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Bill Belichick made a simple change to his offensive line that could revolutionize the NFL

Business Insider By Emmett Knowlton

The New England Patriots' offense is off to a ferocious start. New England has scored 119 points through the first three games of the season, second in the NFL and the most points through three games in Patriots history.

But beyond Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski, and Julian Edelman — not to mention Bill Belichick and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels at the helm — there is a less obvious reason to explain New England's fast start: the fact they are revolutionizing their offensive line.

The Boston Herald took a deep dive on the frequency with which New England has been rotating its offensive line, and it's unlike anything else you'll find in football.

Through their first 30 offensive possessions this year, the Patriots have rolled out nine offensive-line combinations (not including kneels to end halves), and they deployed a 10th unique combination on goal-line packages against the Jaguars that resulted in three LeGarrette Blount rushing touchdowns. Against the Steelers in Week 1, they didn't begin consecutive possessions with the same offensive-line combination until the sixth and seventh possessions.

Most of these rotations have come at the guard position. Three linemen have taken a lot of snaps on both sides of the line, which — again — is quite unlike what other teams do. Josh Kline has played 10 series at left guard and 14 at right; Shaq Mason has played 20 at left guard; and Tre' Jackson has played 16 at right guard. Only David Andrew, the team's center, has played all snaps.

Here's the combination on the goal line against the Jaguars:

This might not look like much, and the idea to rotate linemen over the course of the game may not sound particularly groundbreaking. But compared with how the rest of the NFL approaches the offensive line, this is quite unusual.

In general, teams will take their best combination of linemen and use them all game long, rather than switching them out as New England is. The reasoning behind this traditional approach to line play isn't all that hard to fathom: Teams want to keep their best players in for as many possessions as possible, and switching it up will mess with communication and chemistry.

But Belichick has changed that, at least so far this season. As the Herald noted, this rotation is inevitably causing opposing defenses to prepare not just for different packages, but also for different combinations of linemen within one individual package and within different packages.

Dave DeGuglielmo, New England's offensive-line coach, told the Herald there were specific strategical reasons to explain the frequency of these rotations — though don't expect him to elaborate.

"It's not done just randomly," DeGuglielmo said. "There's a specific reason why we rotate guys when we do, where we rotate them. There’s a rhyme and reason to everything."

Because it's Belichick and the Patriots we're talking about, this is probably true. But the rotations can also be explained by two more practical reasons: youth and injuries.

Both Jackson and Mason are rookies, so rotating them out allows for them to receive more in-game coaching than if they were expected to play entire games in front of Brady. It also puts less pressure on them to maintain a high level of play all game long. The same holds true for Kline, who is only in his third season and saw limited time in his first two. Both Bryan Stork and Ryan Wendell, mainstays on the Patriots' line, have missed time this season with injuries, which can also explain why more linemen are seeing more time.

As the Herald notes, it's not implausible that Belichick is simply extending the tryout period into the regular season because of the youth at the position, and once the best combination of the offensive line becomes clear, he'll stick with it.

But again, this is Belichick we're talking about, so it's not crazy to think we'll soon see teams copying this rotation strategy. This could mean that the offensive line will eventually be treated a lot more like the defensive line: Certain offensive linemen with specific skill sets will be brought in exclusively for rushing plays, or goal-line plays, and so forth, just as certain defensive linemen are used for pass-rushing or crowding the box. If what the Patriots are doing holds on, the whole position could be changed.

Or, Belichick will make up his mind on his players and stop the rotations all together. Either, or.

Well at formation point enough to give away a play the personnel changes certainly might as well. That Bellachick is quite an innovator amongst other things. I guess he doesn't feel cohesivness is all that important and more so that freshness is.

Dave DeGuglielmo, New England's offensive-line coach, told the Herald there were specific strategical reasons to explain the frequency of these rotations — though don't expect him to elaborate.

"It's not done just randomly," DeGuglielmo said. "There's a specific reason why we rotate guys when we do, where we rotate them. There’s a rhyme and reason to everything."

What it isn't is revolutionary or genius. That stuff is hyperbole. It gets thrown around way too much. It's just plain smart football. The Patriots break down strength vs. weakness , and compile databases on every level imagineable of the ball and develop detailed game plans to strategically exploit opposing teams. That's why they are the most prepared team in the business day in day out, year in year out.

Hacksaw_64 wrote:

Dave DeGuglielmo, New England's offensive-line coach, told the Herald there were specific strategical reasons to explain the frequency of these rotations — though don't expect him to elaborate.

"It's not done just randomly," DeGuglielmo said. "There's a specific reason why we rotate guys when we do, where we rotate them. There’s a rhyme and reason to everything."

What it isn't is revolutionary or genius. That stuff is hyperbole. It gets thrown around way too much. It's just plain smart football. The Patriots break down strength vs. weakness , and compile databases on every level imagineable of the ball and develop detailed game plans to strategically exploit opposing teams. That's why they are the most prepared team in the business day in day out, year in year out.

What "level" do they get to though? I understand that not all teams do everything they can but this is a copycat league. If the Patriots were doing something that could be identified, then other teams would do the same.

I can't come to grips with the idea that they are THAT much better than everyone else. Cheating explains it but that's also an easy answer. Not sure it explains everything.

Rams the Legends live on wrote:Oh come on ya know Bill did not come up with this. He caught it all on film when he sent a assistant to go film his grandsons rival high schools walk through before the Friday night game.

lol Legends.. btw, who won his grandsons game?

Rams the Legends live on wrote:

Hacksaw wrote:

Rams the Legends live on wrote:Oh come on ya know Bill did not come up with this. He caught it all on film when he sent a assistant to go film his grandsons rival high schools walk through before the Friday night game.

lol Legends.. btw, who won his grandsons game?

His grandson's team did at half time their QB suddenly went down and when the back up stepped on the filed the rumors in the stands was he looked way to old to be in high school. Some of the folks in the stands also swore when the back up stepped out onto the field there was the sudden sound of a hissing in the air like air being let out of a tire or maybe even a football.

LMAO