Patriots News: Bill Belichick, DeShon Elliott, and Devin McCourty

Devin McCourty joins Gronk in belief that Josh McDaniels will return to Patriots

Since the Raiders let go of several former Patriots staffers last week, most notably Josh McDaniels, the idea of the former New England offensive coordinator returning to his old stomping grounds has dominated the news cycle.

Other than making the most sense for the two-time failed head coach to return to where he saw his most success, former Patriots are now sharing their opinions on the situation and what they believe will inevitably happen.

The first to voice their thinking about McDaniels was Rob Gronkowski, who believes he will actually end up replacing Bill O'Brien as the team's OC next season. Although that's not necessarily what would need to be done for McDaniels to return to Foxboro, Gronk doesn't feel O'Brien is doing that fantastic job and calling Belichick and Kraft's loyalty to McDaniels as a basis for his take.

Joining Gronk with this thought process is now Devin McCourty, who also believes McDaniels will return to New England but not in the same fashion as his former teammate.

"I would not be surprised if Josh was back on staff. But also, if I’m Josh, like, ‘Hey, man, [you’ve] still got four and a half years [on his Raiders contract] fully guaranteed. Like for this year, let’s take a little mental break for the rest of the season. See what you can do, go around to other teams, focus on becoming a better coach.

I would operate more along those lines. But I think for New England, like Josh had so much success over there. I would be shocked if they don’t at least call him and say ‘Hey, do you want to come back and lend a helping hand of some sort.’"

McCourty's take makes a lot more sense for all parties involved, a lot more so than what Gronk believes will happen.

It's true that Las Vegas will have to pay McDaniels through the 2027 season, as his contract was guaranteed, allowing him to take time off right now or as long as he wants to because he will be getting around $10 million yearly.

It also seems more plausible that if he were to be re-hired with the Patriots, he would be back in a different role than the position he had previously held, mainly because there doesn't seem to be any reason for O'Brien to be fired for what he's done this year.

No matter what happens, though, it will be a constant discussion until whatever happens, happens; that's for sure.

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