TRANSCRIPT: Josh McDaniels Press Conference 12/17
McDaniels breaks down second-half struggles, Drake Maye's growth, and game plan adjustments against the Ravens.
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Here’s what New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels had to say during his press conference with the media on Thursday, December 18, 2025.
On why they’ve had so much offensive success the first half as opposed to the second half:
“I don’t know that there’s one answer on that. Certainly, I thought that guys really did a good job of executing certain things in the first half and made a lot of big plays. And then we never really got into a good rhythm in the second half, and that’s my job. So we’ll figure out why that was. I think there’s a lot of things you can think about and talk about, but whether it’s executing a specific play better or calling a different play, I think you always look back on those things and evaluate it from both lenses. Honestly, I think at this time of the year, when you play a team like that and get an opportunity to see the type of precision and level of execution and detail that all of us need to showcase in those types of games, it can be a blessing if we learn from it. I know that’s what I’m hard at work trying to do, and I think our guys are, too.”
On the fact that it seems like, in general, the last few weeks, the offensive output has not been as high in the second half of the games, and if he’s seen any trends over the last few weeks:
“No trends. I think it’s just when you play with a lead, you fight that human nature to relax and want to have done enough. I think sometimes that playing from behind is easier than playing from ahead in certain situations. We just have to, again, this is a great opportunity to learn how you have to close out a game against a team that’s certainly been there at the end many years in a row. It can be a gift for us if we learn. I think our guys are intent on doing that.”
On the fact it’s his first year with Mike [Vrabel], and there haven’t been a whole lot of losses to react to, and what’s that dynamic between he and Vrabel after a loss? How much criticism is there? How many suggestions is he giving him, and what it’s been like for him:
“No different. Exactly the same as it always has been. Very consistent. He has dialog with all of us every day, and has every day this year. I don’t think that would change. Win, lose, 10 games in a row, multiple losses, whatever it is. He’s got great input and understanding of what we’re doing. I’m sure it’s the same for the other phases, whether it’s a meeting or a walkthrough or practice, what have you. That hasn’t changed, and I wouldn’t expect it to.”
On the fact he’s had Drake [Maye] one year, and how much he’s still learning about him, even as he goes into those second-half situations, those late situations, about what he wants to do as an offense and how he works with him and what they’re doing:
“I think you’re always learning. Again, I think any young player… It’d take a lot of years for you to stop learning about things in the league, in the game, about players, about yourselves. I think this is kind of an evolution. Every season is its own. Our season this year has started one way, changed gears, found a little rhythm, have had some moments where we played really well, and then some other moments where it’s been up and down, and we struggled with a little bit of consistency. But I think Drake’s done an amazing job of learning from every opportunity. I think the same thing we said in training camp is true today. We either win or we’ll learn from it. I think that he’s a great embodiment of what that means, because everything that we didn’t do well in the game, I know he’s going to try to do everything he can to learn from it, so that we don’t make the same mistake twice. So couldn’t ask more from the young man, and really from our entire group. I know they’re intent on learning from the things that we didn’t do well the other day.”
On the fact that over the last five weeks, their passing offense was number one against man coverage, down to the bottom half of the league in this stretch by other metrics and what is it he’s seeing there in terms of the shift and what can they do as a coaching staff to unlock more success against man-to-man:
“I think there’s probably a lot of variables that go into that. I mean, it depends on the situation, the call, the personnel that you’re talking about running it against. But it’s nice to say just run man beaters when they’re playing man. It’s not as simple as that. We can certainly try to do those things, which we will, and we have, and we’ll continue to try to do those because that’s always helpful if you can. But I think man’s no different now than it was in September. They get on you, and it is what it is in terms of the passing game. You either have a concept that’s really built for it, or you don’t, and then it becomes kind of an execution thing. We’re always trying to hunt those up and see if we can find ways to help our guys create more separation or make some plays against any coverage. Honestly, it’s not just man to man. There’s a lot of difficult coverages that you see. But I also think there’s teams that have seen enough of us and enough of everybody around the league that you start to see some things now that maybe you weren’t seeing a month ago.
“They doubled Stef a number of times in the game the other day. There’s been teams that have not done anything like that, and then there’s been teams that are starting to sprinkle things in there. Whether that’s dropping extra people in the short area or it’s double teaming people, Hunter [Henry]’s had some of that this year, too. There’s no shortcut to win it against man-to-man coverage. It’s a one-on-one game across the board, and sometimes you have a scheme that’s really perfect for it, sometimes you do not. Our job is to try to figure out as many ways as we can to help them. I know our guys are working harder, too.”
On what defines the Ravens defense, to him:
“Honestly, as many times as we’ve played him, it doesn’t seem like this has changed under John [Harbaugh]. Physical, big inside. Their style jumps off the tape, aggressive. I think they got premier players at all three levels of the defense, which you go back 15, 20 years, it’s the same story. The safety is elite. Roquan Smith is elite. There’s some really tough matchups up front in terms of the physicality and being able to move them. They got a lot of good young players that are getting mingled in there. Humphrey, I still have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for the way he plays and what he does. He’s played inside, he plays outside, he does all that stuff. They’re getting great contributions from their younger players, the rookies, and the guys that they’ve just added to the team. It’s going to be a physical game. There’s no question about it. There’s no way to avoid that. We’re getting ready for that kind of a game. We know what that’s going to be on the road in this environment. Just makes it harder. We’re getting ready to work on third down, which that’s a treat in and of itself. Scheme challenges, certainly personnel. Zak’s doing a great job of mixing and matching some of the things that they do. Not easy to pinpoint what you’re going to get from them on a weekly basis because it changes pretty quickly. So it’s going to be a lot of communication, a lot of precision required on our part, and certainly a lot of toughness.”
On how much leeway Drake Maye has at the line of scrimmage in terms of changing plays, and the fact it seemed like there might have been a couple of times in the second half where he could have checked to a run…
“Yeah. I mean, look, we don’t ever handcuff the guys, but that’s not his responsibility to always make sure that he second-guesses the call or something like that. I know he doesn’t… He tries to execute the call the best that he can. If there’s ever a situation where you wanted me to run the ball more than we did, you can look right here and ask me why we didn’t run it more. But Drake does a great job with our ‘Check with me’s’ to answer the question in a different way of understanding what the parameters are and getting us in the play that we’re supposed to be in. Honest to God, I don’t remember one that he’s missed. In that regard, he’s done a fabulous job of helping us try to improve the efficiency of whatever the combination is that we’re packaging together. But no, in the game, look, there’s always sequences in the game where you wish you would have done better than what you did. And you just start with me in terms of, ‘Would I have done something different or not?’ Such as life.”
On if there’s some reason behind Stef Diggs getting fewer snaps in recent games:
“No. There’s a lot of guys that got fewer snaps on Sunday because we didn’t earn enough snaps in the game. And so, we look at it, Stef has done a great job. Whether it’s Stef, or TreVeyon, who played in the ’20s on Sunday, I’d love for TreVeyon to play in the ’50s. But when you don’t have 50 plays, it’s hard for us to establish that volume for any one player. But look, they all should want to play as many snaps as we have. And that’s an impossibility because I know we’re using everybody and trying to get contributions from all of them. But I think for us, and for me, specifically, let’s see if we can’t establish more rhythm on both this first half, second half, get the play count up into the high ’60s or ’70s. Now, I think the opportunities for every player on our team go up. No, but there’s no special reason for that.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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