Before the NBA trade deadline can be pummeled with Woj bombs, Adam Schefter dropped a bomb of his own. New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels WILL NOT be taking the Indianapolis Colts head coaching job. He will remain with the Patriots.
Josh McDaniels Spurns Colts
This is an odd turn of events given how long McDaniels was linked to the job. The Colts even announced the hiring on their social media even though McDaniels had yet to formally accept the position. It hasn’t been revealed what lead to Josh McDaniels’ change of heart but there are a number of possibilities at what this could mean.
1. Josh McDaniels Will Be The Successor To Bill Belichick
The most obvious reason for McDaniels to stay is a combination of not wanting to get off the TB12 train and a promise he’d be the coach in waiting.
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/961042807866757121
In Super Bowl LII, the Patriots offense put up 613 yards of offense, and 505 of those were from Tom Brady. The offense did so against one of the best defenses in football in Philadelphia. It’d be tough to leave that situation for one that is less certain with the Colts (more on that later).
It’s also possible that McDaniels was convinced to stay because he knows that the Belichick/Brady show will be ending sooner rather than later. When that happens, the Patriots will have an easy time finding someone to take over. Belichick LOVES McDaniels and having that kind of continuity is rare. They’d still need to find a successor to Brady after trading Jimmy Garoppolo but they have time.
2. Josh McDaniels Knows Something About Andrew Luck
The big reason McDaniels was linked to the Colts job was Andrew Luck. McDaniels was the prime candidate to get Luck back to being a top-level quarterback after his shoulder exploded. Luck succeeded in spite of the previous Pagano/Grigson administration. Now the Colts would have had the 3rd overall pick in the draft and an offensive coach.
So what changed? Aside from the Patriots promising that he’d inherit Belichick’s hoodie collection, it’s possible there’s something up with Luck. The Colts were trying to keep Luck’s health status a secret all season long. They, of course, did it with the subtly of Kristen Wiig’s “Surprise Girl.”
No one has seen Luck throw a football in over a year. That might have made his decision easier. He already had a rough go of it as a head coach in Denver (mostly his own doing) so why take a situation that is even the least bit murky.Of course, this could all have been a Belichickian and Robert Kraft con to get one last bit of revenge on the Colts for causing the “Deflategate” fiasco. You never know.
Text from one league source: “That’s Kraft putting it to the Colts again. He will forever try and (expletive) that place ever since deflate gate.”
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 7, 2018
But seriously, for the Colts this has to sting. Luckily they braced for impact and already have three interviews lined up. The only reported name is Kansas City special teams coach Dave Toub.
https://twitter.com/AllbrightNFL/status/961050295206862848
The job is attractive so long as the next coach gets a healthy Luck. That remains to be seen. Now it could also be an Occam’s razor situation and McDaniels simply wanted to stay in New England regardless of if he knew he’d be the heir to the Iron Throne or not.
For his sake, he better be the heir because its hard to imagine teams lining up to hire him after he flamed out in Denver and now he jilted another team like Linda at Robbie Hart’s wedding.