After taking a year off from coaching, Josh McDaniels spoke to the media for the first time since Mike Vrabel hired him as New England’s offensive coordinator in January.
McDaniels served as offensive coordinator for New England from 2006-2008 and 2012-2021. In between those stints, he spent time as head coach in Denver and Las Vegas, getting fired from the Raiders on October 31, 2023.
“I’m super excited to be working in football again,” said McDaniels at the start of the press conference. “The process of getting acclimated with Mike [Vrabel] and the staff is obviously an exciting one for me. Working with a bunch of guys, getting familiar with them, learning things about them, our team and our players that we haven’t had an opportunity to work with yet. This is why we do what we do in coaching, to form these kinds of relationships and hopefully build to something that we’re all proud of once the season starts.”
McDaniels also said that the year off helped him reflect on his life and career in football.
“I think it was something you don’t ever think about doing,” said McDaniels. “But I would say it’s a blessing to have the time to go back and look at what you’ve been through in terms of the changes and different highs, lows. You look back at the past in terms of what we’ve done schematically and what the league is doing now strategically. I had a really good opportunity last year to watch football without a lot of deadlines, which was a new, interesting opportunity for me and just see different things that were coming up throughout the course of the league.”
McDaniels takes over an offense that finished at or near the bottom of the league in several statistical categories. The hope is that his presence will help maximize the talents of second year quarterback Drake Maye as well as get the most out of the Patriots relatively inexperiences wide receiver room.
On Drake Maye
One of the main things that Patriots fans are hoping McDaniels can do is possibly mold another star quarterback in Drake Maye, similar to what he did with Tom Brady. He was partly responsible for the Patriots’ record-breaking offense in 2007, including Brady’s then-record for most passing touchdowns in a season with 50, and called the offense for three Super Bowl victories in the 2010s. McDaniels said that he hasn’t been able to see the football side of Maye yet, but is looking forward to the experience.
“We’ll have plenty of time here coming up next week, but I’m smitten by the young man in terms of just his personality,” said McDaniels about Maye. “We’ve had an opportunity to spend some time that has nothing to do with football with one another, which I think has been great. So, I think next week and beyond will be super fun for me to really get to know him from a football perspective, start teaching our terminology and language, seeing how he learns best and how he acclimates, but I couldn’t be more excited about the young man that we have.”
McDaniels also mentioned Maye will have changes in terms of language and the system he will run, but he is not worried about the adjustments.
“I think that sometimes it can get overblown because one word is apple, another word is tomato, and one system it means one thing and another system it means something else,” said McDaniels. “The guys, just like ‘Men in Black,’ you take the thing and just wipe the memory clean from some of the things, but a lot of it is what you call this, now we call this, and it takes them a little bit of time to acclimate to that. Our staff, we’ve done the same thing, and we’ve – honestly, we’ve changed some things, and I’m in the process of doing the same thing, too. So, what we used to call something, now we call something else because we’ve agreed that it’s the best thing to do for the team. But no, I don’t expect there to be – there will be a period of adjustment, but I don’t think that will be a big deal.”
Offensive Line
Another big talking point this offseason has been the bolstering of the offensive line. The Patriots got center Garrett Bradbury, guard Wes Schweitzer, and tackle Morgan Moses in free agency to protect their young quarterback. Maye was sacked 34 times last season, the 13th most in the league. Sixteen players started at offensive line for the Patriots in 2024 as injuries plagued the dreadful line, which was 31st in pass blocking and 32nd in run blocking.
McDaniels touched on the offensive line briefly during the press conference.
“We’re going to give everybody our best, and our job is to take the guys that we have on our offense and make them better,” said McDaniels. “I think that’s a huge part of an assistant coach’s job is to develop the players that you have. I know our staff is excited to start doing that next week, and we’ll get to know them more as we go, but I’m confident in the guys we have working right now offensively on our staff that are preparing to teach these guys the things we want to do.”
NFL Draft
Many experts have the Patriots possibly taking offensive tackle Will Campbell to further protect Maye while a few have them taking the dual threat in Travis Hunter if he’s available. If the pick is neither of those players, mock drafts have the Patriots taking another offensive lineman or a receiving weapon, like a wide receiver or tight end. McDaniels said that he has been able to give his thoughts about drafting to general manager Elliot Wolf and head coach Mike Vrabel.
“Yeah, they’ve been great,” McDaniels said. “I know all of us have had players we’ve evaluated both in free agency and in the draft. Our job is to give them our honest opinion and input on the evaluations that we see, then they have the hard job figuring out how to get them on the team. We’ve had plenty of opportunity to look at players and compare and contrast across position groups, what have you, then give them our input and then let them go to work.”
Wide Receivers
As discussed for possible draft picks, the Patriots also need weapons for their quarterback. Tight end Hunter Henry was the leading receiver for New England with just 674 yards. They did splash in free agency, signing Stefon Diggs to a three-year 69 million-dollar deal, which will hopefully help a lot. The Patriots also signed wide receiver Mack Hollins and tight end Austin Hooper to add more help to the receiving room. McDaniels worked with Hollins in Las Vegas, and is excited about working with him and the rest of the receivers.
“I’m excited about all those guys,” said McDaniels “It’s best to really refrain from making assessments on people until you really have them in your room, until you get to know them, until you coach them, until you put them on the field. You’re running drills and running things offensively, and then you have an opportunity to correct things, see if they can fix it, make the corrections and get better.”
So, we have some young players that certainly have a lot of ability, and we have some guys that have some experience, some of which I have a little experience with,” McDaniels continued. “KB [Kendrick Bourne], Mack [Hollins], some of those guys. I’m starting to get to know some of these other guys that are trickling in here now, and I’m super excited to work with all of them, I really am. Stef [Stefon Diggs] is a unique individual, a unique player. He’s got a really good skill set; he’s been a very productive player for a long time. I’m excited about his addition. My brother had an opportunity to coach him last year in Houston, so I have a little bit of insight into what he’s like day to day, and I’m really excited about having him here.”
Patriots fans have a lot of optimism right now, especially with the addition of a great offensive coordinator like McDaniels. The press conference does give promising signs, but we won’t know anything about the offense until we see it on the field.
