NFL Notebook: Josh McDaniels keeping low-profile since his change of heart

Taking a weekend trip around the NFL with a focus on the Patriots…


1. Josh McDaniels has been off the radar since he did an about-face on the Colts and decided to stay in New England, something he’s likely going to do throughout the offseason. One guy he apparently has talked to is former Patriot Willie McGinest, who told the NFL Network over the weekend that McDaniels told him there have been no assurances given that he will take over for Bill Belichick when Belichick decides to retire. “At some point Belichick may retire, but it’s not going to be in the contract and you’re not going to tell him when he’s going to retire,” McGinest said, who added that the primary motivation for McDaniels staying in New England was a stable environment. “He wanted stability,” McGinest said of McDaniels. “The best place for him, where he wanted to be, where he wanted to stay, was in New England.” (For what it’s worth, the day he was introduced in Detroit, former colleague Matt Patricia said he hadn’t talked with McDaniels about his decision to stay in New England.) Because I’ve gotten a few e-mails on the subject, it’s worth noting that the next time we’ll likely have a chance to talk to McDaniels about what happened figures to be during the availability with assistant coaches some time this spring.

2. One guy who is likely a little bummed about McDaniels not coming to Indy is Colts' quarterback Jacoby Brissett. According to reports, McDaniels was set to bring Jerry Schuplinski with him to Indy, a guy who played a role in Brissett's development in New England; in 2016, Schuplinski was one of the unsung heroes who helped get Brissett game-ready on the short week early in the year to beat Houston. Brissett and Schuplinski developed a positive working relationship in that time, and Belichick talked about Schuplinski in glowing terms later that same season. "Jerry's spent a lot of time with Jacoby," Belichick said. "Josh obviously spends a lot of time with all the quarterbacks, but again there's times where Tom or Jimmy was going to be the starting quarterback, sometimes the second quarterback -- whether that was Jimmy a couple of years ago or last year, or Jacoby this year -- is on a little bit different scale in terms of their preparation."

3. Interesting talk from Philadelphia offensive lineman Lane Johnson, who told “Pardon My Take” this week that the Super Bowl provided two teams who were a study in contrasts: The Eagles are all about fun, the Patriots are all about fear. “I just think that The Patriot Way is a fear-based organization,” Johnson said. “Obviously, do they win? Hell yes, they win. They’ve won for a long time. Do I think people enjoy and can say, ‘I had a lot of fun playing there’? No, I don’t. That’s just the God’s honest truth. They’re successful, but when they go to interviews, they act like (expletive) robots. Hey, stop being a (expletive) head. We can be cordial for a little bit. You only get to do this job one time, so let’s have fun while we’re doing it. Not to be reckless, but I’d much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls. But hey, it is what it is.”

4. NFL Films covers the league better than anyone, and in the last few years, when the Patriots have won the Super Bowl, their work has been dissected around here as part of the postgame party. While there wasn’t as much fun stuff for New England fans this time around, there were still a few in-game tidbits worth taking away. One came in the third quarter, when it sounded like Belichick was worried about being able to generate enough of a pass rush with just four. “We’re not getting enough rush out of our four-man rush, so I think, just, let it go, you know, and see if we can get some pressure on them, force a bad play,” Belichick can be seen telling Patricia on the sideline. Then, there was the concerted effort to get Rob Gronkowski more involved in the second half, a wrinkle that was spotted by Philadelphia safety Malcolm Jenkins. “They’re attacking the seams with (Gronkowski). That’s their second-half adjustment,” Jenkins told a coach.

5. According to the official NFL Game Statistics & Information System, in the 2017 regular-season, the Patriots most popular offensive combination featured one back, one tight end and three receivers. It was their usual offensive line (with Marcus Cannon at right tackle), along with Tom Brady, James White, Brandin Cooks, Chris Hogan, Danny Amendola and Gronkowski. The Patriots ran 91 plays out of that personnel combination, far and away their most popular grouping. (Their second simply substituted LaAdrian Waddle at right tackle for Cannon). It was predominantly a passing set, as they ran 74 pass plays out of that grouping and just 17 rushing plays, and averaged 7.21 yards per play. They had 38 first downs and four touchdowns out of that set. On the flip side of the ball, the Patriots’ most frequent defensive personnel pairing was a nickel package that had the following individuals on the field: Deatrich Wise, Trey Flowers, Adam Butler, Kyle Van Noy, Marquis Flowers, Jonathan Jones, Malcolm Butler, Stephon Gilmore, Patrick Chung, Duron Harmon and Devin McCourty. They were on the field together for 42 snaps — 36 pass plays and six run plays. In all, they yielded an average of 5.33 yards per play with that group, as well as 14 first downs and one touchdown. All the numbers have to be put in context, of course, but it is interesting to see the popular personnel combinations and their successes or failures.

6. The two-week franchise tag window starts next Tuesday the 20th, and while we’ll have more on it between now and then, here’s a history lesson on who the Patriots have used the tag on in the past and what happened to each player who was tagged by the team that year.

2002: Adam Vinatieri, contract extension
2003: Tebucky Jones, traded
2005: Adam Vinatieri, played it out and later departed as a free agent
2007: Asante Samuel, played it out and later departed as a free agent
2009: Matt Cassel, traded
2010: Vince Wilfork, contract extension
2011: Logan Mankins, contract extension
2012: Wes Welker, played it out and later departed as a free agent
2015: Stephen Gostkowski, contract extension

7. This year’s combine appears to be the usual star-studded affair, at least from an on-field standpoint: Alabama (14), Ohio State (11), Georgia (10) and LSU (10) are the four schools who will be best represented in Indy later this month. We’ve noted on several occasions that many pre-draft pundits have already ticketed Alabama linebacker Rashaan Evans to the Patriots at the end of the first round (although there’s some debate as to whether or not he’ll last that long), so he’s a guy worth keeping an eye on if you’re a New England fan. There’s also our obsessive 3-cone review of defensive backs and wide receivers — the one drill that seems to be a good indication as to whether or not the Pats might be interested in a boundary players. (We’ll be keeping a close eye on that as well.) Locally, three Boston College players: defensive end Harold Landry and cornerbacks Isaac Yiadom and Kamrin Moore all got an invite. Landry is considered by many to be a first- or second-round possibility, at least at this stage of the pre-draft process, while Yiadom had an excellent week at the Senior Bowl. Let’s also issue our annual reminder that an invite to the combine doesn’t make or break things for a prospect, particularly from a New England perspective: Julian Edelman, Welker and Sebastian Vollmer all didn’t get invited to Indy, and all have had lengthy and successful careers with the Patriots. And while we’ll write a lot about what's going on in Indy later this month, it's just as important to keep an eye on local Pro Days, as well as the workout schedule that develops throughout the spring. Here’s an early look at the growing Pro Day schedule:

Auburn: March 9
Washington: March 10
Virginia Tech: March 14
Penn State: March 20
Boston College: March 21
Stanford, Ohio State: March 22
Texas: March 28

8. The NFL’s Next Gen Stats are always fun to check out. A few quick Patriots-related notes from the playoffs:

a) Patrick Chung had the longest tackle of the postseason, a 77-yarder when he hauled down Philadelphia’s Corey Clement in the Super Bowl at the end of a 55-yard reception. Lamarcus Joyner of the Rams was second with a 58.4-yard tackle in the wild-card loss to the Falcons.

b) Brandon Graham’s game-changing sack of Brady in the Super Bowl took a remarkable 2.8 seconds. It was the third-fastest sack of the postseason, trailing Minnesota’s Everson Griffen in the divisional round and Philly’s Derek Barnett (both 2.47 seconds) in the NFC championship game. The fastest Patriots’ sack of the playoffs? That was Ricky Jean Francois, who had a 3.43-second sack of Marcus Mariota in the divisional win over the Titans.

c) The fastest Patriot of the postseason was White, who hit a top speed of 19.45 MPH on a 5-yard touchdown catch in the divisional round win over Tennessee. The second-fastest was receiver Phillip Dorsett, who was clocked at 18.51 MPH on a 31-yard catch against the Jaguars in the conference championship. And Hogan was third at 17.86 MPH — that came on his 43-yard catch in the Super Bowl. (For comparisons sake, the fastest guy in the playoffs was Pittsburgh receiver Martavis Bryant, who hit 20.99 MPH in the divisional round on a 36-yard touchdown catch.)

9. With retirements and suspensions and injuries over the last two years, many of those players who were considered ironman on the New England roster (Brady, White, Rob Ninkovich and Alan Branch) have seen their consecutive game streaks come to an end as of late. At the end of the 2017 regular season, defensive lineman Lawrence Guy (55 straight regular-season games played) and fullback James Develin (32 straight) are tops among position players. (Both are fourth at their position in terms of consecutive games played.) In addition, Gostkowski is fifth at his position with 112 straight starts.

10. One pre-draft name that was given to me by multiple people this week as a potential fit for the Patriots is Nathan Shepherd, a defensive tackle from Fort Hays State. An NFC scout said that Shepherd, a 6-foot-5, 300-pounder, had a good Senior Bowl performance, but broke his hand late in the week, which could throw some cold water on his draft stock,. (Not to mention some small-school bias that will inevitably work against him.) But he’s a relatively under-the-radar type who remains a mid-round possibility, at least at this point in the process. He’s grown throughout his formative years, which meant he’s gone from linebacker to defensive end and then, defensive tackle. Here’s a look at some of his highlights from 2016.



11. If you’re waiting on the sixth episode of Tom vs. Time on Facebook, you’re not alone. The segments were rolled out every few days when the project began, but we haven’t seen a new one since the morning of the Super Bowl. Director Gotham Chopra posted an update on Facebook explaining what happened.

"Everyone keeps asking me about Chapter 6 of 'Tom vs Time' and when it’s going to be ready," he wrote on Facebook Friday. "The truth is we had a plan, but unconsciously, it was tied to the Pats winning the Super Bowl and, when that didn’t happen (congrats, Eagles!), I felt like we needed to pause and recalibrate. While we have amazing stuff from the playoff run, Tom’s hand injury and the great comeback in the AFC Championship, once the Super Bowl played out, I started to wonder the relevance of all that other stuff and determined that we really needed one final exit interview with our guy before we could figure out what Chapter 6 was truly going to be about.

"This morning, we did that interview. It ran over an hour and we talked about a lot of things. I’m not gonna give anything away ... but for curious minds, Tom was both reflective and upbeat, very present and disappointed in last Sunday’s loss, while also gracious toward the Eagles for their impressive victory and already unpacking everything to find the lesson in it. As a fan, I can say I got some great closure and I hope Tom did too in just talking about it. I can tell he’s burning up still on the inside. But I am also reminded why the guy is the GOAT and it’s all gonna be OK.

"So, Chapter 6 — 'Coming Soon!'"

12. We’ll close with something that’s become a tradition: My father was a minister for a long time, having retired in 2009 after more than 40 years in the church. (I’ve written this before, but in this context, it bears repeating: I was always a little struck as to how similar our jobs were/are. We both have non-traditional vocations that don’t fit into the 9-to-5 stereotype. We both work weekends, and the week always built to the big payoff. Every so often, we would have to try and soothe people in occasional times of travail. And we both engaged with people of deep faith and spoke to those who would look forward to salvation every Sunday.) He always referred to the Sunday’s after Christmas and Easter as “low Sundays,” because of the emotional and spiritual comedown after the two biggest dates on the church calendar. With that in mind, I’d like to refer to the Sunday after the Super Bowl as the official “low Sunday” of the NFL, a chance to take a breath after the crazy buildup through the postseason and into the Super Bowl. It’s time to rest, re-charge and be ready for when the whole carousel gets cranked up again.