CLEVELAND — Who will be the next head coach of the Cleveland Browns?
As the team’s search committee -- comprised of owner Jimmy Haslam, chief strategy officer Paul DePodesta and executives JW Johnson and Chris Cooper -- continue to search for the answer to that question, speculation is swirling about the future of one of the candidates.
Andy Gresh of CBS Sports Radio/WPRO in Providence, Rhode Island joined “The Ken Carman Show with Anthony Lima” on Cleveland’s 92.3 The Fan Tuesday morning and he did not paint a bright picture as to McDaniels returning to his Northeast Ohio roots and taking over the Browns.
“Zero,” Gresh said when asked what the chances were of McDaniels coaching the Browns. “When you just look at the jobs that are open, look at Carolina for example, you’re motivated because there’s a new owner who’s probably ready to give you the store. You’ve got the seventh pick, you’ve got $60 million in cap space and you can get rid of Cam Newton. There’s that piece to it in terms of the other jobs to compare it to.”
According to Gresh, “there is the whole Belichick piece to this,” and he is not confident that the legendary Patriots coach will have a glowing recommendation of the Browns.
“A lot of these guys who coach under Belichick, he’s kind of like Yoda to a lot of them,” Gresh said. “Would Bill Belichick put the stamp of approval on the ownership in Cleveland? He didn’t like the ownership of the Jets. The one thing he has told his assistants is, ‘Make sure you have good ownership.’”
McDaniels has previous head coaching experience in the NFL, as he posted an 11-17 record before being dismissed with four games remaining in the 2010 season. McDaniels had an 8-8 mark with a second-place finish in the AFC West Division in 2009.
McDaniels got his start in coaching with a graduate assistantship at Michigan State University in 1999, McDaniels joined the Patriots as a personnel assistant (2001) and moved on to defensive assistant (2002-2003) before being elevated to quarterbacks coach in 2004.
Ahead of the 2005 season, McDaniels was named offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Patriots, a position he held for four years before becoming Denver’s head coach.
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Following his dismissal in Denver, McDaniels became the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the St. Louis Rams in 2011 before returning to the Patriots in 2012. McDaniels has remained the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Patriots for the last eight years.
During his time with the Patriots, McDaniels has been a part of five Super Bowl-winning teams.
“He’s only coordinated four offenses that have gone on and won Super Bowls, so if everyone wants to erase what’s gone on in the past and look at what this guy has been able to do and say, ‘Well, he’s the same guy he was in Denver 10 years ago,’ then I think somebody is going to miss out on an offensive mind,” Gresh said.
“He knows offense. This guy can coach offense. Yes, he’s had Tom Brady, and that’s a hell of a luxury to have, no doubt, but the question, to me, is ‘How much power do you want to give him?’ and ‘Do you allow him to go out and get a quarterback that runs the offense he likes to run?’”