NEWS NOW: Since he was fired by the raiders,he makes his first public appearance to….
Josh McDaniels had a difficult year in 2023 after being fired as the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders during the season. The coach has remained out of the public eye since his firing.
He did, however, decide to return for a big New England Patriots game. According to The Athletic’s Jeff Howe in a January 7 X post, McDaniels and his family attended the Patriots’ Week 18 game against the New York Jets, where wide receiver Matthew Slater is slated to play his final game with the team.
Slater has been with the Patriots since 2008, and McDaniels has coached him for nearly a decade. It was also probably Bill Belichick’s final game as head coach of the Patriots, which makes sense given how long McDaniels worked under the coach in New England.
The Patriots ended up losing 17-3 so it wasn’t a great send-off for Slater or Belichick if this does end up being the last time they’re with the franchise.
Could Josh McDaniels Get New England Patriots HC Job?
Josh McDaniels has now been fired as the head coach for two different franchises before finishing a second season. It’s highly unlikely that he’ll get considered for other head coaching jobs in the near future but there’s one franchise that could be willing to take a chance on him.
McDaniels won six Super Bowls as an assistant for the Patriots and the offense fell off a cliff after he left for the Raiders job. He’s close with owner Robert Kraft and New England might be the one place he would work.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport, the Patriots could at least consider him for the head coaching job if Bill Belichick is let go.
“If Belichick does move on, speculation has centered on [Jerod] Mayo as his successor. That’s not a guarantee, though, and other options — particular coaches with Patriots ties, such as Josh McDaniels or Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores — shouldn’t be ruled out,” wrote Rapoport and Pelissero in a December 30 column.
It’s likely time for the Patriots to move on from Belichick and his assistants but it’s easy to see Kraft getting talked into bringing in a familiar face.
The biggest referendum on Josh McDaniels’s ability as a head coach is how well Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce has done since he was fired. The players have rallied behind Pierce and finished with a 5-4 record, including a big win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Now Pierce has put himself in line to be the full-time replacement for McDaniels. It goes to show that being great at schematics can only take you so far as a head coach. McDaniels has had a lot of success as an offensive coordinator but has failed as a head coach.
