 breaking Patriots news, the Patriots finally have their offensive coordinator and it's probably not who you were thinking. The Patriots going with former Brown's offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, not Rams tight ends coach Nick Kaley like we all thought. The 53-year-old Pelt was Cleveland's OC from 2022-2023. Here are some more details about Van Pelt. He was also the Bill's offensive coordinator back in 2009. He was their quarterback in the 80s or 90s in early 2000s. He's been in the league as an assistant for 18 straight seasons, played nine seasons as the Bill's backup quarterback. All right let's deep dive this new era of football with Tom E. Curran for a Brewer from Sports Illustrated is going to be joining us pretty soon. Curran all three coordinators have been officially announced by the Patriots. This one though by far the biggest surprise. What is your initial reaction to Alex Van Pelt being named to the team's offensive coordinator? I feel better about it. No insult to Nick Kaley. I feel better about it than I would have if it was Nick Kaley. Alex Van Pelt has been a coordinator as you said for Cleveland since 2020. He cycled through a number of different quarterbacks including this year Joe Flacco bringing him in off the street and yes he's a very experienced quarterback but you still have to get him up to speed. They cycled through to Sean Watson down to backup quarterbacks and got them ready to go. I just talked to Phil a little bit too as he filled being on his history Van Pelt's history came up with the Kubiak offense Gary Kubiak. So that is an offshoot of the West Coast offense because Kubiak was with Mike Shanahan in Denver. So the Shanahan offense is really a precursor to Kyle Shanahan obviously and all that. And I know earlier in the week when we were talking about Nick Kaley and sort of the experience factor one thing that you and I definitely agreed on was we didn't love the idea that he didn't have any experience as a quarterback's coach. Yes. You know as Zach Robinson did you know this guy's been a quarterback's coach for Andy Dalton in Cincinnati Baker Mayfield and to Sean Watson in Cleveland and Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay. He's also been a running backs coach and an offensive coordinator. So the breadth of experience I think is something that's really going to benefit the Patriots. It helps so much to have somebody who can say Gerard I got the offense. Gerard I know what I expect from my offensive line coach. Gerard I got this with the wide receivers. This isn't working. You do the administrative stuff, the oversight stuff, stick with the defense, sit in on our offensive meetings because you might not have sat in on a lot of offensive meetings so far Gerard. And we're going to bring you up to speed on everything you need to be brought up to speed on because I think it's worth reiterating time and time and time again. Four and thirteen accelerated everything. So Gerard has to learn a lot on the fly. So I think that this is again the trepidation I had with three rookie coordinators trend is vanquished a bit because he's also 53. Yeah. Us middle-aged guys. You know we can be good crutches. Well I mean I just like the experience factor. Someone who has seen football in a number of different places and like you said has experience and I know that this is just breaking. So I just want to know your inclination as to why all of a sudden this name at the last minute like I think there were 11 coordinators mentioned and named as interviews and then all of a sudden this guy comes out of nowhere. Did they kind of you know knowing the knowing Gerard and knowing the crafts the way you do. Was this sort of their way of okay let's put some people out there but this is the guy we have in our back pocket and we don't want anyone else to take us like why was there sort of secretive. I don't know if it was secretive as much as it was so the net was so wide and there were so many fish in it. We kept circling back because I think that we felt as if Nick Kaley would be the individual when I talked to folks down there he seemed to be the leading candidate. So we kind of I guess as media we ignored the fact that it's going to be somebody else and there were so many names to explore. But I think Alex van Pelt you know his experience and the fact that maybe Elliott Wolff general manager de facto along with Matt grow right now would look at him and say I've worked with him I like him and said this is a personality they'll fit but I think Albert just wanted in and he's much more plugged in on league issues he could probably give us a better Alex van Pelt. Yes, FMQV's Burt Brewer is here with us now Burt you just walked in fresh up a plane from the senior bowl. What is your reaction to this news that Alex van Pelt is going to lead to the Patriots offense? I echo a lot of what Tom said where if you weren't going to do this in a two pronged way and that was part of the consideration here maybe bringing a senior offensive assistant and a younger play caller. Alex van Pelt makes sense because he has been a play caller before and he can be a resource to your new head coach and I think there's another element to this that's really important to and I don't think that this should be lost in the whole thing. You know when you talk to people in Cleveland they feel like Kevin Stefanski wasn't the one who fired Alex van Pelt they feel like the Haslums and Paul de Podesta were the ones that did it because they didn't feel like they were getting enough out of Deshaun Watson and I know the reaction on that Brown staff they were shocked and they're a little worried right now and the reason why is because Kevin if you've been around him as a little bit more of a flat line personality Alex van Pelt was the glue guy on that staff the guy who was outgoing the guy who got brought people together the guy who was kind of the veteran sage you know like the the the person who unified everybody and in Jarod Mayo's first year as a head coach after the year that coaching staff just went went through it seems to me like having a guy like that could be really valuable but beyond what he just brings to the table from an offensive perspective. Yeah what does he bring to the table from an offensive perspective Burt what do you expect this offense to look like under out and I know that there are a lot of missing pieces but what type of offense do you think he'll bring what he's been in different types of offense is that's the thing you know and if you want to go back you look of course he was in Buffalo all those years ago as a younger coach and then he was in Green Bay for a bunch of years under Mike McCarthy and when he went to Cleveland it was now you're going to be ingratiated into the Kubiak Shanahan style of offense that's what Kevin Stefansky is running there and so like he brings a blend of a lot of different things and look I know a lot of people were looking at this and looking at this and saying get me Zach Robinson off of Sean McVeigh staff get me Clint Kubiak off of Kyle Shanahan staff this guy brings the same offense with him he has experienced in the offense he's been a coordinator in the offense which neither Zach Robinson or or Clint Kubiak have been and the other part of it you're probably not going to lose him after a year or two like I don't think people are going to be knocking down Alex van Peltstor to become a head coach so there's a better chance that this guy could be here for four or five six years than if you hired one of the younger guys. Hey Bert with him being dismissed in January I just cited the fact that they cycled through a number of different quarterbacks and to Sean Watson and Phil Flacco and the people in between why are you able to ascertain as to why would they have fired him you said it was perplexing anyway but what was the reasoning is that it's a Sean Watson. Yeah I mean I think that that's it Tom you know and really the way things work in that organization the front office does have power Paul Deepadestas you know when these things happen a lot of people do point to Paul Deepadestas being behind them look it's the investment in the quarterback they do not feel like they've gotten enough out of to Sean Watson. Now the flip side of that argument would be well alright so to Sean Watson didn't play great but they won with four different quarterbacks this year in offense they won with their fourth and fifth tackles they won without Nick Chubb like you look at the circumstances there and that's why I think so many guys in that coaching staff were blown away when they cleaned out coaches on that side of the ball and Alex being obviously at the top of the food chain there it's like what more do you want him to do given the circumstances most teams get down to their fourth and five fifth tackles and we saw it at times here the offensive line crumbles it didn't in Cleveland you get to your fourth quarterback a lot of times a season over it wasn't in Cleveland and on top of that they lost probably their most important player on offense over the last four or five years and Nick Chubb a lot of people in Cleveland were very very surprised that that happened but I think if you ask the people in the senior level that were responsible for it and they were honest with you they would tell you it's the development of Sean to Sean Watson as a Cleveland Brown you know we've all tried to sort of figure out who's going to be the decision-making head this sort of feels like an Elliott Wolf decision he worked with Alex van Pelt in Green Bay these are the two guys who have sort of been sort of marinated somewhere else and come in to this role so Bert how involved in this decision do you think Elliott Wolf was I think Elliott Wolf has influence now in the organization you know and the day Gerard Mayo was hired there were two guys from the front office that Robert Kraft and Jonathan Kraft brought into their office for a meeting one was macro which you'd expect because he was the director of player personnel last year and the other was Elliott Wolf and I think Elliott's going to have influence here and I I think the other good thing and one thing I can say you know I feel comfortable saying now Alex van Pelt's going to have some power over hiring on the offensive side of the ball which maybe you didn't give as much power to Bill O'Brien over that last year so Alex van Pelt may have the chance to bring in his own quarterbacks coach to bring in his own offensive line coach I think that can make a big difference too when you're trying to put it put together an offense if you're bringing in guys where you don't need to reteach them what there's what you're trying to do because I think part of the reason you know other than the fact that we never heard that they were interviewing out for this job that we're all a little surprised by this is some reporting that came out just over the last 24 hours or so from Boston Sports Journal's Mike Giardi who was down at the senior bowl along with Burt here's how the league sources describe the Patriots offensive coordinator job quote one their best playmaker is a sixth round lily putain yeah that's Gulliver's travel okay okay okay sure where do I sign up quote two where did what does Mayo want them to be I don't know that anyone knows the answer yet quote three the job looks worse on paper than it did here a year ago and Billy O'Brien took over current you're laughing why you laughing I just think the lily put it's always great stuff in colors travels Johnson's left it was a cartoon when we were young so I predate you by about 10 years you know I look at all that and I don't have really any quibbles with the unnamed sources and their outside view I think Albert you can look at this job and say wow what a bounty of riches here you have the third wide receiver and by the way you have the하겠습니다 Instagram, you have the man who has the big overall pick you got a blank slate you could put your imprint on that offense or oh my god they only have David Andrews Remandree Stevenson a third wide receiver those the only places on their offense they have a guy under contract who you can say this is a pretty good player so I do understand the hesitancy I swear I mean maybe I'm a the job, of course there's big questions from a personnel standpoint and I think the biggest problem is you've got issues at positions where you're either going to have to spend high-end draft capital or a lot of money. Tackle, receiver, quarterback those are expensive spots to fill and it's hard if you've got all three got issues at all three of those spots it's hard to fix them all in one offseason so it does feel like the offense where they are right now from a personnel standpoint this might be a multi-offseason build and you know if you're a young you know if you're a young rising coach and you're looking at and you're saying what's gonna get me to the head coaching job quickest then maybe you would look at this and say yeah I don't want a piece of that now if you're somebody like Alex van Pelt where maybe you've settled in and you're a career offensive coordinator you might look at it a little differently like Tom said.