Believe it or not, a journey to Foxborough can provide one with a clean slate.
Just ask Josh McDaniels. After completing his first year spent out of the NFL since 2000, the coach is back in New England as offensive coordinator, a spot where he built his reputation as the mind behind highly productive Patriots offenses of past eras.
This is not the same team that won six Super Bowls, but the Pats do believe they have their next franchise quarterback and are hoping the same coach who once worked seamlessly with Tom Brady can have the same effect on Drake Maye.
McDaniels has reason to be encouraged. He's feeling refreshed after a year off following his mid-season firing as Raiders head coach in 2023, and he has had time to learn from his past experiences.
"Yeah, I think it was something you don't ever think about doing, but I would say it's a blessing to have the time to go back and look at what you've been through in terms of the changes and different highs, lows," McDaniels told reporters on Thursday. "You look back at the past in terms of what we've done schematically and what the league is doing now strategically. I had a really good opportunity last year to watch football without a lot of deadlines, which was a new, interesting opportunity for me and just see different things that were coming up throughout the course of the league.
"There's younger quarterbacks that are playing a little earlier than maybe they were 10, 12, 15 years ago. There's different things that people are using and doing schematically that are having a lot of success. There's some trends like there always are that are kind of, I'd say, in vogue now. Whether they stay in vogue for long, I don't know, but it was just a really healthy opportunity for me to go back and look at what I've done, what I've been a part of, and then what else is going on in the league right now that I need to get better at, that I need to start thinking about incorporating.
"I know I'll be a different person in terms of going forward because of the experiences that I've had an opportunity to see."
Maye will be atop the list of priorities for McDaniels, who said he is "smitten by the young man in terms of his personality." The quarterback's development will be paramount to the team's long-term plans and McDaniels will have a direct effect on it. But he also needs to organize, direct and improve the rest of the offense, a group that struggled to protect Maye and generate explosive plays throughout the 2024 season.
With a potential franchise quarterback on the roster, the offensive line's performance falls under a microscope. Unsurprisingly, McDaniels was asked about the unit on Thursday.
"I always start each year with a fresh perspective. I wasn't here last year, and I know every player on our team is going to get a fresh start," McDaniels said. "We're going to give everybody our best, and our job is to take the guys that we have on our offense and make them better. I think that's a huge part of an assistant coach's job is to develop the players that you have.
"I know our staff is excited to start doing that next week, and we'll get to know them more as we go, but I'm confident in the guys we have working right now offensively on our staff that are preparing to teach these guys the things we want to do. Then it's a process. We'll get to know them more as we go, but we're excited. I've met most of them and looking forward to meeting the rest of them."
McDaniels made similar comments in regards to the receiving corps, a unit that lacked a legitimate top target and was disappointed by rookie receiver Ja'Lynn Polk in his first season, but has since welcomed two veterans in Stefon Diggs and Mack Hollins into the fold.
"I'm excited about all those guys," McDaniels said. "Everybody's got a clean slate, and to me, that's going to be an important message that I know Coach is going to give on Monday, and we're going to echo that. It's best to really refrain from making assessments on people until you really have them in your room, until you get to know them, until you coach them, until you put them on the field. You're running drills and running things offensively, and then you have an opportunity to correct things, see if they can fix it, make the corrections and get better.
"So, we have some young players that certainly have a lot of ability, and we have some guys that have some experience, some of which I have a little experience with. KB [Kendrick Bourne], Mack [Hollins], some of those guys. I'm starting to get to know some of these other guys that are trickling in here now, and I'm super excited to work with all of them, I really am."
It seems as if McDaniels is simply happy to be back in football and eager to get to work. Time off can have that effect on any employee, and the Patriots are hoping they get the best version of McDaniels yet.
With clean slates across the board, optimism reigns. We'll see if it holds long enough for the holiday season to arrive.
