Josh McDaniels wants to stay in New England, not interviewing for jobs



I personally thought the whole Bill O'Brien becoming Penn State head coach amid a huge scandal all while the Patriots make a Super Bowl run, was probably a little distracting. So, in that sense I'm happy that McDaniels isn't going to pursue head coaching jobs while trying to get the Patriots offense in gear for a playoff run.

Also, I'm just happy that McDaniels will be back. He's one of the best offensive coordinators in the league, in my opinion, and you have to be impressed with what he's done with the Patriots offense this season. Belichick and he have fixed virtually all of the holes on this offense from last year. McDaniels has dealt with significant injuries to significant players and yet he still has the Patriots as the number one offense in the league.

Even more so than that, he has them with a balanced attack. The Patriots are fourth in passing and seventh in rushing. By comparison, looking at the other offenses that round out the top three, the New Orleans Saints (2) are 25th in rushing. The Detroit Lions (3) are 23rd.

A lot of people have been critical of McDaniels, which I don't understand. I always hate criticizing play calling because of the benefit of hindsight. Sure, you can criticize him for running the ball in certain situations, because you know how those plays turned out. If one of those running plays had gone for 20 yards, it would not even be mentioned. It's lazy and way too easy to criticize play calling. The fact is there are just too many factors in the game of football to really tell from a fan perspective why certain plays were called, if they were changed at the line, what the defense was doing, who blew their responsibilities, etc.

I also hope McDaniels gets a job as a head coach sometimes in the future. It's long been suggested that he could one day be the man that takes over when Bill Belichick retires. Personally, I'd love to see that. Don't give me the crap about how terrible he did in Denver. Bill Belichick didn't do very well in his first coaching job with the Browns either.

Anyway, it's good to know McDaniels will be around another year at least.