There is a coach in this weekend’s Patriots game who needs to prove he can win without Tom Brady, but it isn’t Bill Belichick. It is the Raiders’ Josh McDaniels.
McDaniels’s Raiders are 2–3. He is 19–31 in his head coaching career. He has never had a winning season. He is a rare head coach who’s had personnel power in each of his first two jobs (in Denver and Las Vegas), so it is hard to argue that he has been a victim of circumstance. There is no doubt McDaniels is a terrific football coach. But there are real doubts about whether he is a good NFL head coach.
McDaniels is a highly regarded quarterbacks coach, but how much of that reputation was built by coaching Brady after he was already a star? McDaniels spent a first-round pick on Tim Tebow, who was not an NFL-caliber quarterback. He spent one season as an offensive coordinator outside of New England, with the Rams; that year, Sam Bradford had his worst season as a starter.
