What's the general opinion here?
Is he a good O coordinator?
Ready to be a head coach?
Only suited to be a good coordinator...or not even a good coordinator?
As a Broncos fan, I want Spagnuolo first, and then I'm not sure after that...
McDaniels is only 32 years old, the same age as Tom Brady. That is way too young to be a head coach, the guy doesn't know squat besides offense and some marginal defensive assistant duties.
He is a very good offensive coordinator. He is good at spotting opponent weaknesses, comes in generally with good game plans, and then won't take his foot off the pedal. This is the good about him.
The bad:
- He is horrible at in game adjustments. This is either because he gets too c.ocky about his game plans and won't change them mid-game even if they aren't working, or because he is too young or inexperienced to either spot the problem and/or diagnose how to fix it in a short amount of time. I would bet it's the former because he seems like an arrogant douche bag.
- He is not very creative or deceptive. He will go into a game with 5-10 core plays and basically run the same thing over.. and over.. and over again. This kills us in the playoffs since Charlie Weiss left because defenses scout us, figure us out, and then stop us, and McDaniels still does the same stuff over and over.
- Related to above but he is terrible in big moments or game-ending playoff drives. Multiple times when we need a score late in the game he calls some very stupid or mind boggling plays that eliminate any chance of tying or winning the game. I'm not just talking about the Giants game where he called 4 straight bombs to end the game, he has done this multiple times in years before it.
- It is not clear how he would do managing an entire team since he is so young and inexperienced at anything else besides offense.
- It is not clear how he will do without great talent. Ever since 2005 the Patriots have spent high draft picks and money on offensive talent, which makes McDaniels look good. Tom Brady made his bad calls look great for a few years, and even under Cassel he was blessed with a stud running game and great receivers.
Basically, I would say he is a very strong candidate who understands how to put up yards and points. He chokes in big drives and in big games, so basically he is at best Mike Martz. I would say that he is more of a choke-artist stat-producing Marino than a Montana, if I could make an analogy between QB's and OC's.
