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Josh McDaniels

PatsProp Preview – West Coast Trip Pt 2

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Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

At 7-6, the Patriots are still in the picture for the final wildcard playoff slot in the AFC. Tomorrow brings the second and final game of their West Coast tour, facing off against a former friend, Josh McDaniels and the 5-8 Vegas Raiders. Here’s your snapshot preview for Week 15!

Injuries

Update-

Damien Harris – OUT
Isaiah Wynn – OUT/Placed on IR ending his season
Christian Barmore – Activated from IR

Patriots To Watch

Mac Jones

My focus remains on Mac again this week, and I just hope he can help the team to a win to keep the playoff hopes alive. I don’t need ridiculous numbers from him, just please have a clean game and don’t make any mistakes. Also, try and get along a bit more with Matty P if possible, or at least don’t tell him to shove it during the game.

Jakobi Meyers

The Pats have really missed Meyers since he left the Bills game with a concussion, he’s expected to be back tomorrow (questionable) and with that it also brings back Mac’s safety blanket. The Patriots offense has looked pretty shoddy all season, but at least with Meyers in the mix you feel good about a drive not always stalling in the Pats’ own territory.

Rhamondre Stevenson

Stevenson should be good to go tomorrow evening (questionable) after he left the Cardinals game early on Monday night with an ankle injury. With no Damien Harris again, expect the rookie duo of Kevin Harris and Pierre Strong to be Stevenson’s backup unit in what could be a shared three-pronged attack. Stevenson will be a key outlet for Mac once again.

Christian Barmore

This is good news for the Pats who at one point may have been worried about Barmore returning at all this season. He does, and will slot straight back in tomorrow to provide a big upgrade on the interior of the defensive line. He’ll be a fun watch.

Lucky Raiders?

DeVante Adams

Amidst all of the Raiders’ struggles, Adams has been as good as ever, currently sat on 82 receptions, 1,247 receiving yards, 12 touchdowns. He’s nothing less than a game-changer, and the Pats secondary is going to have their work cut out trying to shut him down.

Josh Jacobs

With the Patriots getting reinforcements back on the defensive front, neutralising Jacobs should be achievable. Jacobs continues his solid campaign as their star rusher and he can’t be allowed to get comfortable tomorrow, especially with Adams on the outside offering that deadly pass-catching threat.

Darren Waller

The Raiders get Waller back after missing him since Week 5 with a hamstring injury. Waller has been on decline over the last few seasons, dealing with ailments as he tries to find the sort of form the league saw from him in 2020. Even with some rustiness to shake off, the Pats will need to be very aware of the threat the big, athletic tight end brings.

Maxx Crosby

Crosby is a very dangerous customer on the Vegas defensive line, he’s currently sat at 11.5 sacks on the year (career high) and can really disrupt a promising drive all by himself. With the Pats’ O-Line struggles still lingering, Crosby could be in for a busy afternoon getting after Mac Jones.

Raiders to hire Josh McDaniels as their next Head Coach

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Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

As reported by Adam Schefter, the Las Vegas Raiders are finalizing a deal to make Josh McDaniels their next head coach, following on from the news earlier today that they’d hired now-former de facto Patriots GM Dave Ziegler.

This move will end McDaniels’ second stint with the team, having re-joined as the offensive coordinator in 2012. He also leaves his additional role as quarterbacks coach, which he took over following the exit of Jedd Fisch. Josh takes over his second Head Coaching role, with a current record of 11-17, and will inherit a much different Raiders roster than he did whilst in Denver.

It was interesting to see if he would stick around New England and apply for the top role after Bill retires, but, with no clear sight of when that could be, Josh decides to move West in hope of new success.

Who Will Replace Him?

Bill O’Brien remains the favorite in my mind to take over the OC role, but I’m sure we will hear plenty of unknowns from around the NFL and College world in the next week or so.

Las Vegas make approach for Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler

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Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Well, it looks like some unexpected change could be on the horizon for the Pats front office and senior coaching departments. Just now, news broke that the Las Vegas Raiders have put in a request to interview Josh McDaniels for their vacant Head Coach position, having already interviewed current de facto GM Dave Ziegler for their top front-office role.

This would be a huge loss for the Patriots, who will now have to plan for the possibility of losing two key staff members, especially McDaniels, given the role he’s played through Mac Jones’ rookie year.

Who Could Replace Them?

The obvious choice to replace Ziegler would be Eliot Wolf who is currently a front office consultant for the Patriots, he has experience as Director Of Football Operations with the Packers, and as an assistant GM for the Browns.

McDaniels exit won’t leave easy shoes to fill, he’s been the manager of the Brady-now Mac offense for years, my first thought would be Bill O’Brien. If he would be interested in dipping his toes back in the league, he was the Pats OC in 2011, and holds that current position for Alabama, having been fired as the Texans Head Coach in 2020.

We should know if we’ll need to look for a new Offensive Coordinator by tomorrow night.

Film Review: Deep Dive on Gronk, Brady, Edelman vs Vikings

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I was a little surprised to find this week that Rob Gronkowski, Tom Brady and Julian Edelman were catching a bunch of criticism after Sunday’s win over the Vikings. Admittedly I’m a bit more of a defense guy. When the offense is on the field, it’s my time to relax and not get overly caught up in minutiae, at least on the initial live watch.

So when I saw Gronk’s game being labeled as one of the worst of his career I was scratching my head a bit. I remember him getting stopped short on third down which seemed weird and I remember the penalties, of which I wasn’t wasn’t entirely sure how good or bad they were. Edelman and Brady both had some similar moments but nothing that gave me much initial concern. The results overall were good and if anything, I felt like this looked like the Patriots offense we know and love — the scalpel — and this was the first time in a while it felt like they were playing to their strengths.

Maybe part of that was getting Rex Burkhead back and having three running backs for the first time all season. Or maybe it was just everything gelling like it usually does around this time of year.

This made an offensive film dive critical. Yesterday I banged through the defense’s film, which I loved, and today, I jumped into the other side of the ball.

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McDaniels is Staying with Patriots

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The Patriots have done the seemingly impossible by only increasing and adding to the drama and intrigue since losing Super Bowl 52. Josh McDaniels spurned the Colts after a long sit-down with Robert and Jonathan Kraft and Bill Belichick and will remain with the team.

Belichick is still locked for 2018 according to Mike Reiss, but it would appear McDaniels is now the successor-in-waiting, even if no assurances were made.

Given how the Super Bowl unfolded I think pretty much everyone can agree it was on defense where the changes were most needed. McDaniels and Brady have a special relationship as we saw in Tom vs. Time — keeping that intact for the rest of Brady’s career will ensure they squeeze every last bit out of the quarterback.

Brady and McDaniels can just keep on trucking, welcoming back Julian Edelman and Malcom Mitchell to an already-deep group.

The questions for them start at tackle and running back. I would bet a two-year deal like they did with Matt Light in 2011 makes sense with Solder. Then it’s a coin toss with either Dion Lewis or Rex Burkhead. Keep one, add in mid/low-level free agency and draft. It will be interesting to see how they evolve.

After almost losing everyone but Belichick, getting back McDaniels and all the coaches he was taking with him (ST Joe Judge, QB Jerry Shuplinski) is a welcome relief. I don’t know what exactly it means for Belichick, whether he plans on transitioning to more of a general manager role or just peacing out, but it appears McDaniels will be the next head coach, maybe as soon as 2019.

Film Review: Patriots vs. Saints Offense Edition

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Finishing off the film reviews of the Saints game with this quick-hit look at the offense. This looked like the Patriots offense we’re used to. Keep the chains moving, sprinkle in some trickeration and big plays, and win the short yardage situations with their power back. Despite the absences of Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola, the Patriots offense looked pretty much like we’ve come to expect.

As always, watching the All-22 really gives you a better sense of how teams defended the Patriots, but also allows you to take a closer look at things that were missed on initial glance. One big thing that stuck out to me is that I don’t think Tom Brady, Brandin Cooks and Josh McDaniels are quite on the same page yet. And I also think that Nate Solder isn’t quite playing the best football of his career.

More on those and everything else in the quick-hit Film Review…

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10 Posits on Do Your Job II

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I don’t know about you guys but I pretty much live for specials like NFL Films’ Do Your Job II which premiered last night on NBC. It was one of the rare glimpses behind the Patriots curtain, with rare insight into what went on behind the scenes of last year’s playoff run.

DYJ2 now joins Do Your Job 1 and Bill Belichick’s A Football Life as some of the only true peeks as to what goes on behind the scenes in Foxboro. This is the kind of stuff that I think about constantly when I’m writing this blog — football strategy… what sets the Patriots apart from the rest of the league that has been trying, and failing, to catch them for the past decade-and-a-half-plus.

Well there was plenty of that, and this special was once again filled with sights and sounds to delight all Patriots fans who wonder what makes the Patriots so good.

The fact that we’re now just a few days away from the Patriots season kickoff (and I think I just got a ticket to the game) has me ready to EXPLODE with football fandom. Let’s take a look at 10 things that stuck out to me from DYJ2.

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