I was amazed that McDaniels got another chance at head coaching after his unsuccessful Denver stint. It also kinda baffles me when people don't see what seems obvious to me: McDaniels is not a good head coach. Like, he should never get another NFL head coaching job. But he probably will. And he'll probably fail again.
I’m not surprised McDaniels got another shot. It had been over a decade and he had continued success as a coordinator in the intermediary period — it was rational to suspect he might be more prepared for his second head coaching job than his first. Didn’t work out that way, but also 1.5 years is about the mean stint with the Raiders over the past 20 years.
I think part of the problem with the Patriots coaching tree is that Belichek has made a lot of enemies around the league, and his assistants walk into a lot of hostile situations. I’m a Denver fan, and McDaniels had no chance there — the fans hated the hire, and there were a lot of people in the organization who had continued loyalty to Shanahan. It’s a cutthroat business, and the knives were out for McDaniels from Day 1 because of his Patriots affiliation. Not sure what happened in Vegas, but the owner there has zero patience, so that didn’t help.
