INSIDE JOBS
Supe OCs face decisions on their futures
HOUSTON — The architects of the two prolific offenses which will clash in Super Bowl LI have their focus completely dialed in on what will take place on the field Sunday at NRG Stadium. But for both coordinators, Kyle Shanahan of the Falcons and Josh McDaniels of the Patriots, there is a new life beckoning beyond the biggest game of their respective football careers. Life as a head coach. McDaniels has been there and done that once before, having coached the Broncos in 2009-10, but is poised to get his second shot when he feels like it is time to leave the cocoon of perennial success in New England. Shanahan is all but a lock to take over as the 49ers head coach as soon as the sun rises over San Francisco Bay on Monday. At every Super Bowl, as sure as there are nightly over-the-top parties packed with celebrities in the leadup to the big game, there are the hot assistants from both teams — assistants coveted by struggling franchises to lead them to glory. Falcons coach Dan Quinn was one of those guys two years ago, hired aw a y from the Seahawks as soon as the Super B o wl was complete. The t ri ck to these things for guys like Shanahan and McDaniels is whether to jump at the first offer or to wait patiently for the best situation. There are, after all, just 32 of these jobs, and an assistant who waits too long might not get a second chance if he turns down the first one.
In the case of the 37-year-old Shanahan, it appears he is jumping at the first offer, and he is leaping into a shallow pool — with the 49ers ownership having shown itself as impatient and incompetent, with no quarterback and a recently hired general manager in John Lynch who has no GM experience.
McDaniels — who interviewed with the Rams, Jaguars and 49ers and later removed himself from consideration for the 49ers job — appears to be waiting to cherry-pick a better job opportunity while he bides his time with Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, the best coach-quarterback duo of all time.
Eric Mangini — a former Belichick assistant in New England who left the Patriots after the 2005 season to become the Jets’ head coach, against the advice of Belichick — understands better than anyone what McDaniels is going through.
“Any time you get to coach one of the greatest players in the history of the position, that’s pretty unique,’’ Mangini told The Post. “So Josh taking his time with Tom there, that’s a high-class problem.’’
Mangini took the Jets j ob because, having been there previously as an assistant, he had a familiarity with the franchise and the division, and because he realized there was no guarantee he would get another opportunity.
“Any of those open jobs are not necessarily the perfect job, because there wouldn’t be a job open if there wasn’t a problem,’’ Mangini said. “Sometimes, when you have a good job already, it’s a tough decision, because you can go from the hot assistant to not very hot next year and it can happen quickly.’’
That is exactly what happened to McDaniels in Denver — lasting 28 games before getting canned.
“Some of the things I failed at before, I think I learned from and am better for it,’’ McDaniels said. “I have a different perspective on things that I don’t know that I had or could have had when I was going through that experience then. The last eight years have taught me a lot about that.’’
For the moment, though, Shanahan is committed to only one thing: his offense.
“The one thing I know is I will have no regrets about this Super Bowl,” Shanahan said. “This game is something you remember forever, and I would never do anything to jeopardize that.’’