New England Patriots confirm Josh McDaniels as offensive coordinator for next season – NFL News Update
Just a day after the New England Patriots lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl, Patriots’ head coach, Bill Belichick confirmed the re-hiring of Josh McDaniels as the new offensive coordinator for the next season.
Patriots had been without an offensive coordinator since former offensive coordinator, Bill O’Brien left the team.
O’Brien had left to take on as the new head coach for the Penn State Nittany Lions College football team.
The head coaching vacancy had arisen in Penn State after Joe Paterno was fired, following a s*x scandal that plagued the team back in November.
Paterno had failed to appropriately report the involvement of defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky in child s*x abuse that had led the trustees of the state to take action after the scandal attracted media attention and criticism from the community.
The move came as a surprise as Paterno had been working with the Penn State for 46 years and allowed O’Brien to move in.
After O’Brien left, the Patriots brought in St. Louis Rams' offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels as an offensive assistant.
McDaniels had long wanted to return to the New England Patriots, where he began his National Football League (NFL) career.
McDaniels had been the Patriots’ quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2008, but had joined the team way back in 2001.
He had started as a defensive coaching assistant and started training the quarterbacks, including Tom Brady from 2006 onwards.
He left the Patriots to take on as the new head coach of Denver Broncos, but could only serve them for 28 games as he was fired in 2010 after a 3-9 record.
McDaniels then moved to the St Louis Rams as their new offensive coordinator.
McDaniels had been the likely contender for the OC slot and was finally officially confirmed on Monday.
McDaniels, at the age of 33, had the honour to become the youngest coach in NFL.
Earlier on Patriots’ quarterback, Tom Brady had hoped to capitalize on McDaniels’ knowledge about Tim Tebow and the Broncos as then they were poised to face the Broncos in an American Football Conference (AFC) divisional playoff game.
It was being generally considered that one of the reasons for McDaniels hiring had been his knowledge about the Broncos team whom he had formerly coached.
However the Broncos’ coach, John Fox had downplayed any possible threat saying that since both the Broncos and Patriots team had changed a lot in recent years, McDaniels would not be of much use in this context.
McDaniels enjoys a close relationship with Patriots coach, Bill Belichick, and the situation was ripe for his return once O'Brien decided to move out.
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