Many folks jumped to the same conclusion when Josh McDaniels left the Indianapolis Colts at the altar last year.
The Colts job, at least at the time, was an appealing one. Indianapolis featured one of the NFL’s premier quarterbacks surrounded by a strong cast of young talent. But it wasn’t enough to earn a full-fledged commitment from McDaniels, who walked back on his decision to take the gig and instead returned to his post in New England.
McDaniels’ flip-flop was taken as a hint at his future plans. Considering the opportunity he passed on, many believed McDaniels hitched his wagon the Patriots and ultimately would take over as head coach once Bill Belichick moved on. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, however, thinks McDaniels is very much open to opportunities outside of Foxboro, a notion the Sports Illustrated writer believes is made clear through a certain McDaniels quote in “Do Your Job III.”
“On Belichick, McDaniels said, ‘I’ll be excited to be there in Canton when he goes in, five years after he’s done coaching, whenever that is, which will probably be a long time from now,'” Breer writes. “And then, a minute or so later in the doc, the OC added, ‘Whatever my future holds, I know this — the best thing for me is to do the best I can here, right now with him, with Tom, with this team, with this staff, with the organization we have, for Mr. Kraft. And I think things will work out the way they’re supposed to.’
“I believe if Cleveland or Green Bay had made an offer to McDaniels in January, he’d have gone to those places to take a second shot at being a head coach. I don’t think he’s waiting for Belichick to move on. And if he’s being forthright with what he’s saying here, it sounds like he’s implicitly telling everyone that.”
As McDaniels notes, the end doesn’t appear near for Belichick, who obviously will be able to call the shots in New England as long as he wants. As such, it would be foolish for McDaniels to keep himself closed off to jobs elsewhere. The NFL, as we know, is a cutthroat league, and attractive opportunities arise each offseason. McDaniels likely will be a candidate for most head-coaching vacancies as long as he’s in New England, and maybe he is just waiting for the right situation.
Time will tell when that comes, but it could be sooner rather than later.
