New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has taken a lot of heat for installing former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia as his new offensive coordinator. But Belichick’s longtime protege Josh McDaniels has made his thoughts on the matter clear.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, McDaniels pointed out that he once did exactly what Patricia is doing – switching from coaching defense to coaching offense. He believes that Belichick knows exactly what he’s doing and that he often has foresight that others lack.
“I mean, I really don’t know exactly what everybody’s doing over there. I just know that they’ve got a lot of really good coaches,” McDaniels said, via ProFootballTalk. “And I was in a position once where I was on the defensive side of the ball for a couple years, then I moved over and coached quarterbacks for one year, and then all of a sudden the next thing I’m doing is being ready to call the offense after being on the offensive side for one year. And I remember nobody believed that that was really the case.
“Look, I think at the end of the day, Bill has a plan for whatever he wants to do. And that plan, sometimes he has foresight that some of the rest of us don’t have. I didn’t have it when he pushed me ahead and helped me do that. So, I’ve got a lot of friends over there, I’ve got a lot of people over there that I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for. Coaching is coaching.”
Josh McDaniels first joined the New England Patriots as a personnel assistant in 2001. The following year he became a defensive assistant, serving in that position for two years before Bill Belichick named him the team’s quarterbacks coach.
McDaniels thrived in all of his roles, ultimately earning the Denver Broncos head coaching job in 2009. He served in the role for 28 games before being fired in 2010 and returned to the Patriots in 2012.
Another decade of dominance ensued, culminating in McDaniels leaving the Patriots to take the Raiders job earlier this year.
Will Bill Belichick be able to do the same with Matt Patricia?