By interviewing Josh McDaniels for their head-coaching vacancy Friday night in New England, the Bears will have an audience with one of the most established offensive-minded candidates aboard this year’s coaching carousel.
As the Bears gauge a potential fit with the Patriots offensive coordinator, they must sell their vacancy to a candidate who will have options because of his five Super Bowl rings with the club, including three working with quarterback Tom Brady.
McDaniels, 41, interviewed with the Colts and Giants this week. The Lions also might meet with him. From his perspective, meeting with the Bears is an opportunity to measure how he would mesh with general manager Ryan Pace, who will maintain final say over the roster.
McDaniels’ candidacy is colored by his failed coaching stint with the Broncos in 2009-10. After a preseason fallout in 2009 with incumbent Pro Bowl quarterback Jay Cutler, McDaniels’ Broncos won their first six games. But they lost 17 of the next 22, and he lost the locker room before being fired.
As his career circled back to the Patriots and regained momentum, McDaniels believes he matured from the Broncos experience. In a 2016 feature published by Bleacher Report, McDaniels openly discussed how his impulsiveness, stubbornness and naivete facilitated his quick flameout in Denver.
He insisted he is more cognizant now of the value in cultivating healthy relationships with players and other coaches, listening to colleagues and teammates and having an open mind to alternative lines of thinking and ways of doing things.
“I don’t know that I was as patient as I needed to be in most situations, whether it was game-planning, on the sidelines, preparation for the draft, personnel moves, whatever,” McDaniels told Bleacher Report. “There is an element of this game that tests your ability to slow down and make a good decision. I was allowing the way I felt at the moment to make the decision.”
McDaniels ventured back onto the coaching interview circuit last offseason, meeting with the 49ers, Rams and Jaguars, according to multiple national reports. After staying with the Patriots, he coordinated the NFL’s top-ranked offense in 2017. The Patriots were fifth in yards per play and second in scoring.
Each season since McDaniels returned to the Patriots in 2012 as offensive coordinator, they have ranked in the NFL’s top four in scoring. Only once have they ranked lower than seventh in total yards.
“I could never be the player that I am without him and without him challenging me every week,” Brady said in January 2017 on WEEI radio in Boston, per the Boston Globe. “I have so much confidence in him as a coach and his abilities, the way that he leads our offense. He’s spectacular. It would be tough to lose him.”
As the Bears and McDaniels get to know each other Friday, it’s worth noting that McDaniels’ 37-year-old brother, Ben, held the title of offensive assistant on John Fox’s Bears staff the last two seasons. So McDaniels will enter the meeting with a good idea about the inner workings of the team and its personnel.
Twitter @Rich_Campbell
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