Thing is that your first move should have been to hire an offensive coordinator and find out what scheme he wants to install and what personnel he needs to make his scheme successful. *I* would call Charlie Weis. He made Brady and that offense what it is today. Someone else brought up Norv Turner; kinda meh as a head coach but his offenses always seem to produce. Hell, I'd even give Peyton a shot at OC. I think he's better suited for OC than GM. Much, much better.After thinking about what I would do, I would write this yr off. Moves I would make this yr. New England's 1st for Mercilus. Tyler Lockett for DB.
Next yrs FA signees Ty Nsehke and Santreal Henderson in FA.
Then I would use the Mercilus 1st on an OT like Connor Williams who will fall due to his recent knee injury (Fairly minor) and a bad 1st game and let him play OG to begin with.
Offense would look like this.
OL
Nsekhe/Williams/Martin/Mancz/Henderson.
Reserves OT Davenport/Reid/Fuller/Allen
QB's Watson, whoever the new HC wants
RB's Miller/Foreman/Ervin/Late draft pick
TE's Fiedo/Anderson/Griffin/Bayliss
WR's Hopkins/Fuller/Lockett/Davis/Hamilton
You can pickup Nsekhe who I really liked when he replaced Williams for the Redskins last yr on the cheap he's playing on a vet min contract this yr. Henderson has been suspended for smoking the refer but should be a great FA get for the vet min. Lockett would be a huge upgrade in the slot and can also play outside. He immediately upgrades the KR/PR positions.
Ricky just needs to be committed to doing whatever it takes to upgrading/protecting Watson and giving him as many weapons as possible.
Point is until you pick a "chef", how do you know what "groceries" to shop for. So you don't know if all those moves you've listed will work in the new offense or not. I don't have to tell you how many times guys have looked great in one scheme and sucked when moved to a different one.
Also, whichever one of those two (or anyone else of note) I managed to hire, I'd let him bring his own QB coach to bring up young Watson. Again, this is where Peyton would be invaluable.
So I'd actually keep O'Brien because he seems to be a decent leader and motivator. But he just flat cannot call an offense.