Prior to the decision to hire Joe Judge as their next head coach, the New York Giants had put in a request to interview Jason Garrett and had another interview scheduled with Josh McDaniels.
Ultimately, the Giants passed on those interviews and decided to hire Judge, who came with a glowing recommendation courtesy of Bill Belichick.
Interestingly however, Belichick may have refused to allow McDaniels to move up his scheduled interview with the Giants despite the New England Patreiots’ earlier playoff loss, potentially costing McDaniels a shot at the job.
From Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports:
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick refused to allow longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to move up his scheduled interviews with teams interested in him as a head coaching candidate to the start of this week, league sources said, at the same time he pushed special teams coordinator Joe Judge for the New York Giants’ coaching vacancy and greenlit a Monday interview for him.
Offseason reporting has already been a bit spotty, so take this with a grain of salt, but don’t necessarily dismiss it entirely.
The New England Patriots have been reluctant to lose McDaniels and there were rumors two years ago prior to the Giants hiring Pat Shurmur that Belichick had informed his assistants to avoid the organization. Belichick and Patriots owner Robert Kraft later talked McDaniels out of taking over as the Indianapolis Colts head coach.
However, even with the Giants interview not moved up, McDaniels has since interviewed with the Cleveland Browns and appears to be a front-runner for that job. If Belichick & Co. were attempting to keep McDaniels in town, they may come up short.
[lawrence-related id=638129,638121,638116]