This is kind of old news but has anyone else noticed how small the Pats coaching staff is numbers wise? They have just 11 assistant coaches and none are listed as an offensive or defensive coordinators. When McDaniels left they didn't hire a new OC and as I recall, just decided to spread the duties of an OC among the offensive positional coaches. They were still 6th in points scored so it didn't appear to hurt them much, In 2008 they were 8th in scoring so actually improved after McDaniels. Getting Brady back helped too of course. He had a 96 rating after Cassel had a 89 rating in 2008. This off season, DC Dean Pees left and a new DC was not hired. They hired a coach with no NFL experience in Corwin Brown, but he is listed as Defensive Coach on the team's list of coaches. He was a college DC at N. Dame for 3 yrs prior to this. In 2009 they were 5th in scoring defense and improved from 8th in 2008. I presume they intend to take the same approach with defense in 2010. Since this is Belichick's area of expertise, I'd guess he'll take more of that work load himself too. He won't give a rookie NFL coach full reins to run the defense is my guess. The Pats also list no quality control coaches, which are commonplace on NFL staffs anymore. We have 2. In comparison, we have 16 asst coaches and 3 are coordinators, for whatever titles are worth. The Jets have 17 asst coaches and the typical 3 coordinators. The Bills have 18 asst coaches. Even the Bengals who are considered among the most tight fisted when it comes to spending money, have 16. The Bucs have 17, etc. I found the Pats approach of having less assts to be rather surprising. Could this be Belichick having a cavalier attitude of not needing as much help because he holds himself in that high a regard?
