Josh McDaniels Great for Patriots' Offense, But Won't Provide Big Advantage As Defense Prepares for Tim Tebow

Josh McDaniels Great for Patriots’ Offense, But Won’t Provide Big Advantage As Defense Prepares for Tim Tebow

by Jeff Howe on Sun, Jan 8, 2012 at 9:39PM

The rehiring of Josh McDaniels will benefit the Patriots in the long term, but it will have a negligible effect as they prepare this week for quarterback Tim Tebow and the Broncos’ offense.

McDaniels, who was added Sunday as a coaching assistant and will be the Patriots’ offensive coordinator next season, drafted Tebow in the first round in 2010. While he’s got extensive background knowledge of Tebow and could add some nice anecdotes of his leadership behind the scenes, McDaniels’ experience with Tebow won’t really give the Patriots an added advantage this week.

New England head coach Bill Belichick can find out far more by studying Tebow’s 12 game tapes from the 2011 season, including Sunday’s playoff victory against the Steelers. It also helps that Belichick and his staff went through the same drill prior to their Week 15 meeting with the Broncos, which resulted in a 41-23 victory for New England.

The timing of the McDaniels hire is symbolic — it was announced within the hour of the Broncos’ overtime victory — and it provides a heck of a storyline. Just don’t believe it when you hear McDaniels’ presence will give the Patriots a sizeable edge as they scope out the Broncos.

McDaniels was fired by the Broncos 12 games into the 2010 season. Since then, new Denver head coach John Fox has revamped the system, and McDaniels spent the 2011 season as the Rams’ offensive coordinator. Truth be told, Belichick and the Patriots should have more insight on Tebow and the Denver offense right now than McDaniels because they’re just a month removed from preparing for it.

At this point on the NFL calendar, the game tape doesn’t lie, and there’s very little McDaniels could share from 2010 that would give the Patriots an X’s and O’s advantage for Saturday’s divisional round matchup.

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