Bedard: Inside Look at How McDaniels, Patriots Coaches Were Hired

When Josh McDaniels returned to the New England Patriots for a third stint as Offensive Coordinator – this time under new head coach Mike Vrabel – there were many who wondered how much a hand, if any the Krafts played in bringing McDaniels back to New England.

The answer is turns out is, none at all. Boston Sports Journal’s Greg Bedard reports that the decision to hire McDaniels was 100% Vrabel’s and as described by a source close to the team “there’s a wonderful synergy” on the offensive side of the ball between Vrabel, McDaniels and all the other offensive assistants who have been brought on board the past couple weeks.

Below is an excerpt from Bedard’s article in the Boston Sports Journal.

I was concerned that Josh McDaniels had more assistants with ties to Vrabel (three at the time, and now four) than himself (zero). That’s highly unusual, especially with a scheme — if McDaniels was indeed running his scheme — that is unique from other NFL systems in that the coordinator and the line coach, especially, work in tandem. And the receivers coach is also vital because of all the different adjustments built into the system. Add in that both Doug Marrone, Thomas Brown and now new receivers coach Todd Downing (Vrabel’s OC in 2021-22) were former offensive coordinators and, in the case of Marrone and Brown, head coaches with zero on-field ties to McDaniels, I thought it was fair to question what exactly was going on. The staffing to that point left it very much open to whether or not Vrabel and McDaniels were an arranged marriage by the Krafts, who are big McDaniels fans, and whether or not Vrabel left himself other options in Brown, Marrone and now Downing if things didn’t go well.

After speaking with multiple league sources at the Senior Bowl and three team sources, I now have a better grasp on what Vrabel’s approach has been and my concerns have been largely alleviated – especially with one familiar face expected to come around more often. We’ll get to that, but first the process.

McDaniels and Vrabel

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where McDaniels fell on Vrabel’s list of prospective offensive coordinators but there’s no doubt that McDaniels was high on his list as the two talked multiple times last season about the possibility of working together. But with so much in the air — neither probably thought New England was going to come open this hiring cycle — it would be impossible for either to be definitely linked for every opening given McDaniels’ family priorities. Also, McDaniels was going to be in the mix for between five to seven offensive coordinator positions when the head coaches were settled, including Jacksonville, Detroit, Houston, Chicago, Seattle and New Orleans.

There’s some feeling that Vrabel would have preferred to work with either Arthur Smith or Tommy Rees before McDaniels, but that is partly incorrect…..

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