New England Patriots: Keeping Josh McDaniels is big win for organization

The New England Patriots ended up getting a big win late Tuesday night, as Josh McDaniels decided to stay with New England.

Coming into the Super Bowl, everyone expected that the New England Patriots would be losing their two coordinators. While it couldn’t become official until after the Super Bowl, Matt Patricia was going to be going to Detroit Lions and Josh McDaniels was going to be heading to the Indianapolis Colts.

On Monday, the Lions made it official, as Patricia became their head coach. Early on Tuesday morning, the Colts then made it official with McDaniels. After scheduling a press conference for Wednesday to introduce him, McDaniels backed out of the job and decided to go back to New England.

This was certainly a shocking move made by McDaniels, as the Colts had already begun to hire coaches for his staff. Ultimately, McDaniels decided to stick with the Patriots and that is great news for the organization.

As the offensive coordinator in New England, McDaniels has been an underrated part of one of the best offenses in the league. While having arguably the greatest quarterback of all-time is a huge advantage, the Patriots also have a great system on offense that makes a lot of players look good.

As the offensive coordinator, McDaniels might not have received the credit that he deserves for how well the offense has performed with him calling the plays. As shown by him being one of the top head coaching candidates the last two years, teams around the league certainly understand how valuable he has been to the Patriots.

Now, with McDaniels back in New England, there will certainly be some speculation about the long-term future of Bill Belichick. Since McDaniels is such a good coordinator, the Patriots going all-in to steal him back from the Colts could be an indication that Robert Kraft would like to have him as the eventual successor for Belichick. Also, Adam Schefter mentioned that Kraft used this opportunity to stick it to the Colts for DeflateGate.

Regardless of the possible side motivations for bringing McDaniels back, losing him would have been a big loss. If the Patriots did lose him, it would have been a big adjustment for Brady and the offense, as McDaniels has been calling the plays for quite some time now.

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As the Patriots refocus on next season and Super Bowl 53, getting McDaniels back certainly makes them a better team.