It turns out that Bill Belichick was reportedly a big factor in Josh McDaniels’s decision to pull out of the Indianapolis Colts job at the last second.
According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Belichick promised McDaniels in a Tuesday morning meeting that he would be more active in mentoring his offensive coordinator, including spending more time on the Patriots’ roster construction and handling of the salary cap. McDaniels viewed this as “extremely valuable,” a source told Reiss, even if he wasn’t given iron-clad assurances that he will be Belichick’s eventual successor.
McDaniels also appreciated the stability that the Patriots offered, which would allow his children, the oldest of which being 12, the chance to stay in the same school for the foreseeable future.
Reiss notes that McDaniels had been ready to take the Colts job as of Tuesday morning, but the Belichick meeting swayed him. He also says that, had McDaniels had all this information during the entire interview process, he’d have likely handled things differently. That last bit certainly lends some credence to the theory that owner Robert Kraft was trying to stick it to a rival after letting this go on for a while.
While McDaniels hasn’t been named coach-in-waiting, it certainly sounds like the Patriots would like such an arrangement to happen. They’re just not marrying themselves to it.
