Three decades before the New England Patriots requested to interview him for their offensive coordinator vacancy, Keenan McCardell was an overlooked Cleveland Browns wide receiver who thoroughly impressed his head coach with his talent and tenacity.
That coach: Bill Belichick.
McCardell, now the Minnesota Vikings' wide receivers coach, is a candidate for the Patriots' OC job, with the team reportedly submitting an interview request Wednesday. The 53-year-old never played for New England nor previously coached under Belichick, which would put him in the minority among Patriots assistants.
But the impression he made during his four seasons in Cleveland -- 1992-95; the last four Belichick spent there as Browns head coach -- clearly resonated with the legendary Patriots bench boss.
Back in 2005, when an aging McCardell was preparing to face the Patriots as a member of the San Diego Chargers, Belichick heaped praise on the wideout, comparing him to Patriots Hall of Famer Troy Brown and calling his rise from 12th-round draft pick to five-time 1,100-yard receiver "one of the great stories in the NFL."
Check out these Belichick quotes from an October 2005 Boston Globe story written by Jerome Solomon:
"I have so much respect for Keenan, and I'm really proud to have coached him. I'm not saying that I developed his career or anything, I don't mean it that way. But, I mean, just what he brought as a player, his work ethic, his attitude. ... He's really a special guy." ...
"He really understands route techniques and has a very good understanding of the passing game and has great hands. So, wherever you throw the ball to, Keenan, he's going to catch it. It could be behind him, low, high ... it doesn't really matter.
"He has one of those bodies that can twist and turn pretty fluidly. So he makes a lot of those catches look pretty easy, even though a lot of guys wouldn't be able to make them because they'd just be too stiff to get around."
McCardell played in zero games as a Washington Redskins rookie in 1991, two in his first season with Cleveland in 1992 and six in '93, catching a total of 14 passes over that span. In 1994, he appeared in 13 games but caught just 10 passes. It wasn't until his fifth season that he finally broke out, posting a 56-709-4 receiving line in 1995.
From there, he went on to star for the Jacksonville Jaguars, teaming up with Jimmy Smith to form one of the NFL's top receiving duos throughout the late 1990s. By the time he retired in 2008 after stints with Tampa Bay, San Diego, Houston and Washington, he'd amassed 883 career catches and 11,373 receiving yards, which rank 25th and 35th on the NFL's all-time leaderboard, respectively.
"I think that has to be really one of the great stories in the NFL," Belichick said in 2005. "To come from where he came from, 10,000 yards in his career, and within a year, he'll probably be in the top 15 all-time? I don't know, whatever it was, a 12th-round draft choice? Are you kidding me?
"But it wasn't like he did it all in '92 or '93 or like this was some big diamond in the rough. It took McCardell a long time, kind of like it took Troy Brown a while to get to that level and get that kind of recognition."
McCardell got into coaching in 2010 and has since coached wideouts for three different NFL teams, working under Mike and Kyle Shanahan in Washington and Doug Marrone in Jacksonville before joining Minnesota in 2021. He's helped guide Justin Jefferson's development into one of the NFL's elite receivers, and first-year head coach Kevin O'Connell opted to retain McCardell after taking over for Mike Zimmer last offseason.
Former Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien and current tight ends coach Nick Caley also are candidates for the OC position, with Caley reportedly interviewing Wednesday.
