Coaching Carousel Spins Off Axis

The deals had been in place for week. The New England Patriots were going to lose defensive coordinator Matt Patricia to the Detroit Lions as head coach and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels to the Indianapolis Colts.

Patricia is gone; McDaniels never quite made it out the door.

After the Colts announced on Tuesday they would be introducing McDaniels today as the replacement for the fired Chuck Pagano, McDaniels changed his mind. Not going. Staying put. He had never signed a contract with the Colts and would not.

We’ve seen this before in the NFL. Bill Parcells stiffed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dave McGinnis turned down the Chicago Bears just after they announced his hiring. But here, a staff was being assembled. Three coaches joined the Colts to work with McDaniels and now have no boss – the one they will eventually report to will not have been the one to hire them.

Channeling its inner Al Michaels, your Friendly Neighborhood Blog (FNB) will say it is easier to extract a wisdom tooth than wisdom or truth from the Patriots. They’re not likely to say whether McDaniels now becomes the in-house successor to Bill Belichick, by how much McDaniels’ contract was sweetened of when they knew McDaniels was staying.

McDaniels previously flopped as the Denver Broncos coach, showing a heavy-handedness that ill befit his newbie status. He picked a fight with quarterback Jay Cutler and traded him, made a deal to draft Tim Tebow in the first round and was gone in less than two seasons with an 11-17 record. He has surely convinced people around the league (other than in New England) that they should be wary if approaching him about a job.

Various reports had indicated McDaniels was wavering over the last week and the uncertain status of Colts quarterback Andrew Luck (shoulder) couldn’t have helped. And so McDaniels remains the offensive coordinator of the Patriots and the Colts are looking at a second choice as head coach.

Surely the Colts will actually sign their next coach before announcing who he is.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman