Earlier on Monday, we shared a quote from Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in which he said that he was going to keep his focus on the job he has “right now” in regard to queries about interest in head coaching vacancies.
The phrasing was such that it seemed McDaniels was being careful to note that he has responsibilities to the Patriots while making sure that potentially interested parties heard that he was also open to a change in title. According to a report from Adam Schefter of ESPN, we parsed McDaniels’ words a bit too much.
It now seems McDaniels meant that his focus will only be on the job he has right now and that he’s not going to be actively pursuing another one this offseason. Schefter reports that McDaniels has called teams looking for head coaches to tell them that he will be remaining in New England and won’t be interviewing for another shot at being the man in charge of a team even though he would like to be a head coach again one day.
McDaniels’ stint as a head coach in Denver for most of two seasons did not go well, leading to his firing and a brief stay in St. Louis as the offensive coordinator before making his way back to New England before the end of last season. McDaniels has overseen another good Patriots offense this year, something that had pushed his name back into circulation for head coaching openings.
If this report is true, McDaniels isn’t a buyer of such chatter and thinks that he’ll be better served by another year at Bill Belichick’s side.