When the Patriots hired Josh McDaniels last week to return just before the playoffs many Broncos writers and fans cried foul. Thus sparked an ongoing debate of what impact McDaniels could have in facing his former team.
Sane analytical football fans know that as far as the Broncos go, McDaniels impact would be minimal. Could he have some information about personnel that could be helpful? Sure. Maybe Demaryius Thomas has a tendency or something he doesn’t do well that the Pats didn’t catch on film. But other than some innocuous personnel insight McDaniels doesn’t possess any secrets the Pats don’t already know about the Broncos.
What is being overlooked is where McDaniels real impact will come. McDaniels is one of the most creative young offensive minds in the NFL, and he has been watching the Patriots from an outside perspective for the last three years. He has seen where the Pats have struggled, he has had to develop a game plan himself to attack them, and I’m sure he has imagined what he would do with the current set of Patriots weapons that did not exist when he left in 2009.
This experience and outside perspective from someone as smart as McDaniels is where he will be most useful for the Patriots playoff run. Surely he has ideas of how to use Gronk and Hernando in ways Belichick and Bill O’Brien might not have thought of. Maybe he even has ideas for the Patriots’ defensive side of the ball based on how he would attack them.
There’s also the fact that McDaniels faced the Ravens and all four of the remaining NFC playoff teams this season. The Patriots have only seen the Giants of that group.
McDaniels will be a new set of valuable eyes, with an outside perspective that could help concoct game plans and schemes that Patriots opponents have not seen yet this year.
Instead of getting lost in the debate of how much inside information McDaniels does or doesn’t have on the Broncos, we should be focusing on the addition of a football mind that Bill Belichick trusts. One who knows the Patriots offensive system inside and out and will provide valuable self-scouting information, while also having experience against five of the Patriots’ six remaining possible playoff opponents.