When Josh McDaniels made the stunning decision to back out of his agreement to become the next head coach of the Colts, the assumption immediately became that he is the head coach in waiting with the Patriots. That may be the case, but what if Bill Belichick is nowhere close to retiring?
Several credible reports have indicated that Belichick will be back in 2018. Beyond that, no one really knows how much longer the 65-year-old intends to coach. But for what it’s worth, an acquaintance of Belichick told The MMQB’s Peter King at the Super Bowl that he believes Belichick has “multiple years” left in New England.
A source close to the story said late Tuesday night that, as part of his agreement to stay in New England, McDaniels got no written assurance that he will succeed the 65-year-old Belichick when he walks away from the job. No one knows when that will be. Belichick will coach at least this year, and at the Super Bowl last week, one longtime Belichick acquaintance said he thought Belichick would coach multiple years in New England, despite the reports of discord between him and Kraft.
King believes it is safe to assume that McDaniels will be offered the Patriots head coaching job if he is still on the staff when Belichick moves on, but it’s impossible to predict when that will happen. If Belichick sticks around for, say, five more years, who’s to say McDaniels won’t have gotten another head coaching offer by then and follow through with it this time?
You could make the argument that McDaniels will have a tough time landing a head coaching job outside of New England after the stunt he pulled, but quality head coaches are tough to come by in the NFL. If a team believes he’s the man for the job, the ugly Colts mess won’t be a deal-breaker.
We have already heard multiple reasons why McDaniels supposedly changed his mind about Indy, and they go beyond him wanting to be the eventual replacement for Belichick.
