The New England Patriots’ offense will look different in 2023, but expect some familiar aspects under returning offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

The Patriots have only had a handful of offensive coordinators since Bill Belichick was hired in 2000. They went from Charlie Weis (2000-2004) to Josh McDaniels (2005-2008) to O’Brien (2009-2011), back to McDaniels (2012-2021), to a year Patriots fans would like to forget in 2022 with Matt Patricia steering to ship, back to O’Brien this season.

Tight end Hunter Henry was asked Friday after OTAs if the offense is more similar to what was being run in 2021 than 2022.

“That’s safe to say, yeah,” Henry said.

Henry said he expects his role to be similar under O’Brien than it was with McDaniels.

The former Los Angeles Chargers tight end overall downplayed the fact that he’s playing under his fourth offensive coordinator in four years.

“Man, this is what you kind of get used to in the NFL though,” Henry said. “You know, there's a lot of carryover, there's a lot of new things every single year. You’ve got a new team, you’ve got new coaches, so you get used to it. This is the time of year to kind of iron things out. This is why we're out here to kind of learn execution so that when training camp comes, we're just, you know, we're starting to build. This is more for the execution being in the right spot, communication. So we're doing a good job of that.”

Henry, like most Patriots offensive players, had a more successful 2021 campaign than he did in 2022. He caught 50 passes for 603 yards with a career-high nine touchdowns in 2021, his first season in New England. He caught 41 passes for 509 yards with just two touchdowns last year.

He shared the tight end role with Jonnu Smith in 2021 and 2022. Smith was traded, and New England signed former Miami Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki to create a new tight end duo. Henry has enjoyed being coached by O’Brien so far.

“I mean, obviously he's experienced, he's had multiple stops,” Henry said. “I mean, he's coming from college, you know, this past year, but he's also been in this league and been successful. So, just trying to soak up as much knowledge from him and learn every single day as much as I can.

“There's definitely some carryover (from 2021 and 2022), there's new things. … There's different things that we got to learn and pick up on. We're communicating back and forth, you know, we're all trying to work together on this and try to be as successful as we can.”

The offense appears to be ahead of where they were last season, which makes sense. O’Brien is much more experienced on the offensive side of the ball than Patricia, who’s now a senior defensive assistant with the Philadelphia Eagles.

Featured image via Jasen Vinlove-USA TODAY Sports Images