Everyone on the Patriots — players and coaches alike — is learning Josh McDaniels’s offense: ‘Unlike anything I’ve played in’

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel (right) said that most of the players and coached learning the offense of Josh McDaniels (left) together has created a positive environment in training camp.Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff

FOXBOROUGH — With Josh McDaniels returning as offensive coordinator, receiver Kendrick Bourne said the Patriots’ new offense is “pretty similar” to the one McDaniels ran in 2021, when Bourne arrived in New England.

It’s everyone else who has changed.

Second-year quarterback Drake Maye has never played in McDaniels’s offense. Same with both backup quarterbacks, all three centers, and just about every player on offense. Only seven of 45 players have experience in McDaniels’s scheme.

Usually when players are learning a new offense, they can lean on the coaching staff for guidance. But passing game coordinator Thomas Brown, offensive line coach Doug Marrone, and wide receivers coach Todd Downing also are learning McDaniels’s offense for the first time, too. In fact, of the 10 coaches on the offensive staff, McDaniels is the only one with experience in the scheme.

“I think it’s pretty similar, but it’s new staff around Josh, so I think he’s just jelling with other staff members,” Bourne said. “I think we’re evolving quick. The environment has been dope. We’re seeing his vision and when that connects from coach to players.”

McDaniels’s scheme, run by the Patriots for more than two decades during the Bill Belichick years, is not common across the NFL. The only other teams that run it are led by former Patriots — the Giants (Brian Daboll) and Texans (Nick Caley, Nick Caserio).

Only four Patriots players remain from 2021, McDaniels’s last season in New England — Hunter Henry, Rhamondre Stevenson, Mike Onwenu, and Bourne. Receiver Mack Hollins and tight end Austin Hooper played for McDaniels in Las Vegas between 2022-23, and Stefon Diggs played for Daboll in Buffalo from 2020-21, saying the offense had “a lot of similarities.”

But most of the team, including the most important players on offense — the quarterbacks and centers, who set the protection at the line of scrimmage — are learning it for the first time.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve played in,” said center Garrett Bradbury, who spent six years with the Vikings before signing with the Patriots in March. “I think the first time you hear it you’re like, ‘What is this?’ In the spring I ordered flash cards. I’m like, ‘I’ve never done this, but it’s helping.’ ”

The coaches are learning it, too. Most of the Patriots’ offensive coaches are experienced in the West Coast offense that they ran under Mike Vrabel in Tennessee.

“They learn with us, and they give us ways to learn it easier,” Douglas said of the coaches.

Vrabel said the fact that players and coaches are learning the offense together has created a positive environment.

“It allows people to stay engaged,” he said. “I think when something’s new, you put a little bit more time into it just so that you can get the details and you don’t maybe take things for granted.”

While McDaniels is taking suggestions from all his coaches to create the playbook, he’s still using his old Tom Brady film to teach the offense.

“All the film we’ve watched from this offense is from the glory years here,” Bradbury said. “And you see how Brady played with such quickness, timing, knew where he was going with it, because he mastered the system. And you can understand that once you master this system, you’ve got all the answers to the book.”

Maye, who played in a West Coast offense as a rookie under Alex Van Pelt, said the McDaniels offense is starting to feel more comfortable.

“It takes awhile, I think, to master something at the level that some of the guys played at,” Maye said. “So, I think I’ve got a long way to go, but I think I like where I’m at.”

Josh McDaniels (left) is using his old Tom Brady film to teach Drake Maye (right).Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

Bradbury said that McDaniels’s system is wordier, and not all of the play names make sense.

“In a lot of systems there’s a rhyme or reason — there’s an R in it, an L in it,” he said. “Some of these got no rhyme or reason, and that’s where the flash cards come in. That’s kind of the big difference, and there’s a lot of verbiage.”

Another big change for Maye and Bradbury is something that Patriots fans listened to Brady do for 20 years — identify the “Mike” (middle linebacker) before the snap.

Cam Newton caught some flak in 2021, for admitting that he had never had to identify the “Mike” or certain defensive fronts before playing for McDaniels. But that is now the case for all three Patriots quarterbacks and all of their offensive linemen, except Onwenu. Calling out the “Mike” helps the offensive linemen identify their blocking assignments.

“Drake makes an initial call, and the center can make the call to get the line in place, and there’s a few plays where I can help him with the Mike call, so it’s a collaborative effort,” Bradbury said. “His voice is the main voice, and then any way I can help, giving him little hints here or there, I see something, the better.”

The Patriots installed the new playbook over the spring and reviewed it over the first four days of training camp. The real test won’t come until the regular season, when the Patriots need to fix problems on the fly with a roster and coaching staff that don’t have much experience with the scheme.

“Right now we’re still learning all the little rules, so we need to see different fronts, different pressures,” Bradbury said. “And through some mistakes, through some reps, you get to see, ‘OK, I can play faster.’ ”