SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — When it comes to being an offensive coordinator in the NFL, few coaches have fared better than New England's Josh McDaniels.
As a head coach, it's been a completely different story.
The six-time Super Bowl champion is back in the title game after taking a one-year break from coaching following his second firing as a head coach with no thoughts now on whether he will ever get a third chance.
“Every day’s one day at a time for me now,” McDaniels said this week. "I think I’m where I’m supposed to be. I’m incredibly happy to be here and doing what I’m doing. I love my job. I love the role that I have. I love the group that I’m with. So whatever that plan is down the road, we’ll figure that out. But I couldn’t be more happy with where I’m at.”
Being at the Super Bowl as a Patriots assistant is familiar territory for McDaniels as he prepares second-year quarterback Drake Maye and the offense for Sunday's matchup against the Seattle Seahawks' stellar defense.
McDaniels' work with Maye helped him win the NFL AP Assistant Coach of the Year award that was announced on Thursday night at “NFL Honors.”
Ever since starting in the NFL as a low-level assistant with Bill Belichick's Patriots in the 2001 season, McDaniels has been a frequent participant in the Super Bowl with this year's game being his 10th of his career.
New England won it all his first season, went back-to-back in the 2003-04 seasons with McDaniels as a defensive assistant and quarterbacks coach and he then forged a career as one of the top coordinators in the NFL starting in 2006.
He coordinated a record-setting offense in 2007 led by Tom Brady and Randy Moss and was the coordinator for three more Super Bowl winners in the 2010s.
McDaniels has coordinated an offense that finished in the top 10 in scoring 13 times in 15 seasons with this season the fourth time he has been in the top two.
“I think he’s so great at preparing me during the week for those little things that come up during the games, and also at the same time of explaining why, ‘Hey, we’re doing this because of what they do, or we’re doing this because I think we can take advantage of how they do this,'" Maye said. “He’s great at coaching my position, and he’s one of the best in the business, and just thankful every day to work with him.”
McDaniels' time as a head coach hasn't been nearly as successful. He was hired for his first stint in 2009 by the Denver Broncos and got off to a 6-0 start that included a win over Belichick and the Patriots. Denver finished 8-8 that season and McDaniels was fired with a 3-9 record in 2010, losing 17 of his final 22 games as coach.
McDaniels was also fined $50,000 by the NFL for not reporting that the team’s director of video operations videotaped a San Francisco 49ers walk-through practice before the teams played a game in 2010 in London. The investigation determined that McDaniels did not know about the taping in advance and declined to view it, but he was punished for not immediately reporting the infraction to the league.
McDaniels nearly got another shot at being a head coach after the 2017 season but pulled out at the last minute after agreeing to take over the Indianapolis Colts.
McDaniels then did get his second chance after helping rookie Mac Jones reach the playoffs in 2021 with New England when the Las Vegas Raiders hired him in 2022. But once again he didn't last two full seasons, getting fired midway through the 2023 campaign with a 9-16 record.
“There’s so many things you learn in this league when you have that opportunity,” McDaniels said. “It’d be hard to boil it down to one or two things. Winning in this league is a culmination of a lot of things and certainly when you don’t win enough, we’re accountable for that. So that’s the bottom line when you’re a head coach in a National Football League. You’re responsible to provide a winning formula and so I’m happy to be part of one now.”
Despite those failures, McDaniels is still widely respected for his work as a coordinator that some around the game believe he could still warrant a third chance at a head coach job.
“I think he’s brilliant," NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth said. "Honestly, if I had a football team, and I know it hasn’t always worked out, he would be one of my lead candidates to be a head coach again. I know that will sound outrageous to some. It doesn’t to me.”
McDaniels spent his sabbatical year in 2024 touring NFL and college practices, spending time with coaches such as Andy Reid, Sean McDermott and DeMeco Ryans in the NFL, as well as college coaches such as Ryan Day, Bill O'Brien and Lincoln Riley.
McDaniels said he took a lot from each stop, ranging from play calls to how to structure practice.
“There’s other ways to do things,” he said. “You always know that when you’re coaching in one place for quite a while. But the National Football League is so tight-lipped about everything. We don’t get to go and see other people practice much. ... It was really an opportunity for me to learn from some of the best guys in college and pro football and try to implement them into our process whenever I came back to coaching and had no idea where it would be. But just was incredibly blessed that I had an opportunity.”
AP Pro Football Writer Arnie Stapleton in Denver contributed.
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New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye, left, signals after a field goal while standing with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels during an NFL football availability, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Foxborough, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
