digging) is that he actually coached three notable quarterbacks while they were in college.

Sure, it was years ago at this point, but what that can do for the Patriots staff is it can give them an insight into how to slow them down, and possibly even defeat them from the defensive standpoint. One of them does not apply, as he is not in the NFL anymore and that is Johnny Manziel, but the other two could potentially come into play: Baker Mayfield, and Patrick Mahomes – Mahomes being the bigger threat, of course.

With his experience coaching Mahomes, he can give the defensive coaches an insight into what he can, and will, do in certain situations and how to properly keep him in the pocket.

Then, of course, he coached Murray for the last four years. One of the more dangerous, and mobile, quarterbacks in the entire NFL.

1. He’s young enough to be the “Coach In Waiting”

For years, many thought Josh McDaniels was thought to be the “coach in waiting” for when Belichick finally retired. Finally, McDaniels got his shot at an NFL job he thought he could take on in the Las Vegas Raiders – leaving the Patriots after a 10-7 season in 2021-22.

His Raiders this year, however, were 6-11 in a division stacked with talent from top-to-bottom with Mahomes the clear favorite at the top, then Justin Herbert at No. 2 with the Los Angeles Chargers, then it was a tie with his club with Derek Carr and the Denver Broncos with Russell Wilson – with the tie slightly favoring Wilson, in theory.

What Kingsbury has to his advantage though, is age. McDaniels took until he was 46-years-old to get a job that lasted more than one year, that is unless he is fired after the writing of this article. Kingsbury, on the other hand, is 43-years-old, and was hired by the Cardinals when he was 39 – giving him a slight age edge over McDaniels.

Whatever New England does this off-season, the offensive side of the ball, along with special teams needs to be a priority correction, and whatever, direction they turn in, fans in Foxborough can only hope it’s not a 360.