Happy with Patriots, Josh McDaniels still has head-coaching aspirations

8:03 AM ET

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL:

1. Over the last four days, Bill Belichick, every Patriots coordinator and position coach, and around half of the team’s 90-man roster has conducted media interviews, which means there has been a lot to digest. One of the things that stood out to me above all else was offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels’ response when asked about possibly becoming a head coach in the future, especially if the strength of his candidacy grows should Jimmy Garoppolo perform well in the first four games of the season.

“This is an incredible place to work, I love being here and I’m happy to do this job as much as I can, as long as they’ll have me. I do want to be a head coach again at some point in my life,” he said. “I’ve learned a lot over the last so many years and hopefully gained a lot of wisdom and if and when that time comes, I’d look forward to the challenge of doing it again.”

This was as decisive as McDaniels has been on the topic since coming back to New England in January of 2012. Initially, he seemed to be in a mode of wanting to slow things down to assess where things went wrong during his time as Broncos head coach (2009-2010), and also to return to some stability in a familiar environment after his one year as Rams offensive coordinator under Steve Spagnuolo (2011).

The 40-year-old McDaniels is annually mentioned as a top head-coaching candidate each offseason, and had opportunities in recent years that he didn’t move on (e.g. Cleveland when Mike Lombardi was GM). I wonder, based on his remarks last week, if he might be more aggressive in the near future.

2. The Patriots have been fortunate to have McDaniels and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia in the same positions for each of the last five years. That type of continuity is rare, as ESPN’s Field Yates recently pointed out by noting that this past offseason alone there were a combined 24 new head coaches, offensive coordinators and defensive coordinators in the NFL. Needless to say, no other team in the NFL has had the same head coach, offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator over the last five years.

3. On Friday, Belichick was asked about the importance of continuity on the coaching staff the last several seasons, and he responded by saying they do “a great job” before listing all of the …

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