Rob Gronkowski believes Josh McDaniels will replace Bill O'Brien as OC in 2024

Within the jumbled mess of conversation surrounding the Patriots this season, Bill O'Brien has come out mostly unscathed so far for his performance as the returning offensive coordinator.

Most of the criticism regarding the offense has been aimed at Mac Jones specifically, as he has played poorly for most of the year or the lack of depth at receiver, with most complaints involving JuJu Smith-Schuster.

That makes the lack of debate about O'Brien all the more interesting since he is responsible for what the offense does. However, he doesn't appear to be the leading cause for the issues they're facing, mainly having well-called games that are basically ignored because of repeated lousy play from certain players.

Some things have shifted in recent days, though, because Josh McDaniels was fired from his head coaching position with the Raiders. Most assumed his days were numbered this season, as he continued to make the same mistakes he did his first time around when he took the role with the Broncos in 2009.

So now that he is essentially a free agent, it feels inevitable he will find his way back to the New England sideline sooner rather than later.

That's what Rob Gronkowski believes anyway, as he shared with Kay Adams this week on her show "Up & Adams." But what makes his take a bit off-putting is he feels O'Brien will be getting the boot to bring McDaniels back.

"I feel like Billy O'Brien may be out of there after this year. So if that's the case, I think Josh McDaniels comes back as offensive coordinator in New England, that's for sure."

There hasn't been any indication that Belichick or Robert Kraft are unhappy with the job that O'Brien has done since returning this past offseason. Even Jones has only had praise for him despite being the third OC the quarterback has had to work with in three years.

So why would the Patriots move on from O'Brien already? Surely, they'd bring McDaniels back in a different role on the offense, similar to what they did with Matt Patricia when he was still under contract with the Lions.

Gronkowski didn't expand on his answer, providing no reason why O'Brien would be fired simply for McDaniels to return. It seems more like a hot take he wants out there than anything else, mainly due to the constant trending of the recently fired head coach.