The Redemption of Josh McDaniels: Failure Taught Pats OC How to Pick His Spots

By admin
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: September 29, 2016

On the morning of Dec. 6, 2010, a plane touched down at Akron-Canton Airport. Thom McDaniels turned on his phone as the plane slowed, and it rang immediately. It was his son Josh. The day before, Thom had watched Josh’s Broncos lose to the Chiefs in Kansas City. Now, Josh had some news.

“Dad, the Broncos let me go this morning,” Josh said. “I want you to know I’m fine. Laura is fine. Tell Mom for me, would you?”

Not long after, Thom called his son back. Like most good dads, Thom doesn’t hold back when he thinks his son needed to be told something. And when Thom has something to say about coaching, his words are well received by his son.

These days, Thom mows greens on a golf course. But for 38 years, he carved a legend in northeast Ohio as a high school football coach. Josh started tagging along to his practices when he was five years old.

“You need to write down everything you would do differently if you ever get a chance to be a head coach again,” Thom told him. “Do it while everything is fresh in your mind. Over time, add to it.”

Josh created an Excel document on his laptop. He named it “lessonslearned.xls.”

For a long time, McDaniels had been living on fast forward. After playing a role in three Patriots Super Bowl championships, he was hired as head coach of the Broncos at the don’t-know-what-you-don’t-know age of 33. The Broncos gave him almost as much power as his former boss Bill Belichick had in New England.

McDaniels quickly traded quarterback Jay Cutler and reshaped the organization to what some called “New England West.” He won his first six games as a head coach but then lost 17 of his next 22.

He lost his team and lost himself in the process.

That winter and into the spring of 2011, McDaniels had plenty of time to ponder it all. He took a job in St. Louis as the offensive coordinator. His wife Laura and their children stayed in Colorado to finish out the school year. That was the offseason of the NFL lockout, so there were no players to coach.

The other Rams coaches would clear out of the facility early and head home for dinner with their families. McDaniels would order from a local restaurant that delivered. If not, he would save some leftovers from lunch or microwave a couple of instant oatmeal packets he had picked up from the breakfast buffet at his hotel and stashed.

He was alone in his office for five or six hours every night until 10:30 or 11. The room was barren—no photos, mementos or decorations. The shelves were empty. A couple of boxes with his belongings sat in a corner. The view out his window for too long was a gray sky and a snow-covered practice field.

In the silence, McDaniels found himself. And he began to imagine a new coach.

“I was by myself—just me and my thoughts,” McDaniels says. “I had very little interaction with other people. I had time to go back over everything we did in Denver, the decisions we made, step by step. I could slow it down.”

There were many lessons to be considered, about big things and small: the length of meetings, player discipline, to call plays or not call plays, developing assistant coaches, time management, how to build the roster, handling the media, scheduling, how hard to work players…on and on.

Much of what he thought about had to do with relationships. He continued the dialogue with his father and reached out to others he trusted, including Ted Crews, who was in charge of Rams public relations at the time, and Bill O’Brien, who had succeeded him as offensive coordinator in New England.

“He was more willing to take advice,” Thom McDaniels says.

He had some long talks with Tony Dungy, his one-time rival with the Colts. Dungy told him he needed to self-reflect every year, whether he was fired or won the Super Bowl. They talked about the importance of being yourself and trusting instincts. Having fun is not a bad thing. Dungy stressed that a head coach’s consistency with a team really mattered. They talked about the formula that makes a good coaching staff. Dungy gave him some ideas about keeping his faith at the center of his life as his coaching world turned.

“I could relate to where he was at the time, having been fired myself,” Dungy says. “He’s a very smart guy, and we just talked about finding the next spot—the one that would be best for him.”

At the time, the right next spot was a step back—back to New England as an offensive assistant. Five years later, he’s offensive coordinator and could be close to finding another next spot.

“I would look at his years in Denver as a positive, not a negative,” one NFC general manager says. “It made him realize he needs to rely on his strengths. He now realizes that Belichick is a rarity, and no one can run the show like him. [But] like Bill, Josh can adapt to any circumstance, and he can do this with limited prep time. …

“If I were an owner, hiring Josh would be a no-brainer.”

“Lesson Learned: Take time to digest information and make good, PATIENT decisions. Never rush into anything—all things are important. Impulsive—is a bad word—listen to everyone and make the RIGHT decision. Nothing gets fixed quickly.”

Trading Cutler was not McDaniels’ intention when he arrived in Denver. He had heard some things and was sniffing around. Then Cutler started to get suspicious, and the relationship started to turn.

Rather than try to salvage things, McDaniels said screw it. He traded him.

“I learned the hard way,” he says. “We could have avoided that, no question.”

As he grayed, Thom McDaniels recognized he became a more thoughtful, measured and calculating leader. He told his son he needed to do the same. And Josh acknowledges that he was too reactive and emotional during his Denver days.

“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,” he says. “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 still wants to be passionate, but he wants to channel his emotion in a productive way.

He is, for instance, trying to clean up his language.

“I don’t think swearing sends a good message,” he says. “When I do it, I feel bad about it. Before, I don’t know that I ever even thought about it. My frustration would be apparent. Now my response to a bad practice is to try to find the positives and show them how to learn from mistakes.”

This year, McDaniels could have become flustered about having quarterback Tom Brady suspended for the first four games of the season. He could have become exasperated when Brady’s backup Jimmy Garoppolo sprained his shoulder. He could have fired a clipboard when third-stringer Jacoby Brissett injured his thumb.

But he just kind of rolled with it.

“It is what it is,” McDaniels says with a smile and a shrug. “We’ll be ready.”

McDaniels is focused on living in the now—not on when Brady comes back or when the playoffs start or when he gets a chance to be a head coach again. His attention this week is on beating the Bills, whether it’s with Garoppolo, Brissett or even Julian Edelman at quarterback.

Instability at QB often exposes coaches. For McDaniels, it has been a showcase. With two backups, the Patriots have scored more points than all but four teams. McDaniels has shown flexibility in game-planning and diligence about long-term development as well as short-term preparation.

Instead of coming unglued under difficult circumstances, he has embraced them.

“I enjoy coaching all of the quarterbacks,” he says. “The games are great, but my favorite thing is …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com

Breaking news