Patriots OC Josh McDaniels reflects on being away from football - "A blessing"

Josh McDaniels has been an NFL coach/part of an NFL organization since 2001, when he became a personnel assistant for the New England Patriots. McDaniels eventually worked his way up and became a head coach for the Denver Broncos from 2009-2010. After being fired, he returned to being an offensive coordinator for the St. Louis Rams and the Patriots.

His second head coaching opportunity came in 2022 with the Las Vegas Raiders before being fired in late October 2023.

After being fired from the Raiders early into the 2023 season, McDaniels didn't rush to get back into coaching as he took the rest of that season and the entire 2024 season away from football.

McDaniels called the time off "a blessing" in Thursday's press conference.

“I had a really good opportunity last year to watch football without a lot of deadlines, which was a new, interesting opportunity for me and just see different things that were coming up throughout the course of the league," McDaniels said. "There’s younger quarterbacks that are playing a little earlier than maybe they were 10, 12, 15 years ago. There’s different things that people are using and doing schematically that are having a lot of success.

"There’s some trends like there always are that are kind of, I’d say, in vogue now. Whether they stay in vogue for long, I don’t know, but it was just a really healthy opportunity for me to go back and look at what I’ve done, what I’ve been a part of, and then what else is going on in the league right now that I need to get better at, that I need to start thinking about incorporating.”

Josh McDaniels is one of many new Patriots coaches this season

NFL: JAN 20 AFC Championship Game - Patriots at Chiefs - Source: Getty

Josh McDaniels is just one familiar face joining the Patriots coaching staff this season. The team got rid of former linebacker Jerod Mayo after just one season and replaced him with another former Patriots linebacker, Mike Vrabel.

Vrabel picked McDaniels to be his offensive coordinator and hired Terrell Williams as the team's defensive coordinator.

Former Detroit Lions assistant special-teams coach Jeremy Springer was hired as the team's special-teams coordinator.

The Patriots finished 4-13 last season, ranking worst in the AFC East. Management replaced their regime last year, and Josh McDaniels and his staff are anticipated to improve this year's Patriots unit.