Josh McDaniels Among Vegas' Favorites To Land Falcons, Texans Head-Coaching Gigs
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has tried his hand at a head coaching position in the NFL, but wound up back in New England. Will he try to go out on his own again after this season? Oddsmakers say theres a good chance.
After blowing a couple 20-point leads and starting 0-4 this season, the Atlanta Falcons fired head coach Dan Quinn last week. The Houston Texans, also starting this season 0-4, fired head coach Bill O'Brien, leaving two vacancies on teams that should not be 0-4.
According to BetOnline, Josh McDaniels is a top 3 favorite to land either the Falcons or Texans head coaching gig. He is favored at 11/2 for the Atlanta head coaching position, behind Lincoln Riley (3/1) and Eric Bieniemy (4/1). He is favored at 6/1 for the Texans head coaching position, behind Bieniemy (1/1) and Dabo Swinney (5/1).
McDaniels started his coaching career with the Patriots in 2001 as a personal assistant and became the official offensive coordinator for the team in 2008. In 2009, he replaced Mike Shanahan as head coach of the Denver Broncos. Although the team started 6-0 under McDaniels, the season went downhill from there. They finished 8-8 that season.
McDaniels next season with the Broncos ended early after a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs to make their season record 3-9. Not to mention that he was involved with an NFL investigation after head of video operations Steve Scarnecchia, who was hired by McDaniels, was caught filming a San Francisco 49ers walkthrough practice.
After a brief stint as the St. Louis Ram's offensive coordinator in 2011, he returned to the Patriots for the 2012 season, ironically replacing Bill O'Brien as offensive coordinator. Since then McDaniels has interviewed for some head coaching jobs, but has ended up back with New England in each situation, whether it was infamously walking away from the Indianapolis Colts in the final hour, or seemingly being one of the top candidates for the Cleveland Browns head coach position this offseason.
Although there are currently two head coaching positions open with the Falcons and the Texans, there is potential for more head coach job to open.
BetOnline currently has the New York Jets has a team that will most likely fire their head coach, Adam Gase, next at 2/3, with Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia, the former Patriots defensive coordinator, next after that at 5/2.
It's pretty safe to say that McDaniels will be with the Patriots for the rest of the season. But as far as next season goes, New England may need to start looking for a new offensive coordinator.
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