What Would Josh McDaniels' Staff Look Like If He Took Head-Coaching Gig?
Now that the dreaded Black Monday has come and gone, NFL teams are planning their interviews to find their next head coach if they are in need of one. One coach that is on many lists for those head-coaching vacancies is New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who is believed to be ready to take another HC job after leaving the Indianapolis Colts at the alter in 2018.
One interesting aspect of McDaniels' potential departure from New England this offseason is the staff he would bring with him to whichever team he chooses to captain. While bringing coaches from the Patriots doesn't seem like the appropriate way to say farewell to Bill Belichick, who has mentored McDaniels for nearly 13 years (excluding the three years he left to pursue HC opportunities from 2009-11), there are a couple choices he is believed to have in his arsenal, and a couple more that would make sense.
The MMQB's Albert Breer wrote about McDaniels' coaching staff plan earlier this week. Here's what he had to say:
"If you don’t believe McDaniels is ready to leave New England for a head coaching job, look no further than the detailed plan he has for staffing. Redskins offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell is on his list, along with Colts secondary coach Jonathan Gannon, who coached in Indianapolis the last two years because he was on McDaniels’s Ohio-heavy Colts staff list. To get the Cleveland native Gannon this time around, McDaniels would, presumably, have to make him defensive coordinator."
Breer also said he thinks, if structured right, that McDaniels would take either the Browns or Panthers job as their next head coach. He also mentioned that while McDaniels would like to have Kevin O'Connell on his staff, it may be hard to pull him away from the Redskins now that Ron Rivera has become the head coach in Washington.
A couple other potential coaching candidates for McDaniels: Chad O'Shea and Dave DeGuglielmo. Neither of these coaches were mentioned as potential candidates for McDaniels by Breer, but their ties to the Patriots' OC makes them viable options.
O'Shea was fired as the Dolphins' offensive coordinator on Monday, which leaves him unemployed, along with DeGuglielmo, who was also fired as the offensive line coach in Miami. The latter was hired onto what was supposed to be McDaniels' staff in Indianapolis last year before McDaniels decided to stay in New England. DeGuglielmo stayed with the Colts for the 2018 season and was let go by the organization last offseason.
O'Shea has a history with McDaniels, as he was the wide receivers coach under McDaniels in New England for seven seasons before he left to take a promotion under head coach Brian Flores in Miami. But if McDaniels does wish to hire O'Shea, he may have to outbid the Patriots, who will be looking for a new OC in the event that McDaniels leaves to take a head coaching gig. O'Shea ran a similar scheme to New England's this season with the Dolphins, so he could be a plug-and-play for Bill Belichick or McDaniels.
Depending on where McDaniels may take a head coaching job could also determine who he brings along for personnel. But the aforementioned coaches seem like a good base for what we can expect potential-head coach Josh McDaniels to have for a coaching staff.
