Raiders coaching rumors: Patriots OC Josh McDaniels emerging as top candidate for vacancy

Josh McDaniels could be heading back out west, this time as head coach of the Raiders.

Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported Thursday that McDaniels had interviewed for the coaching vacancy in Las Vegas and said that both have each other currently as “the target” for one another. He reported that while there are still boxes to be checked, the expectation is that McDaniels will be the head coach of the Raiders.

Florio reported that the move would also likely mean that Patriots director of player personnel Dave Ziegler would become the Raiders’ general manager.

This would be McDaniels’ second trip out west as a head coach. Between stints as offensive coordinator for the Patriots, he led the Broncos in 2009 and 2010. Denver went 8-8 in his first year and 3-9 to start his second season. He was involved in a videotaping scandal when the team’s director of video operations filmed a 49ers practice, and while an investigation concluded McDaniels did not know about the incident, he was fined for not reporting it to the NFL after he learned about the video.

McDaniels was the offensive coordinator in St. Louis in 2011 before returning to the Patriots, where he had been offensive coordinator from 2006 to 2008, and has held down the OC role in New England since 2012.

Under McDaniels, the Patriots have had a below-average offense in terms of scoring and total yardage only once in his 13 years in New England, which came in 2020 when the team was in transition between quarterbacks.

McDaniels’ name emerges seemingly every year as a head coach candidate, and he nearly took a job four years ago. In 2018, he was announced as the next head coach of the Colts and a press conference had been scheduled to present his hiring, but he backed out of the deal and returned to New England.

Florio noted the Colts’ situation as a reason to not say a deal is all but certain to be finished. 

Alabama offensive coordinator and former Texans head coach Bill O’Brien is a strong candidate to replace McDaniels if he leaves for the Raiders, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported. 

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