PHILADELPHIA – If you’re wondering why Matt Patricia is in Philadelphia, Sunday’s game at New England might be a good place to start.
Patricia has spent 16 of his 20 seasons as a coach over two different stints with the Patriots and Bill Belichick, including five years as New England’s defensive coordinator before becoming the Detroit Lions head coach in 2018. Patricia returned to Belichick’s side in 2021 and curiously spent last season as the offensive play-caller, something that didn’t work out well for young Pats quarterback Mac Jones.
With Belichick taking a more conventional approach this season with another long-time confidant in Bill O’Brien, Patricia landed on his feet in Philadelphia as a senior defensive assistant on Nick Sirianni’s staff.
New defensive coordinator Sean Desai, who replaced Jonathan Gannon, now the head coach in Arizona, was asked about Patricia’s presence again on Wednesday and seemed a bit frustrated with what has been a consistent theme before recovering.
“It feels like you ask me this like every other press conference,” Desai said, “but I get it this week in particular because has a lot of experience in New England; heavily, just like we’ve relied heavily on a lot of these coaches, heavily, to kind of come up with their plan.”
“Matt has a lot of insight, especially in terms of the people there, the actual personal attributes of guys we’re playing against, because some of them we haven’t seen much off the preseason tape. He’s been great, a tremendous resource,” Desai continued.
The Eagles are playing the AFC East this season, so Patricia has a long history with each organization in the division.
Sirianni also liked the dichotomy of having senior offensive assistants on both sides of the football and the coach often uses them as information for the other side. In other words, Patricia helps the offense by explaining what defenses might do against certain looks and vice versa for senior offensive assistant Marcus Brady, the former OC in Indianapolis.
Because he’s not a position coach, Patricia has not been made available to reporters. JAKIB Sports has requested to speak with Patricia but that access has not been granted so his role is still somewhat of a mystery.
Complicating matters even further was the contentious history between Patricia and Eagles star cornerback Darius Slay when the two were together in Detroit. Both men have buried the hatchet and were exchanging pleasantries at practice last week.
“You try to turn over every stone you possibly can looking for answers and different things.,” Sirianni said. “Like I said, anybody that’s been around Coach Belichick, you’re always asking questions about, whether it’s scheme or whether it’s coaching philosophies. I’ve always been fascinated by him and his coaching tree.
“So, again, like I said, (New York Giants coach) Brian Daboll, big mentor to me. And then just how big of a help Coach Patricia has been to me as well, just with general coaching philosophies and also scheme-wise. Of course, you’re going to look for every advantage you can get, and that’s what we’re doing this week.”
