When you've had the luxury of having Tom Brady as your quarterback for most of your coaching career, you can't help but look good. Take the future hall of famer away, and suddenly you look look pretty pedestrian. Some might go so far as to say, "you suck".
So does Josh McDaniels suck without Tom Brady? I'm all in on the take that he does. The five seasons McDaniels has coached without Brady under center haven't been successful. While he gets a lot of credit for 2008, that really wasn't very impressive.
2008 MATT CASSEL- After Tom Brady went down in the season opener, the Patriots just missed the playoffs with an 11-5 record. Surely this was because McDaniels did such a great job coaching Cassel and having an incredible game plan. Unfortunately, that isn't true.
The 2008 Patriots were completely loaded and managed to stay pretty healthy outside of that pesky Brady knee injury.
With that lineup Cassel went 327/516 for 3,693 yards with 21 TD passes, 11 interceptions, and 2 rushing touchdowns. With almost the same lineup the year before Brady went 398/578 for 4,806 yards with 50 TD passes, 8 interceptions, and 2 rushing touchdowns. I'd venture out to say that anyone who has ever had the opportunity to play quarterback in the NFL would have had some pretty decent success with that lineup. Additionally, the fact that Cassel had 27 TD passes and only 7 interceptions 2 years later when playing for the Chiefs, shows that Cassel had success playing for someone else.
The 2008 Patriots were completely loaded and managed to stay pretty healthy outside of that pesky Brady knee injury.
- Randy Moss (16 games)- 69 receptions 1,008 yards 11 TD
- Wes Welker (14 games)- 111 receptions 1,165 yards 3 TD
- Ben Watson (14 games)- 22 receptions 209 yards 2 TD
- Jabar Gaffney (16 games)- 38 recemptions 468 yards 2 TD
- Sammy Morris (13 games)- 156 attempts 727 yards 7 TD 17 receptions 161 yards
- Kevin Faulk (15 games)- 83 attempts 507 yards 3 TD 58 receptions 486 yards 3 TD
- BenJarvus Green Ellis (rookie 9 games)- 74 attempts 275 yards 5 TD 3 receptions 37 yards
- Laurence Maroney (3 games- injured)- 28 attempts 93 yards
- Matt Light (16 games)
- Logan Mankins (16 games)
- Dan Koppen (16 games)
- Stephen Neal (9 games)
- Nick Kaczur (14 games)
With that lineup Cassel went 327/516 for 3,693 yards with 21 TD passes, 11 interceptions, and 2 rushing touchdowns. With almost the same lineup the year before Brady went 398/578 for 4,806 yards with 50 TD passes, 8 interceptions, and 2 rushing touchdowns. I'd venture out to say that anyone who has ever had the opportunity to play quarterback in the NFL would have had some pretty decent success with that lineup. Additionally, the fact that Cassel had 27 TD passes and only 7 interceptions 2 years later when playing for the Chiefs, shows that Cassel had success playing for someone else.
DENVER BRONCOS- McDaniels didn't even make it through half of his 4-year $8 million deal with the Broncos before getting canned. Still calling plays from the head coaching position, Josh ran off the starting quarterback, made several bad personnel moves, and got busted for videotaping walkthroughs. His offenses during those 2 seasons ranked 18th and 29th in points scored.
ST. LOUIS RAMS- Back to being an offensive coordinator, Josh took a dome team from being a middle of the pack (19th) ranked offensive scoring team down to the 32nd spot. His 3 starting quarterbacks combined for 9 touchdown passes, 10 interceptions, and 55 sacks. While he did play most of the season with a high ankle sprain, Sam Bradford did have his worst statistical season playing for McDaniels.
2020 PATRIOTS- Yes, the 2020 season was not what we had hoped for. Nevertheless, I think we could have had a better season if Josh called better games. Early losses were a reflection of him asking Cam to do things that really aren't part of his makeup. Although Cam said Josh did a good job calling games, anyone who watched could see that McDaniels did a crappy job overall. Once the team started to look good offensively, Josh would come out making dumb 1st and 10 calls to put them in 2nd and long situations.
2020 TOM BRADY- While it has had its moments, Brady's 2020 season has been better than McDaniels'. Going from being almost 100% in charge of the offense to having to listen to critiques from the "gambling man" Bruce Arians and relying on play calling from Byron Leftwich has to be rough. Instead of using his bread and butter play action, the deep ball is what he's being asked to do regularly. Regardless, he's still sitting at 9-5 and likely to be in the playoff as usual.
ST. LOUIS RAMS- Back to being an offensive coordinator, Josh took a dome team from being a middle of the pack (19th) ranked offensive scoring team down to the 32nd spot. His 3 starting quarterbacks combined for 9 touchdown passes, 10 interceptions, and 55 sacks. While he did play most of the season with a high ankle sprain, Sam Bradford did have his worst statistical season playing for McDaniels.
2020 PATRIOTS- Yes, the 2020 season was not what we had hoped for. Nevertheless, I think we could have had a better season if Josh called better games. Early losses were a reflection of him asking Cam to do things that really aren't part of his makeup. Although Cam said Josh did a good job calling games, anyone who watched could see that McDaniels did a crappy job overall. Once the team started to look good offensively, Josh would come out making dumb 1st and 10 calls to put them in 2nd and long situations.
2020 TOM BRADY- While it has had its moments, Brady's 2020 season has been better than McDaniels'. Going from being almost 100% in charge of the offense to having to listen to critiques from the "gambling man" Bruce Arians and relying on play calling from Byron Leftwich has to be rough. Instead of using his bread and butter play action, the deep ball is what he's being asked to do regularly. Regardless, he's still sitting at 9-5 and likely to be in the playoff as usual.
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