Colts 'Surprised and Disappointed' as Josh McDaniels Stays with Patriots

The Indianapolis Colts released a statement following Josh McDaniels' shocking decision to back out of his agreement to become the team's next head coach on Tuesday and remain with the New England Patriots, according to Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star:

ESPN's Adam Schefter, who first reported on McDaniels' decision to back out on the Colts, noted that "in the past 48 hours, Patriots owner Robert Kraft began talking with McDaniels and ultimately wound up sweetening his contract, helping to entice McDaniels to remain in New England."

Schefter continued:

"But this wasn't a decision about money. The truth is, McDaniels has been vacillating on this decision throughout the interview process, ever since meeting with the Colts on wild-card weekend. It is the reason a second meeting with Colts officials and team owner Jim Irsay was held. McDaniels was trying to get comfortable with the idea of taking his family out of New England and moving to Indianapolis, sources said."

Ultimately, McDaniels' decided he wasn't comfortable leaving.

"That's Kraft putting it to the Colts again," a league source told Schefter about owner Robert Kraft aggressively pushing to retain McDaniels. "He will forever try and (expletive) that place ever since Deflategate."

McDaniels' left the Colts high and dry in more than one way. As Schefter noted, the team already hired Matt Eberflus to be the next defensive coordinator and Mike Phair as the defensive line coach, with both remaining on staff even with McDaniels out. That means the team's next head coach won't have full autonomy to build his own coaching staff.

As former NFL general manager Mark Dominik noted, putting together a coaching staff at this point in the offseason is "very difficult...unless the coaches are currently out of a job."

Schefter added that the other candidates the Colts interviewed before settling on McDaniels—Matt Nagy, Mike Vrabel, Steve Wilks, Matt Ruhle and Kris Richard—have either taken on new jobs this offseason or, in the case of Ruhle at Baylor, said they wouldn't be leaving their current job.

That leaves the Colts needing to essentially start their head coaching search from scratch.

In New England, meanwhile, it's easy to imagine McDaniels serving as the successor to Bill Belichick. Reports from Mike Reiss of ESPN.com and Benjamin Allbright of 104.7 Denver seemed to suggest that possibility:

If McDaniels doesn't become the next head coach of the Patriots once Belichick retires, it's fair to question if other NFL teams will take notice of the fact that McDaniels backed out of the Colts job at the 11th hour. McDaniels appears to have a secure place in New England, but Tuesday's decision may have burnt him a few bridges around the league.