COORDINATED EFFORTS COULD COST PATRIOTS
Openings to cry for McDaniels, Patricia
The Patriots came pretty close to losing offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels last offseason. He was interviewed by several teams, during the allowable postseason window, and nearly whisked away by the San Francisco 49ers.
NFL NOTES Karen Guregian
Given the current landscape, with prospects of several top jobs opening down the road, they might not be as fortunate this time around with either McDaniels or defensive coordinator Matt Patricia,
who also hit the interview circuit after last season.
McDaniels, however, should be the highest in demand and the top candidate on the list. If teams are smart, they’ll back up the Brink’s truck and make him an offer he can’t refuse.
Between Patriots owner Robert Kraft ultimately giving Tom Brady’s play caller a boost in pay, and the situation not being quite right for McDaniels in San Francisco, he opted to remain in Foxboro.
Might he have a different view if it were the New York Giants job to open, and that’s a distinct possibility as coach Ben McAdoo
is on thin ice with the team off to its worst campaign since 1980, with just two wins, and a third straight season without a playoff appearance.
Given the strong ownership with the Mara family, a two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback in his last years, there’s certainly appeal there.
There’s also Indianapolis, where it’s hard imagining Chuck Pagano holding on at season’s end. They’re currently a three-win team, and once again going nowhere. Just a guess, but general manager Chris Ballard might love the idea of bringing McDaniels in to work with Andrew Luck,
who is hoping to return at full strength next year after missing the entire 2017 season, along with reuniting him with backup Jacoby Brissett.
Other possible openings could include the Browns, who will once again attempt to draft a quarterback, and the Bears, who might want an offensive guru to work with Mitchell Trubisky.
Sean McVay, who was the offensive coordinator of the Redskins for three seasons, and a tight ends coach before that, got plucked by the Los Angeles Rams last season to be their coach, and he’s the hot new name.
McDaniels enters the hunt with much more experience, having learned from his first failed head coaching run with the Broncos, but also being groomed for so many years under Bill Belichick. Patricia also has that as a bargaining chip along with multiple Super Bowl rings and championship experiences to draw from.
And yet, there’s one school of thought that being from the Belichick tree isn’t necessarily the best thing to have on your resume in terms of landing a head job.
“Both are very good coaches, and both are deserving of opportunities to be head coaches in the NFL,” Sirius XM NFL analyst Solomon Wilcots said of McDaniels and Patricia. “But I think there is this sentiment out there, whether it’s (Eric) Mangini, Josh McDaniels the first time, Romeo Crennel . . . there’s been a lot of guys who have been through the rotation, and none have been able to duplicate the success. No one’s really been able to stick and stay. So while they’re going to benefit from the success, the success also causes questions. How successful can they be on their own outside the apparatus that is the Patriots, built by Belichick, and won on the arm of Tom Brady? That’s the elephant that’s in the room.”
Given how much Belichick’s coaches have struggled after leaving the nest — discounting Bill O’Brien, who has done pretty well to this point — teams might not be as quick to hire his disciples. That didn’t seem to stop the 49ers last season, who were seriously interested in McDaniels before hiring Kyle Shanahan, and it didn’t stop the Texans, who have had a good run with O’Brien after hiring him away from Penn State, his first stop after leaving Foxboro.
This year alone, seeing how McDaniels and Patricia have made adjustments to help get the team to 8-2 after a disastrous opening night against the Chiefs, it would be a mistake to hold back on hiring either one.
McDaniels has the running backs more involved, and has Brady back to getting rid of the ball more quickly to avoid taking the hits he was earlier in the season. He’s also adapted to the type of routes that best suit Brandin Cooks. Patricia, meanwhile, sorted out everyone’s role between the linebackers and safeties and seems to have put a lid on the communication issues that were plaguing his secondary early.
McDaniels certainly looks ready to give it another go. But maybe he knows something about Belichick’s retirement date no one else knows and will continue to stick around. And Kraft will continue to make it worth his while to stay.
The point here, McDaniels should be the top man on every list. He should be the target of every team looking for a head coach. Patricia, meanwhile, shouldn’t be too far behind, even with his unwise decision to wear a Roger Goodell clown shirt coming off the plane from the Super Bowl.
“He’s certainly more seasoned. He’s got more pelts on the wall,” Wilcots said of McDaniels. “He was young enough the first time, where he’s still young the second time around. I think people will look upon him very favorably.”
Jerrah ‘feels good’
Speaking of coaches on the hot seat, and potential vacancies, Jerry Jones is doing his best to make it seem as if Jason Garrett is safe for the time being, even though the Cowboys are sinking like a stone.
Their 28-6 loss to the Chargers on Thanksgiving was their third straight in blowout fashion, and at 5-6, the Cowboys are now a longshot to make the playoffs. Still, Jones supports Garrett and his staff.
“What I’m reluctant to do here is say an affirmative thing about our staff, and look like that endorsement,” Jones told reporters after the game. “I don’t want to look like they’re getting the proverbial endorsement. That’s not what’s happening.
“The vote of confidence, yes, I want to say it the best way I can. That’s not what I’m saying. I feel good about our staff, I’m not equivocating about it, and this isn’t the negative vote of confidence at all. I feel good about it.”
The Cowboys were a favorite to make a Super Bowl run for the first time since 1995. Of course, Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension isn’t helping, but the Cowboys problems go deeper than that.
Weighing in on Revis
One of the biggest takeaways from Darrelle Revis signing with the Chiefs last week was his weight
loss. The cornerback supposedly checked in at 208 pounds, which was much less than he weighed a year ago when he struggled with the Jets.
But really, what are the Chiefs getting in the 32-year-old former AllPro?
Said Wilcots: “It’s good he lost the weight. Last year was really bad. Players hit the end of their career rather abruptly. That’s how it looked for him. It happened pretty suddenly, from Week 1 last year, when A.J. Green put it on him, then everyone was going after him. So I don’t know.
“Can he still run? Can he still cover? Does he still have the long range speed to cover down the field? I think we can safely say he’s not going to be the shutdown corner he once was. I think we have to wait and see what kind of player he’s going to be.”
The Chiefs, who crushed the Patriots in the season opener in Foxboro, have been in a bit of a free fall, losing four of their last five games after a 5-0 start. The offense is sputtering, and the defense has really faltered since losing safety Eric Berry. Is an aging Revis, who won a Super Bowl with the Patriots, the cure? That’s doubtful.
“They’ve got an array of problems. They don’t have a good pass rush. They’re not creating the turnovers they used to rely on,” Wilcots said of the Chiefs. “For the last three or four years, they were the best in turnover ratio. They were plus-8, plus-22. They had crazy numbers, now they’re not doing well in that area. So, to me, this Darrelle Revis signing isn’t the elixir that’s going to cure their problems. Maybe they were having some depth issues at corner, but they have much bigger issues than Darrelle Revis can fix.”
Currently, Kansas City ranks 14th in the league in takeaways with 14, one more than the Patriots. In terms of differential, they’re a plus-7, which ranked sixth. That’s one behind the Patriots, who are tied for third with two others teams at plus-8.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid, meanwhile, didn’t rule out having Revis play against the Bills today.
Members of the Chiefs secondary seemed pumped to add Revis to their 28th-ranked pass defense.
“Aw, man, it’s great,” Terrance Mitchell told the Kansas City Star. “As a young corner in the game coming up with dreams and ambitions of being a top cornerback, he was one of the guys that, you know, I used to look up to. Him being here, it’s like a dream or something. It’s crazy.”
Revis was signed to an incentive-laden two-year deal for the veterans’ minimum this year and a $10 million option for 2018 that becomes guaranteed if he is on the roster for the start of the 2018 league year, according to NFL Network.
That means the Chiefs can cut him before that point and be off the hook for that money, essentially making it a low-risk, highupside proposition, especially if Revis is indeed in better shape than he was last year.
No relax for Hoodie
The NFL has relaxed rules on end zone celebrations, and the players have taken advantage with a number of crazy routines from duck-duck-goose, to hide-and-seek, to leapfrog.
Vikings coach Mike Zimmer told the Pioneer Press he doesn’t have a problem with the celebrations.
“They can do pretty much whatever they want if they score touchdowns,” Zimmer said. “I’m all for it.”
His team, now 9-2, has been at the forefront, doing the leapfrog and duckduck-goose acts.
Belichick’s team? The best the Patriots come up with is the trademark Rob Gronkowski mammoth spike after one of his touchdowns.
The Patriots coach, of course, gave a classic answer when asked Wednesday if he’d seen his team coordinate any kind of special touchdown celebration like the Vikings’ leapfrog?
“Yeah, we’re really focused more on trying to keep the other team out of the end zone and trying to get into the end zone,” Belichick said. “We haven’t really spent a lot of time on the halftime show.”
Bowles bites back
Jets coach Todd Bowles got a little testy when asked about his team having to win out to qualify for the playoffs.
“Excuse the language, but that’s probably a no (expletive) statement,” said Bowles, whose Jets are 4-6, better than projected of them at the outset. “We try to win every game.”