FOXBORO — Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels took a yr off from teaching. However he didn’t take a yr off from soccer.
McDaniels spent 2024 away from teaching to recharge emotionally and bodily, however he additionally went on a tour of profitable soccer packages and introduced again 68 pages of handwritten notes in his return to the Super Bowl-bound Patriots as offensive coordinator in what he known as “one of the crucial rewarding years for me professionally” this season.
“I’d say, personally and professionally, it was actually an superior yr of development, therapeutic and making ready for no matter was subsequent,” McDaniels mentioned of 2024. “And boy, God’s plan was superior, and ended up having us right here.”
Fired as Raiders head coach halfway by way of the 2023 season after a 3-5 begin, McDaniels first prioritized his household. He drove his daughters, Maddie, Livia and Nina, to highschool day by day. He obtained to look at his son, Jack, play faculty soccer at his personal alma mater, John Carroll College. He took his oldest daughter on faculty visits, went out to dinner along with his spouse, Laura, and shed some pointless weight.
That’s high quality time you’ll be able to’t at all times spend if you’re working 18-hour days for 11 months out of the yr as a soccer coach.
However he additionally took time to progress in his career.
Final spring, McDaniels visited the Chiefs, Payments and Texans throughout organized workforce actions, and USC, Ohio State and Boston Faculty throughout spring ball.
The longtime offensive soccer thoughts was trying to study and be a “fly on the wall,” watching how different groups ran their soccer packages.
“(Chiefs head coach) Andy Reid was tremendous accommodating, (ex-Payments head coach) Sean McDermott was tremendous accommodating, (Texans head coach) DeMeco Ryans, superior, Lincoln Riley, USC, Ryan Day at Ohio State, Billy O’Brien at Boston Faculty. There have been simply lots of people that gave me a chance to go and see anyone else do the job,” McDaniels instructed the Herald. “And so I took a ton of notes from all my journeys. It wasn’t a rebirth, however I’d say it was simply form of an evolution.”
The Patriots’ offense ranked second in factors and third in complete offense in McDaniels’ return as offensive coordinator.
Now, they’re headed for McDaniels’ ninth Tremendous Bowl look general and sixth as an offensive coordinator.
“The attitude after that yr, I’d say my rejuvenation, I used to be recharged,” McDaniels mentioned. “I used to be excited to attempt a number of new issues and incorporate these issues into what I’ve already realized and knew, and so I used to be form of able to go.”
Of McDaniels’ 23 seasons teaching within the NFL, 22 have include him or Invoice Belichick as a head coach.
That is his first yr working below Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel, and watching the Chiefs, Payments, Texans, USC, Ohio State and Boston Faculty helped McDaniels expertise a distinct strategy to teaching.
“You see different folks do issues, and also you’ve finished issues a really particular method for many of your soccer life, as a result of that’s what you had been round, and that’s what you had been taught how one can do,” McDaniels mentioned. “And professional soccer, we don’t get to go watch different groups play, coach within the spring. We hardly ever get that chance. So, I used to be simply extremely grateful to these folks that had the power to decide on whether or not to let me are available or not. And so they did. And so I realized quite a bit from these guys. I additionally noticed numerous new issues that I believed, ‘You understand what, that’s fairly cool. I’m going to attempt that or incorporate a few of that if or once I get again in.’”
So, what did he take away from these visits?
“The school sport is so totally different than the professional sport, and so with the ability to see among the issues they had been doing, simply spatially and utilizing a quarterback in numerous methods, that was attention-grabbing to me,” McDaniels mentioned. “Being round among the extra cellular guys, with Josh (Allen) and Pat (Mahomes) and simply seeing them do a few of their issues. There have been a number of issues, for positive, that you just’re like, ‘You wish to attempt a few of this,’ relying on who I used to be with, as a result of at that time, I had no thought the place I used to be going to be. There’s undoubtedly some issues that I picked up that I felt can be actually cool to implement and take a look at.
“I believe, greater than the rest, I took away simply among the course of stuff that I noticed, and the way in which they practiced, and the way in which they structured issues, and the way they ran a gathering, how they arrange their work day, and the way in which they did issues on the sector, and the way they maximize their effectivity. I believe we do issues fairly nicely, and we had finished issues fairly nicely, nevertheless it was simply cool to have one other alternative to see, not simply good folks, however nice coaches, and to have an opportunity to be round them and simply choose something up was actually useful to me.”
McDaniels saved his thoughts on soccer throughout the 2024 common season by serving to groups with advance scouting on opponents.
He additionally helped out certainly one of his long-time buddies.
“Truthfully, certainly one of my greatest mates in the entire world was beginning a brand new job at FOX,” McDaniels mentioned, referencing his previous signal-caller, Tom Brady. “If he wished to bounce some issues off me as he was making ready for the 2 groups he was going to cowl that week, I used to be like, ‘That’s fairly cool, man. Like, I’ll have a look at whoever you’re doing too, and for those who want something from me, let me know.’ So, I saved myself very busy in that regard, in between being a dad and enjoying pickleball and doing all these different issues, I used to be capable of actually keep linked to the sport.”
It was pickleball — “5 days every week, two hours a day” — and an improved weight-reduction plan and sleep schedule that helped a slimmed-down McDaniels drop the burden.
He discovered himself again in soccer a yr in the past now when he was employed as Vrabel’s offensive coordinator.
McDaniels known as it a particular season for a number of causes, from the tradition that Vrabel constructed, the players, including QB Drake Maye, he will get to educate and the truth that his household is pleased.
“That is residence for us,” McDaniels mentioned. “And so to have the ability to do that and have an opportunity to go to a different Tremendous Bowl right here — my children are just a little older, and it’s so rewarding for me as a dad and a husband to look at them get pleasure from what’s taking place right here. And so they’re Patriots followers, interval. However now that we’re again within the group, it simply it makes it that rather more satisfying.”
McDaniels and the Patriots head out to the Bay Space on Sunday to complete making ready for an additional Tremendous Bowl matchup with the Seahawks.
