Patriots are in the worst possible spot with Josh McDaniels right now

The Patriots aren’t in an ideal situation with Josh McDaniels right now.

New England Patriots fans should brace themselves for change, because the upcoming offseason figures to feature a ton of turnover, whether it be to the roster, coaching staff or front office. The upheaval already started this week as director of player personnel Nick Caserio has reportedly agreed to take the GM job with the Houston Texans.

As far as the coaching staff is concerned, however, we could start to see some older faces take a backseat in favor of giving up-and-coming young minds a greater role. The Patriots could also be forced to search for a new offensive coordinator if Josh McDaniels ends up landing a coaching gig.

Well, if the initial rounds of interview requests from the six teams with vacancies to fill was any indication, McDaniels appears poised to remain with the Patriots. While some fans might view that as a silver lining, it really isn’t an ideal situation for the franchise.

So far, each of the six teams — the Jaguars, Chargers, Jets, Falcons, Lions and Texans — have leaked names of candidates they plan on interviewing to be their new head coach, and McDaniels has yet to be mentioned as a potential contender for any of them.

According to John McClain of the Houston Chronicle, who was the first to break the Caserio news, the 44-year-old coordinator won’t be joining him with the Texans. When you consider all that’s transpired over the last two days, that was likely McDaniels’ best chance at realizing his dream of becoming a head coach again.

For Patriots fans who would like to see someone else call the shots on offense for the first time in nine years (!), this is terrible news. McDaniels admittedly inherited a bad situation following the departure of Tom Brady and subsequent signing of Cam Newton, which proved to be a disaster, so the organization doesn’t really have an excuse to fire him.

On the other side of the spectrum, he failed at getting the most out of Newton, who seemed like a dream pairing for him given his ties to mobile quarterbacks, so he realistically was never going to get enough head coaching looks elsewhere.

Barring any last-minute changes to the coaching carousel, McDaniels will return for his 13th season as offensive coordinator of the Patriots, and we honestly don’t know how to feel about it.

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