Like His Boss, Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels Is Complicated But Brilliant

An examination of the complex life of Josh McDaniels starts in 2010, when the then-Broncos head coach made one of the gutsiest, preposterous and wrong moves in the recent history of the NFL.

He traded second-, third- and fourth-round picks to move up to select Tim Tebow 25th overall in the 2010 NFL draft.

"What I remember is how smart he was," Tebow once told me in reference to McDaniels. "He was analytical. He thought through everything. He was incredibly smart."

It's easy to forget that for much of his career, McDaniels has been viewed as one of the NFL's most brilliant minds. That is part of who he is.

There is another side to McDaniels, though. It's the one who verbally agreed to become the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts last year and then abruptly backed out, leaving his newly hired assistants in limbo and a lot of front office executives suspicious of whether McDaniels could be trusted. A number of league people believed McDaniels would never receive another head coaching offer again. Colts general manager Chris Ballard didn't even want to hear from McDaniels on why he changed his mind.

"I live in a black-and-white world," Ballard said at a press conference after McDaniels' hasty retreat. "Either you're in or you're out. I didn't want the explanation. Either you're in or you're out."

For now, McDaniels is in with New England, where he remained offensive coordinator after spurning the Colts. And every indication is that he'll stay there, because he's either been promised Belichick's job once he retires or believes he'll get it. That's why, the thinking goes, McDaniels shut down interviews during this coaching cycle after meeting with only the Packers about their opening.

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Editor's note: This is the fourth and final installment in B/R's "Next Belichick?" series, which profiles some of the top up-and-coming coaches:

Part 1: Kliff Kingsbury

Part 2: Eric Bieniemy

Part 3: Kris Richard

Part 4: Josh McDaniels

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"Yeah, the book is closed," McDaniels said at an early January news conference when asked if he was interviewing again this year with other teams. "It's always a humbling experience to have an opportunity to interview with anybody for that position, and I was thankful for the opportunity to meet with Green Bay. It always gives you greater insight into another organization and how they do things. It's been very educational for me every time I've gone through it, and I've appreciated every single one of them. That was great, but no... I'll be here moving forward."

Charles Krupa/Associated Press/Associated Press

Unsurprisingly, McDaniels was asked if he thought his abandonment of the Colts hurt his chances to coach elsewhere in the future.

"I have no idea," he replied. "You know, you'd have to obviously ask them if that had anything to do with anything like that. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I had, but obviously, more importantly, thankful for the opportunity that I have here. I've said before, I think I have one of the best jobs in the world..."

Almost everyone in the NFL believes that job will be leading the Patriots in the near future.

Inside the Patriots organization, according to several team officials and players, McDaniels is almost like a mini-Belichick. In many ways, he's also a Tom Brady whisperer, these people say, adding that he understands how to coach Brady better than anyone on the team.

"He wants to kill me sometimes, and believe me, I want to kill him sometimes," Brady once said. "But I think we have a great deal of respect and trust and love for one another because we know once we come together on game day that we're both giving it everything we got. We're doing the best we can."

Despite some of their sideline blowups, McDaniels and Brady are extremely close, and Brady has told people he believes McDaniels has helped extend his career by utilizing more creative offensive schemes.

That was evident in this year's divisional-round matchup against the Chargers. To prepare for the Chargers' use of seven defensive backs, the Patriots opted for an increased diet of smashmouth running plays to set up Brady's passing. With rookie running back Sony Michel gaining 129 rushing yards and scoring three touchdowns, it was one of the few games in which the Patriots physically intimidated an opponent.

McDaniels' play-calling was so good, Belichick offered some rare effusive public praise.

"Look, I think Josh is a great play-caller," he told reporters in a conference call after the Chargers game. "He does an excellent job of attacking, keeping the defense off-balance, but most importantly, doing the things that we do well so that we're running things that we can execute. He does a great job of that. It was really the key to the whole day. We ran a variety of different plays—dropbacks, play actions, inside runs, outside runs, gap runs, zone runs. Ultimately, it was great execution by our players and, again, a really nice job by Josh of keeping the defense off-balance."

Elise Amendola/Associated Press/Associated Press

There was more McDaniels magic in the AFC Championship Game in Kansas City, which the Patriots won 37-31 in overtime. It wasn't just McDaniels' skilled play-calling down the stretch, when he used Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski as weapons against Kansas City's soft zone. It was also the protection for Brady. The Chiefs ended the regular season tied with the Steelers with a league-high 52 sacks, but they didn't sack Brady even once. 

Just as crucial as his schemes is McDaniels' willingness to praise those who make the schemes work. And though it would be easy to take someone like Brady for granted, McDaniels doesn't.

"One of the things that's always impressed me is how he's one of the first guys in the building to know a new person's name, which speaks to how important that is to him, to introduce himself to somebody and also get to know that person," McDaniels said of Brady. "Whether it be a practice-squad player, a rookie, whatever it is. We all have important jobs to do here, we take those very seriously, as Tommy always does.

"I think one of the big roles that a quarterback plays on the team is just being able to communicate openly with each one of his teammates, which Tom does. ... He does a great job of connecting those dots and really trying to pour himself into his teammates, and they know that they can communicate with him and talk to him about anything, whether it's football or not. So it makes him such a special leader."

Words like that have endeared McDaniels to people across the Patriots organization. And he isn't just complimentary of Brady, but of every player with whom he works.

Many people in the NFL see Belichick as the greatest coach of all time. There are others who think Belichick benefited greatly from Brady's presence. They feel the same way about McDaniels.

Though he's held in high esteem in New England, McDaniels, like Belichick, is layered, and the view of who he is and how good of a coach he is depends on the lens you use.

"I'd like to see how Josh does without the best quarterback of all time," one AFC West assistant coach said.

Yet others in the NFL say that despite McDaniels' about-face with the Colts last year, they feel he still would have been the hottest coaching candidate in this latest hiring cycle if he wanted to leave New England. Among many coaches, he's considered highly inventive and current, the kind of coach who could turn many of today's quarterbacks into stars.

Does that make him the kind of man who could be the next version of his current boss? Seeing as Belichick may be the best coach of all time, that's impossible to answer.

But could Belichick believe his most logical successor has an office right down the hall?

He just might.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.