On Saturday, New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels interviewed with the San Francisco 49ers for their head coach opening. He also met with the Los Angeles Rams and Jacksonville Jaguars during an 11-hour span dedicated by New England toward interviews.
"It's humbling," McDaniels said via the Boston Herald. "It's a privilege to have an opportunity to do any of those things. I feel very fortunate to have an opportunity to sit in front of those people, that they would listen to me and spend time with me. Just got to do the best you can to represent yourself, your team, your organization that you come from, your family as best you can, and all the rest of it will play out how it's supposed to play out."
On Friday, Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle reported that the 49ers were McDaniels' preferred team. Today, Ben Volin of the Boston Globe believes that, of the available options, the 49ers may be the best fit for McDaniels. He joined KNBR this morning to explain why.
"I just think it kind of makes a lot of sense for both parties," Volin said. "The 49ers are looking for a dynamic, young, offensive-minded coach that teams like and you don't get too many better candidates than Josh McDaniels who is only 40 years old, has head coaching experience on his resume. I know it didn't go well in Denver but a lot of times, these coaches, they make their mistakes the first time around and they kind of learn from them the second time around. Bill Belichick did that with the Browns and the Patriots.
"And from Josh's perspective, the 49ers are still and iconic franchise. They are far away from the Patriots in the other conference on the West Coast so he wouldn't be an impedance to the Patriots and assuming that Jed York would commit to a rebuild and not panic and fire him after a 4-12 season, then it's a blank canvas roster, they're going to have a ton of cap space, they have the number two draft pick, and Josh could potentially try to trade for Jimmy Garoppolo and bring him with McDaniels to San Francisco.
"Josh is ready to jump back into the head coaching game and of all the opportunities right now, I think the 49ers are the best fit assuming that Jed York can kind of get his act together there."
Volin went on to say that McDaniels has been very upfront about his mistakes in Denver and that he knows that he was not yet mature enough for the head coach job with the Broncos. He was trying too hard to be Bill Belichick Jr. Many within the organization did not appreciate his approach, which Volin compared to that of a dictator.
"He says he's worked really hard on being a better family person, caring more about his players, giving people time away from the team to do their family and personal things," said Volin.
Volin gave a timeframe of about four years for McDaniels to turn the 49ers around – assuming that York can be patient.
As far as Nick Caserio turning down the opportunity to interview with the 49ers, Volin explained that the Patriots' director of player personnel already has a great situation in New England. He has a lot of power and "basically is the general manager in New England already." Belichick has final say, but Caserio is his right-hand man. "I just think Nick Caserio has everything he could want in New England right now," Volin said. "He's certainly in line to take over when Belichick steps down – whenever that is."
You can listen to the entire interview on KNBR.
