Phil Perry

Five reasons why McDaniels is the right choice as Patriots OC

McDaniels has the tools to help Drake Maye reach the next level.

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The Patriots have a type this offseason when it comes to the key pieces on their coaching staff.

In hiring Josh McDaniels to serve as offensive coordinator, the Patriots brought aboard the most experienced and ready-made option available to join the most experienced and ready-made head coach available in Mike Vrabel.

For Patriots owner Robert Kraft, paying for a team in the midst of a five-year span where the football has only at times been watchable, importing a duo with perhaps the flattest learning curve of any new coaching pair in the league has to bring some level of comfort.

There's still plenty of work to do. The roster needs as much overhauling as any in the league. But with McDaniels taking control of the offense -- both as a play-caller and play-designer -- and Vrabel overseeing everything, they're in position to hit the ground running and maximize whatever talent they do have in the locker room come September.

Experience is only one reason why the McDaniels hire makes sense, though. Here are four more.

Young QB development

The list of quarterbacks who've squeezed the most out of their ability after having worked with McDaniels is a lengthy one that includes Matt Cassel, Jimmy Garoppolo, Jacoby Brissett and Mac Jones. McDaniels hasn't yet worked with a quarterback with Drake Maye's skill set, but he's proven to have an ability to adjust his scheme to give young quarterbacks only what they can handle.

In Jones, McDaniels had a quick processor with a limited physical skill set. He helped make Jones into the Offensive Rookie of the Year runner-up and a 10-game winner.

"Josh is a great coach," Jones said as a rookie. "And he's been close with me ever since I got here, and he knows that. He wants me to be the best player I can be just like everybody else on the offense, so communication is definitely important, and we've done a good job of that all year.

"Obviously, he's done a great job putting me in a position to lead the offense, and for the other guys to make the plays, so he does a great job of that, and hopefully we can just continue to do that."

If McDaniels is open to staying in New England, where he has kept a home since his previous time as a Patriots assistant, he could be by Maye's side for years to come as Maye grows and develops through the nascent stages of his pro career.

Because McDaniels has been a head coach twice before, he may not be the threat to leave that other coordinators might be if they were to find success with Maye at the controls.

Patriots quarterback Mac Jones and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels
Stan Grossfeld/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Mac Jones threw for 3,801 yards with 22 touchdown passes en route to a Pro Bowl nod as a rookie under McDaniels' tutelage.

Providing answers to the test

Maye impressed Patriots coaches early in his rookie year by processing things as quickly as he did with the ball in his hands. If he can handle a large amount of information in a short period of time prior to the snap with McDaniels, then McDaniels is going to put a lot on his shoulders to help the Patriots offense get out of bad situations and into advantageous ones.

That may be the biggest difference in offensive styles between what McDaniels has done in the past and what Maye is accustomed to having played in a West Coast system in Year 1.

McDaniels explained the difference between the two systems on Julian Edelman's Games with Names podcast last year. Edelman asked if it was harder to develop a quarterback in McDaniels' system versus the West Coast system.

"I think it depends on the way you look at that," McDaniels said. "If the goal is just to restrict the volume of responsibility that you place on him right away, then it certainly could be. If at the end of the day your goal is to have him understand how to handle all the problems and take care of those things that come up in the big games in order for him to help you win them? Then maybe it's worth it. That was always our mindset."

If Maye proves he can handle orchestrating the Patriots offense in real time at the line of scrimmage -- adjusting protections, making "Mike" calls, audibling plays -- that could not only maximize Maye's performance, but also the performance of the entire unit.

Adaptability, the most important ability

For players, the most important ability is dependability, Bill Belichick used to say. For coaches? It might be adaptability, and McDaniels has proven he's willing to change on the fly in order to give his teams the best chance to win.

He made the Patriots a spread team in 2007. In 2011, he changed gears with a high-octane two-tight end attack. The Patriots owned the middle of the field with Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski for a stretch of time.

In 2018, he pivoted to a more fullback-heavy offense and the team trucked its way to a championship. In 2020, he ran Cam Newton. In 2021, he pared down the Tom Brady offense to work with a rookie and made the playoffs.

We'll see what the Patriots roster looks like in terms of its offensive line and weaponry, but "the McDaniels offense" is not one singular thing. He has the ability to pull from a wide range of concepts and schemes to leverage what he has on the roster, and he may need to in order to get the most out of a roster that's likely a year or two away from being playoff-caliber.

Leveraging his QB's athleticism

While the bulk of McDaniels' work in New England came alongside Tom Brady, the two seasons that could be most pertinent to what he'll be able to do with Maye might be 2020 and 2021. 

That 2021 season was of course Jones' rookie year, and could provide clues as to just how much McDaniels will put on Maye's plate from a mental workload standpoint.

That 2020 season was Cam Newton's lone year in Foxboro, when he ran 137 times. Newton, whose arm was diminished to the point that he was out of the league a year later, ran for 4.3 yards per attempt and 39.5 yards per game on about nine attempts per game. 

That number of attempts per game would be a little high for Maye in his second season, but clearly McDaniels isn't averse to running his quarterback. Those plays are in his arsenal, as Taylor Kyles from CLNS Media lays out here. And they have value.

Though the Patriots coaching staff was against Maye running on designed quarterback keepers for most of the 2024 season, McDaniels very well could take a different approach.

Scott Zolak explains why he’s confident Josh McDaniels will be great for Drake Maye’s development
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