Hasselbeck: Patriots OC may pull out trick plays vs Seahawks’ defense

The Seattle Seahawks are set to face a coach with some of the most Super Bowl experience as any in league history.

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It’s not New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, who played in four Super Bowls during his time as a linebacker for Patriots. It’s offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is set to make his 10th appearance in the game Sunday.

A twice-failed NFL head coach, McDaniels has been among the game’s top offensive play-callers for years, dating back to when he was the offensive coordinator of the Patriots’ stellar 2007 unit headlined by Tom Brady and Randy Moss.

McDaniels will have a tough task in front of him as he attempts to guide second-year quarterback Drake Maye against the Seahawks’ top-ranked scoring defense. But if the Patriots start to struggle on offense, former Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck told Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk to not be surprised if McDaniels turns to his bag of tricks.

“If Josh McDaniels sits there and he says, ‘OK, I’m having a hard time manufacturing explosives, points, yards’ – what’s he going to do? He’s going to go to trick plays,” Hasselbeck said on Friday. “He’s got gadgets. He’s absolutely going to run trick plays in this game.”

One reason Hasselbeck feels that way is because trick plays are something McDaniels has excelled at scheming throughout his time in the league.

One of the most famous trick plays called by McDaniels was the Julian Edelman double pass that resulted in a touchdown caught by Danny Amendola in the 2014 AFC Divisional Round against the Baltimore Ravens. Sometimes, he would get Brady involved as a receiver. He even once dialed up a triple pass when he was head coach of the Raiders.

McDaniels recently showed he has some tricks at his disposal with this group when he had Monroe High School and Eastern Washington product Efton Chism III, a wide receiver, throw a reverse pass to quarterback Drake Maye in the wild-card round, though it fell incomplete.

“You practice them all season long and they sit there in the gadget section, and now it’s the last game of the year and, like, what are you saving it for? That’s why people ran The Philly Special,” Hasselbeck said. “… If I’m the Seahawks in this two weeks (leading up to the game), I’m taking a couple coaches and I’m doing a deep dive on all the skill guys. Who’s a righty? Who’s a lefty? Who was a quarterback in high school? Who played baseball? All the stuff.

“Efton Chism, I need to know where he is. If he’s in the game, why are you in the game? He’s probably in the game to throw the Julian Edelman double pass.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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