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Matt Patricia may be calling Patriots' offensive plays this season, with Joe Judge as key assistant

BOSTON (CBS) -- We've known for a while that Bill Belichick is quite fond of Matt Patricia's football acumen. The head coach's faith in Patricia is perhaps about to reach new levels.

ESPN's Mike Reiss -- who's always tied in closely with the team -- said that he's heard from those involved with the current phase of organized team activities (OTAs) that the offense is being run by Joe Judge and Matt Patricia, with Patricia potentially being the play-caller for the upcoming season.

Here's what Reiss said on "NFL Live" on Wednesday:

No one has seen anything, so you have to go by what you're told. And here's something that was relayed to me -- that if you were on the field for these [OTA] sessions and you just closed your eyes and listened, you would know who the leading presence is for the offense among the coaches. The voices of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge standing above everyone else. They are leading this offense.

Now, Bill Belichick hasn't said who is gonna call the plays, but it will most likely be one of those two. And, Laura, I've got the No. 2 pencil, I'm gonna put it in the ear. Because I'm told don't be surprised if it's Matt Patricia -- who always has that No. 2 pencil in the ear.

Patricia is entering his 16th season working for the Patriots, though just two of those seasons were on the offensive side of the ball -- and those years were back in 2004 and 2005. In '04, Patricia was an offensive assistant, and in '05, he was an assistant offensive line coach. He coached the linebackers from 2006-10 and the safeties in 2011 before serving as the defensive coordinator from 2012-17. He spent two-plus seasons as the head coach of the Lions, going 13-29-1 during that time, before returning to the Patriots last year as a "senior football advisor."

It's a precious time in the young career of Mac Jones, who's entering his second year in the league now with what will be his second offensive coordinator, after Josh McDaniels left New England to become the head coach of the Raiders.

Judge likewise has very little experience coaching offense. At the collegiate level, he was a linebackers coach and special teams coordinator at Birmingham-Southern before getting a special teams assistant job at Alabama. In New England, he was a special teams assistant for three years before getting the coordinator title for four seasons. He left to become head coach of the Giants, who ranked 31st in both offensive yards and points scored in his two seasons in New York, before returning to New England with the vague title of "offensive assistant."

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