McDaniels Leaves the Nest

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels turned down opportunities after last season, but he knew teams would keep knocking on his door. He was waiting for the right opening, and the chance to be the Denver Broncos' head coach might be exactly what he wants.

It's hard to argue with his choice to wait. Looking back at last year's openings, Atlanta and Baltimore looked like a huge question marks without a franchise quarterback at the time. Miami was coming off of a 1-15 season. Washington had good pieces in place, but initially were interested in a marquee name.

Denver, on the other hand, is in position to improve quickly. They have a solid offensive line that's anchored by LT Ryan Clady. There's a Pro Bowl-caliber receiver in Brandon Marshall. His counterpart, Eddie Royal, is a perfect complimentary target. There's even a receiving tight tend (Tony Scheffler) and a blocking tight end (Daniel Graham).

But the primary reason why this union between coach and franchise came to be is quarterback Jay Cutler.

McDaniels is a former high school passer and spent the last five years working directly with quarterbacks. He was an integral part of Tom Brady's development. With McDaniels in his ear, Brady had his four best years as a passer, including the record-breaking 2007 season.

 While helping a two-time Super Bowl MVP reach greater heights is impressive, the job McDaniels did with Matt Cassel is Josh's crowning achievement. He took Cassel, who hadn't started a game in eight years and threw just 39 passes in the NFL, and turned him into a productive, efficient passer over the course of 16 games. Beyond Cassel's final statistics, the dramatic difference between the passer Cassel was in his first start in comparison to his dominant finish (8 TDs 1 int in his final three starts) is why McDaniels is preparing for his introductory press conference.

What McDaniels did with Cassel is what the Broncos hope he can do with Cutler. Jay arguably has the strongest arm in the league, but he's more gun-slinger than quarterback. With the tools around him, there's no reason for why Cutler should had thrown 18 interceptions in 2008. It will be up to McDaniels to control Cutler's wild side and reduce mistakes while retaining, or even improving, Jay's production.

Cutler is already a player on the rise. Denver is pinning their hopes that McDaniels can accelerate Cutler's gradual slope of improvement into a meteoric rise to the top of the quarterback rankings. With the exception of a consistent rushing game (which can be fixed through the draft now that there's a few early entrants in the draft pool), the pieces are in place to turn the Broncos from a meddling team into a serious Super Bowl contender.

As for the Patriots, McDaniels is the fourth coordinator in four years the team must replace (Defensive coordinators Romeo Crennel in '05 and Eric Mangini in '06, offensive coordinators Charlie Weis in '05, and now McDaniels). Considering Josh and Mangini are original products of the Patriots system and rose to become coordinators, it wouldn't be surprising if the next coordinator is a in-house promotion.

But does McDaniels' decision sit well with head coach Bill Belichick? Does Josh get Bill's blessing for replacing good friend and fierce opponent Mike Shanahan, maybe Belichick's equal as a coaching mind? If Belichick doesn't give a statement about McDaniels, then we might have to wait up to three years for their first icy post-game handshake.