Few people know Josh McDaniels’ offense better than Bill O’Brien.
When McDaniels left to coach the Broncos in 2009, O’Brien took over as Tom Brady’s play-caller and was eventually elevated to the offensive coordinator role. O’Brien then returned in 2023 to coordinate New England’s offense again.
With McDaniels returning to Foxborough this time, O’Brien is bullish on what he and Drake Maye are going to accomplish. In a sit down with WBZ, the Boston College coach explained why he believes the Patriots are set up for success moving forward.
“I think if you have a chance to hire Josh McDaniels as an offensive coordinator, who’s better than that?” O’Brien asked. “He’s very bright. He’s a great play caller. He stayed up with the trends of the game. He’s been by (BC) a few times to watch us practice. He’s traveled around in his year off. I think he’s going to bring a lot of different creativity to that offense that Drake Maye will love, and the players around him will love it too.”
Beyond that, O’Brien believes the continuity McDaniels can provide will be important. With a pair of underwhelming head coaching tenures on his resume, McDaniels doesn’t seem likely to fly the coop any time soon. O’Brien thinks stability will serve Maye well.
Tom Brady talks about that a lot, the continuity that he had at the Patriots,” O’Brien said. “He had Bill (Belichick), and then he had three offensive coordinators: Charlie (Weis), Josh for most of his years, and then me. There was continuity. It was the same system. I think that’s the key. Now, there’s been some change over there, but hopefully this is the way it’s going to be for a long time now, because the continuity for a quarterback is huge
If you’re having to come in and learn a new system every single year, it’s like a whole different language. So you’re having to learn a whole different language. You’re having to learn a whole different style of timing in the passing game, and what the routes are, how to read the route. And it’s just this guy teaches it this way, but this guy teaches it a different way. It doesn’t mean that either way is wrong. It’s just that it’s all different… (Maye) is in his second year, and now he’s able to get in there and grind it out and learn with Josh, and then hopefully Josh will be there for a long time. Now it can be a continuous system that they can develop over the years that Drake’s there. I think that’s the way to go.”
Maye is also excited to begin working under McDaniels. Speaking to NBC Sports Boston in New Orleans during Super Bowl week, the quarterback didn’t fret needing to learn another new offense this offseason.
“I think I’m a bright kid. I don’t think it’ll be too challenging,” Maye said. “But it’s a new offense. You’ve gotta do it. They don’t give you too much time to work with coaches during this time period. You’ve gotta have time off (due to the CBA).
Fortunately, you’ve got the whole library from years ago, back when the greatest to ever do it did it in the same offense. What a guy to watch film on, and coach McDaniels has been one of the best in the business as a coordinator. Looking forward to running the offense that Tom Brady did.”
