Hey, I may just be reading tea leaves here, but the way Mike Vrabel answered a question about whether he is considering Josh McDaniels as his offensive coordinator just seems hilarious to me.
The new Patriots head coach had his introductory press conference this week. One of the questions was about how former Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski suggested Vrabel’s first call should be to Josh McDaniels to fill the offensive coordinator position.
At first he gave a stock answer filled with those great coach speak cliches.
“Um, yeah – I’m gonna look at every possible candidate that I feel like can help us,” said Vrabel.
The reporter pressed him further, asking if McDaninels is “on the list” and this is where it got funny.
“Yeah,” Vrabel responded. “It’s a long list. There’s a long list, and, you know – I’ve had a relationship with Josh, and I’ve had relationships with other offensive coaches and defensive coaches that we’re going to interview and wanna bring in here.”
It just seems hilarious to me that the only way he could say McDaniels was on the list is to add that it’s a LONG list. As if to say, he’d have to work his way down that list to get to McDaniels’ name.
Most coaches this might not be the interpretation here, but McDaniels is not known for being well liked. Despite the Patriots success with him as OC (and their success without him as OC), he burned through two head coaching stints with the Broncos and Raiders without making it through his second season with either team.
When he was fired by the Raiders, the players literally had a cigar party.
I hope to Vrabel’s sakc he does have a long list of names ahead of McDaniels and one of them accepts before he has to make that call.
