Longtime Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels is expected to draw considerable interest for head-coaching openings again this season despite his pulling out of the Colts job last winter just before the press conference to formally introduce him.
McDaniels, who served previously as a head coach in Denver, remains one of the brightest offensive minds in football, and with so many teams trying to develop young quarterbacks and a seeming dearth of top candidates to full the supply of available jobs, McDaniels will have options this offseason. Conversations with decision-makers on several teams expecting to hire new coaches in 2019 revealed no shortage of potential interest in McDaniels despite what occurred last year in Indianapolis.
At the time, when McDaniels asked to be released from a contract he had just agreed to with his staff already being put in place, many suggested McDaniels had essentially guaranteed he would not get another chance to be a head coach again. But the landscape currently looks very favorable for McDaniels, who has turned down overtures from numerous teams in the past and been coveted in places like San Francisco, Jacksonville and Cleveland. He has been very judicious about which jobs he seriously considers, and has earned some critics along the way, but there will be NFL teams who want to interview him after the regular season, league sources indicated.
Much has been made over the potential for big changes coming in New England, given the age of coach Bill Belichick (66) and quarterback Tom Brady (41), and there has been speculation about McDaniels as the next head coach of the Patriots whenever Belichick does move on, as well (watch the Pats take on the Jets at 1 p.m. ET on CBS, stream on CBS All Access or fuboTV, try it for free) But that will not prevent teams from wanting to talk to him once again this offseason.
