Earlier today the Broncos made one of the worst managerial decisions of 2010. They fired head coach Josh McDaniels after going 3-9 in his second season at the helm. This means that they are now paying Mike Shanahan, McDaniels and whoever the hire for 2011. Must be nice to have that kind of money. Perhaps in the coming weeks we will learn more about Spygate 2.0 and whether or not that played a factor in his ultimate dismissal. I tend to think this was more about wins and losses than some sort of film scandal, but the reality is McDaniels is a free agent, and their should be a number of teams lining up for his services.
McDaniels is an offensive coach by trade. The Denver Broncos have the 11th ranked offence in the NFL at this point. This is an offence that is run by Kyle Orton, Brandon Lloyd and Knowshon Moreno. That is the same Kyle Orton that was mediocre at best in Chicago, and has played better every week since he was paired with McDaniels. He has a QB rating of 93 so far this season and is 4th in total yards passing. Brandon Lloyd is leading the league in yards receiving with 1,153. That is the same Brandon Lloyd that had 2,370 yards receiving combined in his last 7 years in the league. Knowshon Moreno has been coming on lately and is starting to live up to his billing. McDaniels drafted him in the 1st round.
I was actually in the Cutler camp the day I heard about McDaniels' decision to trade him. I thought Josh was over confident for a young coach and maybe cut his nose off to spite his face. I have since come around and truly believe he should be the most courted coach that isn't currently employed by an NFL club. Don't forget he was calling the plays when Tom Brady and Randy Moss shattered the single season records enroute to a 16-0 regular season. Even if you hate his personality, you can't argue that he gets production out of guys that are short on talent (Brady and Moss excluded). As an offensive coordinator he won't have the same influence on the personality of the team, but will provide a boost to production.
Off the top of my head, teams like San Fran, Cincinnati and Dallas all seem like interesting spots. The Niners have underachieved on offence for the last few years and if they plan on drafting a quarterback, McDaniels might be a perfect mentor. Carson Palmer could use someone to provide some direction with that offence and if the combination of two bright young offensive minds in Jason Garrett and McDaniels doesn't scare you, how 'bout when you put them in charge of Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, Miles Austin, Jason Witten, Roy Williams and Felix Jones. The hurdle their would be that they are both OC's and may not want to co-run the offence.
Eric Mangini, Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis all had varying amounts of success as head coaches, but they are damn good co-ordinators at the very least. McDaniels will be no different.
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