Josh McDaniels to Face Friend in Kliff Kingsbury on Sunday

The Las Vegas Raiders' Week 2 contest against the Arizona Cardinals has a number of narratives surrounding what will be the Silver and Black's home opener on Sunday.

One of those is the faceoff of two former colleagues, Raiders coach Josh McDaniels and Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury.

In 2003, McDaniels was a defensive coaching assistant for the New England Patriots. Prior to that season, New England had taken then quarterback Kingsbury in the sixth round of the 2003 NFL Draft. He would miss the entirety of the season while on the injured reserve list, but Patriots coach Bill Belichick had intentions of using the young QB as an offensive quality-control coach.

"He was working on the defense with Bill, which thank God I didn't have to do that," Kingsbury said of McDaniels in his Wednesday press conference. "Kind of the quality control role. So I would want to go out with the team and stuff and I would try to pay him to do my work. ... I've watched him grind, and then I actually played for him; he was like my quarterbacks coach there.

"And so i have a tremendous amount of respect for where he came from from the defensive side, to being this offensive genius, to all of the success he's had with the Patriots and now getting another shot. He's first class and a brilliant offensive mind."

The praise is given from both ways.

"[H]e was very bright, young guy when we got him there, and he just knew football, understood it," McDaniels said in his media availability on Friday. "It came easy to him. He was interested in all aspects of the game of football, picked up things quickly, could talk it very easily, had great questions and just had a football mind. So it doesn't surprise me that he's ascended to this point and he's had success doing it at every level.

"It'll be great to see him. He's a great guy. He's a good friend of mine, and I look forward to competing against him."

The Week 2 matchup is set for 1:25 PST at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.

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