Patriots coordinators Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia were in high demand during New England’s playoff bye week as NFL teams try to fill their head coach vacancies.
McDaniels reportedly interviewed with the San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams, while Patricia reportedly met with the Rams and San Diego Chargers.
Both McDaniels and Patricia spoke to the media Monday via conference call and were asked about the interviews.
“It’s humbling and it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to do any of those things,” McDaniels said. “I feel very fortunate to even have the opportunity to sit in front of those people that they would listen to me and spend time with me. Just try to do the best you can and represent yourself, your team and the organization that you come from, your family as best you can. All the rest of it will play out the way it’s supposed to play out.”
McDaniels noted Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is “very unselfish and cares for us all” as his assistants receive interviews.
“Obviously over the weekend I was very thankful for those opportunities and kinda that was a great experience to go through,” Patricia said. “I think everything right now for me is Houston, flip the page as soon as I can.”
Patricia did reveal what he found most interesting about the opportunities.
“My respect to Houston is where all my attention is, but I’d say in general with any interview process, to me the fascinating part of all of that is learning about all the different organizations and how they work, because they are so different,” Patricia said. “That’s just a general statement about the NFL. Sometimes as you anchor in to what we do day in and day out, you never really look at that stuff on a full scale, but they’re very fascinating, the NFL in general and the organizations and how they’re operated.”
Both Patricia and McDaniels stressed that they had since turned the page to the Patriots’ divisional round opponent, the Houston Texans. When they interviewed Saturday, the Patriots’ playoff opponent had not yet been determined.
“I think the profession that we work in requires that of us each week,” McDaniels said. “We get ready for one team, we put all of our focus and time, our preparation, our energy into getting ready to do the best we can each week against a certain opponent, and then the very next day, as soon as the game ends, actually, our focus shifts to something different, whether that’s how we can improve from how we just did to the preparation for the scouting report and the game report for the next opponent. I think honestly we’ve been trained to switch gears and really tie our focus in to the thing that’s in hand. If it’s a work day, then we know where our focus is gonna lie and it’s absolutely going to be on the Texans this week and looking forward to getting ready to go.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images
