The NFL coaching carousel never truly stops spinning, and Josh McDaniels always seems to be along for the ride.
That appears to be the case again this season, as two teams — the Cleveland Browns and Green Bay Packers — already have fired their head coaches, and more coaches likely will suffer similar fates once the season comes to an end.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter said Friday on WEEI’s Mut & Callahan that McDaniels will be toward the top of the list for any team looking for a fresh start. This comes despite what happened last offseason, when McDaniels accepted the Colts’ head-coaching job but later backed out to remain the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator.
“If he wants one, he will get one,” Schefter said. “There is no doubt in my mind about that because we get on average seven head-coaching changes per year. We’ve already gotten two. We will get minimum, four or five more. There just will be. So the six, seven, eight openings, you tell me who the six, seven, eight coaches are that people are targeting, and last year when everybody hired all of these coaches, the majority of them were offensive-minded coaches. And the year before, they were offensive-minded coaches. They are always offensive-minded coaches. If they are always offensive-minded coaches, who would be the top guy in that area? Josh McDaniels.
“So, that is why it was almost laughable last year when he decided to say ‘no’ to Indianapolis — ‘he’ll never get a head-coaching job ever again.’ Well, one year he has to wait until he’s a candidate again. That doesn’t mean he’s going to take one, either. We’ve seen how picky and selective he can be. He should be because he is going to be a candidate every year as long as Bill (Belichick) and Tom (Brady) are there and he’s thriving in the system and he’s demonstrating the work that he does. Unless he’s entirely comfortable with that situation, he is not going to jump, unlike other coordinators and coaches who when they first get an opening they can’t wait to get a head-coaching job. Josh has proven he is going to be very patient with this and very picky to the point where some people think it is a detriment when it’s not. It’s just not.”
McDaniels previously was the head coach of the Denver Broncos, going 11-17 before being fired 12 games into the 2010 season. He then returned to the Patriots after a one-year stint as offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams, and he’s been reluctant to leave New England ever since.
Nevertheless, McDaniels will continue to draw interest from teams in search of a head coach with offensive creativity.
