Speculation has a potential link between the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, which flies in the face of all logic.
Despite the notable handicap of being dismissed by the team in a statement, Condoleezza Rice has a better chance to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browns than Josh McDaniels. In the wake of Hue Jackson being fired as head coach, a number of candidates have been named by various sources as possible replacements.
One being pushed by Albert Breer of MMQB is Josh McDaniels, the offensive coordinator of the New England Patriots. There’s no reason to believe there’s any legitimacy to the idea. Instead, it appears to be a ploy to regenerate interest in McDaniels from other teams that will be in the market for head coaches, perhaps including the fanbase of his current team.
Much of the reason the Browns won’t be interested in McDaniels comes down to the fiasco that had him turn down the Indianapolis Colts after agreeing to be their head coach. In the end, it worked out for the Colts as they then were able to hire Frank Reich, who has been great in his first year with them. The problem is how many of the people involved with McDaniels and the Colts have a direct relationship with John Dorsey, the general manager of the Browns.
The general manager McDaniels screwed over in Indianapolis is Chris Ballard who formerly worked with Dorsey for four years with the Kansas City Chiefs. Beyond the professional relationship, Dorsey and Ballard are close, so Dorsey will have unfettered access to everything that happened from Ballard and the Colts perspective.
Beyond that, Ballard and Dorsey have the same agent, Bob Lamonte, who was in the employ of McDaniels at the time of the Colts negotiation. In response to McDaniels pulling out of the deal with the Colts, Lamonte terminated his relationship with McDaniels, saying the following:
Coaches Agent Bob LaMonte confirmed to @SBJSBD that he has terminated his relationship with Josh McDaniels. "My word is my bond. Once you break that, there's nothing left," LaMonte said.
— Liz Mullen (@SBJLizMullen) February 7, 2018
NFL Network’s Mike Garofolo reported that Lamonte told McDaniels it was “perhaps the biggest professional mistake of his career.” With seemingly no loyalty to McDaniels, Lamonte is free to tell Dorsey every detail of the situation from his angle. In other words, Dorsey will know every detail that went into the agreement and then the dissolution between the Colts and McDaniels.
From a personal standpoint, it seems really unlikely that Dorsey would gather all of this information from two people he’s connected with, puts himself in the same situation as Ballard did, and potentially impacts his relationship with both Ballard and Lamonte.
Beyond the Colts fiasco, this would be the third different Belichick assistant the Browns would have hired to be their head coach. The other two being Eric Mangini and Romeo Crennel. No former Belichick assistant has any sustained success and McDaniels would be getting his third opportunity to be a head coach. With total control of the roster in Denver, he started out 6-0, but everything fell apart and he was ultimately fired. Obviously his second chance was with the Colts.
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Granted, McDaniels wouldn’t have total control as Dorsey would continue to be the general manager of the Browns, but what has McDaniels done to warrant a third head coaching opportunity in the NFL?. Bill O’Brien and Charlie Weis were both successful offensive assistants with the Patriots while O’Brien’s record is currently pretty good with the Houston Texans, it’s largely built on beating bad opponents with backup quarterbacks. Weis flamed out at Notre Dame and Kansas.
What separates McDaniels? He looks like a coach? He’s from Barberton and played quarterback for Canton McKinley? The most compelling argument for McDaniels appears to be the fact that Belichick wanted to keep him badly enough that he gave him a bigger contract and promised to teach him about roster construction and being a head coach, which was incentive enough for McDaniels to blow off Ballard and the Colts.
That’s not a good enough reason for the Browns to chase after McDaniels. Belichick was also unhappy when Mangini left the Patriots for the New York Jets, hoping to keep him longer. The bridge was then burned between the two when it was discovered Mangini was the one who told the league about Spygate.
The most direct connection between Dorsey and McDaniels is Lamonte. Given the nature of the league, the two may know each other a little bit and undoubtedly have some other friends in common throughout the league, but none of those things seem like they’d be enough to overcome these stumbling blocks.
There are going to be too many qualified candidates that haven’t pulled something like this to bother with McDaniels. Even if Dorsey had no connection with the situation in Indianapolis, it would seem like more than enough reason to be wary, wanting to avoid putting himself in a situation to be the next person made to look a fool by McDaniels.
So why Breer? Breer lives near Boston and has covered the Patriots, putting him in position to develop contacts with people close to McDaniels if not McDaniels himself. Whether Breer’s coming by this honestly and someone connected to McDaniels is telling him the Browns are interested or that he’s doing this of his own volition in an effort to help regenerate interest in McDaniels as a head coach is unclear.
Regardless, Breer’s smart enough to know this doesn’t pass the smell test with the Browns, so it seems more likely he’s complicit, which is certainly his option.
The bottom line is Josh McDaniels won’t be the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns. There’s just too much obvious baggage that should make it a non-starter for the Browns and the fact that Albert Breer is the only one mentioning McDaniels reeks of an ulterior motive. There’s no reason for Browns fans or media to worry about the possibility of McDaniels and let this rumor go ahead and die on its own.
Maybe it works for McDaniels for another team even if that team is the Patriots and this is a way to help sell the fanbase on him taking over the franchise when Bill Belichick retires. For the Browns, it appears candidates including Mike McCarthy, Matt Campbell, even Bruce Arians Eric Bieniemy are infinitely more likely to happen than McDaniels.