Getty Josh McDaniels
The New England Patriots‘ long-time offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels interviewed with the Philadelphia Eagles about their head-coaching vacancy, but the team went another direction hiring Indianapolis Colts offensive coordinator Nick Sirianni.
McDaniels’ contribution to the Patriots’ dynasty over the past 2 decades seem to keep him as a strong candidate for top jobs, but not everyone thinks his resume speaks for itself.
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McDaniels Slammed for Lack of Success Without Tom Brady
Barstool Sports reps are known for their outspoken nature on social media. Adam Smith aka Smitty dropped this sarcastic dig at McDaniels shortly after news broke that the Patriots’ OC would be a candidate for the Eagles job.
While there is some obvious truth to Smitty’s criticism of McDaniels, the tweet doesn’t exactly cover all of the bases.
Josh McDaniels and the QBs
Smitty points out what he clearly considers to be a failure with the Broncos’ quarterbacks. This take is all about perspective.
While Denver didn’t make the postseason in McDaniels’ first year and had the 20th-ranked offense in the NFL, the Broncos didn’t exactly have the greatest quarterbacks on their roster. A 27-year-old Kyle Orton was his starter in 2009, and he threw for 3,802 yards, 21 TDs, and 12 interceptions.
Those aren’t the numbers of a future Hall-of-Famer–at least not this century–but it was the best season of Orton’s career. The following year things fell apart and the Broncos fired him as McDaniels after a horrendous start to the 2010 season.
Sayre Bedinger of Predominantly Orange explained what went wrong with McDaniels in Denver:
I think one of the major reasons why it was such a quick divorce between McDaniels and the Broncos is because he tried to overcompensate for his youth by flexing his power within the organization. McDaniels had full control over the roster, and while he didn’t have the same credibility and respectability as a guy like Bill Belichick, he tried to command that respect like a dog marking its territory all over the organization. Some of the moves McDaniels made were great (drafting Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker stand out, along with signing Brian Dawkins) but others were hilariously bad (his first-ever draft pick was Knowshon Moreno, and he traded three picks to move up and draft Tim Tebow in round one).
Some of those issues could be chalked up to immaturity and youth considering he was just 33 years old when he took the job in Denver. On the second portion of this explanation, let’s pause for a second: if we’re going to trash a guy for bad draft picks, I’m not sure where that would leave Bill Belichick who has been notoriously poor in this area–especially the last 10 years.
In New England, many forget, the Patriots didn’t have Brady for 15 games in 2008. Matt Cassell filled in and led the team to an 11-5 record. They missed the playoffs, which was the last time the team fell short of the postseason before the 2020 campaign.
Still, Cassell, like Orton, had a career year. He threw for 3,693 yards, 21 TDs, and 11 interceptions.
In 2020, McDaniels’ offense was less than formidable through the air. Limited time for Cam Newton to prepare for a new system, the impact of COVID-19, and overly restrictive playcalling hurt the production. Newton had anything but a career year, but because of the circumstances, a team like the Eagles are probably willing to look past it and chalk it up as an aberration as it relates to McDaniels’ dealings with QBs.
Is McDaniels a better candidate than the Kansas City Chiefs’ red-hot offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy or even Sirianni? No, but he’s not a joke as Smitty would have you believe.
I guess he’ll just have to wait for another opportunity to man the ship.
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