Before McDaniels to NE was confirmed: http://www.stltoday.com/sports/foot...cle_d673e251-dbb8-59f6-9a6f-5d2665d39a20.html
isn't it strange the league allows them to hire a coach the week before a playoff game? and the coach coached the upcoming opponent just a year earlier? NE is beating Den regardless of who they add to the staff but I wonder why that is legal?
Believe it or not, I think Ocho gets one more year with NE. He's under contract, so unless they cut him or trade him, he'll be around. And if they were going to cut him, I think they would have done it by now. I heard a good line about him recently - he should change his name to "Unocinco" (since he had 15 catches this season). I agree that it's odd, but I think being on NE's staff is a formality at best. If Belichick wanted McDaniels' input he could have gotten it anyway. He could also call Urban Meyer if he wants to... those guys are buddies. Like I said though, it does seem really unusual to me. I think it's just a unique situation. St. Louis had no intentions of keeping McDaniels around and with a couple of teams asking to speak with him, it just moved more quickly than these things usually do. Kind of interesting item out there about McDaniels' return: The league source indicated that McDaniels’s title and responsibilities upon his return to New England - where he began as a personnel assistant in 2001 and worked his way up to offensive coordinator before accepting the head coaching position in Denver in 2009 - likely will be more than just coordinator. It is unclear what that means, though, and whether he could be head coach-in-waiting. http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-08/sports/30605052_1_head-coach-dante-scarnecchia-patriots-staff I've got to wonder, if this is accurate, if it's a possible indication that Belichick will call it quits at around the same time as Brady, maybe five or six years from now.
tom has 3 more years to run on his current deal and is due to get paid $18m in each of 2013 and 2014 - do you think that they will further extend his contract?
I'll be glad when Brady is gone, Belichick too but Brady more. Geez, we were rid of Marino and Kelly for like a year and this guy shows up.
Curious URL. "head-coach-dante-scarnecchia-patriots-staff." Which begs the question why poor Dante doesn't get any head coaching love. If I were an owner, I'd take him over a McDaniels any day.
I do. As long as he's healthy and playing at a fairly high level, I think Brady has at least five years left. Even more than other athletes, he doesn't need to worry about money (since Giselle is a gazillionaire) and I'm guessing that his current deal is his last "big bucks" contract. He won't make peanuts if he plays longer, but he won't be at the top of the earnings scale like he is now. Mind you, I'm basing this on absolutely nothing but my own intuition. And one of my favorite lines is, "I usually go with what my gut tells me, even though I figured out a long time ago that my gut has shit-for-brains." Dante is a fixture in Foxboro. He's been through something like a half-dozen coaching regimes and three owners. According to what I've read/heard, he's simply not interested in the limelight that comes with being a head coach or even a coordinator. Very respected around Gillette though.
Unbelievable. We even had Peyton Manning in our division for a while too, good thing for realignment. Too bad they didn't move us to the South instead of them.
I forgot about that, we only had one season of Brady vs. Manning in the division, imagine those games 2x a year?
Dallas did the same thing in 2009. Entering the playoffs their DC accepted a college job and they brought in a fired Miami coach to replace him, he joined the team to assist during the playoffs. Differences: McDaniels wasn't fired, but STL chose not to retain him if another team chose to offer him a deal. Dallas wasn't facing Miami in the playoffs. When McDaniels was hired, Cinci, Pitt, and Denver were all still playoff options. McDaniels is also more than a full NFL season removed from Denver, and any terminology he used in Denver, was brought from NE in the first place. More can be learned about Tebow and his team from watching this seasons film than McDaniels could tell anyone from his time with them. Tebow wasn't his starter and Thomas was injured. McDaniels roll will be to assist BOB who is pulling double duties as acting head coach of Penn State and acting offensive coordinator the New England. He will probably just help in preparation and be one extra set of eyes to help come up with in-game adjustments. New England is being heavily scrutinized because they are an easy target (because of :success, spygate, Brady, Bellichick, lack of playoff success "needing an edge", etc. whatever you want to choose). I don't recall anyone making a big deal about Dallas doing the exact same thing.
who is scrutinizing NE? I haven't seen one person(other than this thread) question them on this move. NE can always do what they want and will always be applauded no matter what they do.
Media is all over it. Multiple articles written saying it should be illegal and the NFL should block the move, two or three separate programs on NFLN saying they dont think it should be allowed, multiple people on ESPNs SC saying it shouldn't be allowed. Open your eyes, the Pats are not a media darling, they are a target as much as the Jests. Probably more so. Every offseason the Pats dynasty is over, Miami will finish better, Jests are offseason SB champs. Pats don't have the 'worst ranked defense', Packers do, but Packers get a pass for being '32nd' while NE has no chance for being '31'. Very few in the media actually like NE, but your Jets goggles completely blind you to that.
I haven't been keeping up so I haven't read anything but you are dead wrong about the perception. Every year we hear how great NE's drafts are even though they have had one good draft the last 6-7 years, if any other team would have signed Haynesworth and Ocho they would have been blasted but NE was praised even thought neither worked out. NE is the favorite in the AFC so I'm not sure who is telling you they have no chance especially w/ basically a bye to the title game.
New York was supposed to win the AFC this offseason. NE has to prove themselves every season, even when leading the race for the #1 seed late this year they were still getting dissed and pushed aside in favor of teams like Pitt that are no longer in the playoffs.
There are no restrictions on coach hirings. To playce them on teams in the playoffs while teams out of the playoffs can hire would put them at a competitive disadvantage. The only way to avoid it would be to put a freeze on all hirings untill after the playoffs. Doing that hurts teams who are trying to build staff for the draft in april. Denver fired McDaniels, its thier own fault he is out there to hire.
90% of the "experts" picked NE to win the division. They are the favrote to reach the SB every year even though they haven't been close since 2007. I don't think a team should be able to hire a new coach a week before a playoff game, if it's a disadvantage compared to non playoff teams so be it. The final 4 and final 8 rules were a disadvantage for playoff teams 2 years ago, you deal w/ it and move on. It's really not fair that they can do this and AGAIN NE was crushing Denver either way but that doesn't make it fair.
