PHOENIX — When Randy Moss first arrived in New England for his post-trade physical, he figured they had sent some kid to pick him up at the airport. Maybe an intern or some part-time helper.
Turned out the baby-faced chauffeur was his new offensive coordinator, Josh McDaniels.
“He told me his age and I was kind of overwhelmed because we are in the same age bracket,” Moss said of the initial encounter with his coach, who then was 30. “I really didn’t know what to think, to be honest.”
Now Moss is thinking that he doesn’t want to lose him.
After a record-setting season on offense, McDaniels has been on a lot of wish lists for a head coaching position. While he declined to be considered for jobs while the Patriots are playing this postseason, he said he’d be willing to listen if the Redskins — the only job still open — want to talk about their vacancy.
“If that comes and I feel like I’m totally ready to go and if the best thing for me and my family is to do that and the time is right, that opportunity would be something you would have to take a hard look at,” he told reporters earlier this week.
Until then, he said, the only thing he’s taking a hard look at is the Giants in preparation for Super Bowl XLII on Sunday.
McDaniels, who was a wide receiver at Division III John Carroll University, initially joined the Patriots’ staff in 2001 as a personnel assistant who chipped in coaching the defense. The following year, he was made an assistant coach with such mundane responsibilities as breaking down video and preparing scouting charts for the defense.
He caught Bill Belichick’s eye, and in 2004 he was named quarterbacks coach. He tutored Tom Brady for two years before replacing Charlie Weis as the offensive coordinator (the Patriots did not have an official offensive coordinator in 2005, though McDaniels certainly played a large role in orchestrating the offense that season).
McDaniels, still the quarterbacks coach, said he’s learned just as much about coaching from Brady as he’s tried to teach him.
“There’s never a meeting that I have with Tom Brady that is not filled from the first minute it starts to the last minute it ends with instruction, with film-watching, with dialogue,” McDaniels said. “He doesn’t want to sit in there and just watch the screen go by and just watch the tape. He wants, ‘Hey, gimme something that I can use on Sunday.’ That’s what he’s looking for and that makes me a better coach. It didn’t take me long to figure that out: that I’m going to fill the meeting with criticism and instruction and he’s going to take it and get better for it.”
Patriots players rave about McDaniels.
“When you hear him communicate, his ability to articulate the ideas and the concepts that he wants the guys to learn, and his demeanor in doing it, it’s impressive,” veteran tight end Kyle Brady said.
“After being here during minicamp and training camp and seeing how the offense was made and designed, I thought he was probably, if not the best, one of the best offensive coordinators in the league,” Moss said.
That’s the kind of validation that can send a coach on to other jobs. Even if he doesn’t land a head coaching job this winter, he’ll certainly make that leap eventually.
“The good thing about it is he’s young and his upside is very high,” Moss said. “The bad side of it is that I don’t know how long he’ll be a Patriots coach.”
McDaniels is certain that it’s until Sunday at least.
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