Rapoport on Patriots OC Search: McDaniels ‘Considered to be the favorite’
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The Patriots are continuing to go through the process as they explore their options for their coaching staff, with the offensive coordinator position being one people are certainly curious about.
Given how important Drake Maye’s continued development this offseason will be, finding the right guy there is one of the most important things new head coach Mike Vrabel really needs to get right.
The team reportedly interviewed Bears interim coach Thomas Brown earlier this week, with Vrabel telling reporters he expects this to be a “long” process as they mull their options.
However, Ian Rapoport reported on Saturday that while the club is expected to also talk to Chargers offensive coach Marcus Brady, former Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels remains the guy who he believes is the favorite among their potential candidates.
“The Patriots search for an offensive coordinator, new coach Mike Vrabel has started that this week,” said Rapoport on a segment with fellow NFL reporters Tom Pelissero and Mike Garafolo. “My understanding is they spent Tuesday interviewing Thomas Brown, former Bears interim head coach, also interim offensive coordinator. [He] dealt with a lot in Chicago, very impressive despite tough results on the field. Also sounds like they want to talk to Marcus Brady, who is now a Chargers assistant.”
“That said guys, as you know, most people believe that Josh McDaniels, former Patriots OC a couple of times, still lives in New England, currently not working, would be a prime candidate for that job, considered to be the favorite. I would expect Mike Vrabel to talk to him as they go about the process to try to find a new offensive coordinator.”
The Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard and Mike Giardi have reported recently that McDaniels isn’t quite the lock that many expect, with McDaniels reportedly receiving interest from elsewhere, which could see him pursue a different option if he doesn’t land in New England.
Mike Giardi appeared on The Afternoon Show with Christian Arcand and Andy Hart on WEEI this week, and said that regardless of who is hired, finding someone who has experience working with young quarterbacks should be the priority.
“I think he’s definitely in the mix,” said Giardi of McDaniels. “But I think there are other places Mike might want to look first, and we’ll see. And the one interesting part about it is, and I’m curious to see about how this plays out is have you coached a quarterback, or have you not coached the quarterback? And does that matter to Mike? And when you have your clear centerpiece of your franchise on offense is the rookie quarterback heading into his second year, we saw the job that Alex [Van Pelt] did with him maybe not from a playcaller standpoint, from helping with him develop, you want to continue that trend. And I think the offensive coordinator has to be heavily involved.”
“And that’s where, when you bring up Josh’s name, that’s when you say, ‘Look, Josh does have a good track record of this. He got Jimmy Garoppolo ready to play, he got Jacoby Brissett ready to play, he got Matt Cassel ready to play, he devised an offense for a quarterback who couldn’t throw in Cam Newton. While they were still terrible that year, they had moments where he cobbled something together for a guy who couldn’t throw the ball more than eight yards down the field. So he does have that going for him.”
“And I’m really curious when we start to get, maybe a deeper look at some of the names that are being brought in and talked to, who has that experience coaching the quarterback and who doesn’t.”
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