Josh McDaniels moving to a head coach position looked like a home-run just a week ago. Last week he had interviews lined up on Tuesday with the Carolina Panthers, Wednesday with the New York Giants, and Friday with the Cleveland Browns. Going into the week McDaniels was a top head coaching candidate, as he has been for years.
The Panthers hired former Baylor Head Coach Matt Rhule the day of McDaniels interview. That same day the Giants named McDaniels staff member Joe Judge as their new Head Coach. Josh was not even given the chance to interview with the Giants, leaving one team on the board. The Cleveland Browns had the only remaining vacancy. Today it was announced that Kevin Stefanski, former Offensive Coordinator for the Vikings, will be the new head coach for the Browns. Apparently, McDaniels wanted to make some real changes to the organization. That did not sit well with the Browns because of long standing history of dominance. Instead the Browns decided to hand McDaniels back to the Patriots, barring the firing of playoff coach (Bill O’Brien).
This is a big deal for the Patriots who are in an uncommon state of unpredictability. The Patriots are used to having the closest thing to a guaranteed division title before the season even begins. While next season’s success hangs in the balance, the Patriots are benefiting massively from the Browns blunder. Losing two coordinators would have been a huge blow for the Patriots. This should also help the negotiations with Tom Brady. The two have a close relationship and it appears that they would both like to continue to work together.