Josh McDaniels has been a busy man around this time for the past few seasons.
Not only is he preparing the New England Patriots for playoff runs, but he’s been very involved with potential head-coaching jobs — and the rumors that come along with them. McDaniels appears in head-coaching rumors at the end of almost every season it seems like and this year it’s beginning with the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and New York Giants openings.
Currently, the most important task for McDaniels is the Patriots’ playoff matchup against the Tennessee Titans this week. New England missed out on a first-round bye and will have to make some incredible offensive adjustments in order to make it to the Super Bowl, and that begins with McDaniels.
He addressed the rumors in a conference call on Monday.
“I’m 100 percent fully invested in getting ready for Tennessee and trying to put our best performance of the season out there on Saturday night,” McDaniels said, transcribed by NESN. “We have a lot of work to do. That’s where my focus will be. That’s where it’s at now and it’ll stay there. That’s the best thing for our team. It’s the best thing for me. We’re one of 12 teams that have an opportunity to compete in the postseason. And that’s the only way I’ll ever do it.”
McDaniels is a top prospect for all three head-coaching vacancies and the Cleveland one is gaining the most traction. He is a native of Canton, Ohio, grew up in Northeast Ohio, while graduating from John Carrol University.
“With all due respect to the question, I’m not even aware of any of that stuff at this point,” McDaniels said. “When that stuff is presented to me or discussed with me or whatever, then we’ll deal with it appropriately.
“But honestly it’s pretty easy for me in terms of my formula: I’m the offensive coordinator of the Patriots. We have a lot of work to do. We can improve in a lot of areas to try to get ready for this week. It’s our biggest game of the year against certainly the best team we’ve played. This is a postseason game, so our players deserve that, our coaches deserve that, and that’s what they’re going to get from me.”
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