NFL Notebook: While Patriots continue to suffer brain drain, McDaniels' early Raiders staff impressive

Humor me for a second. Let's go with a blind taste test, Coke/Pepsi style.

I'm going to give you the current coaching and personnel situations for two head coaches:

HEAD COACH A

• Known as an offensive genius who, with a rookie QB and four new weapons on offense, coordinated the No. 6 offense in points, 9th in first downs and 7th in net yards per pass attempt in 2021. He'll be in charge of the offense. It's his scheme that he has tailored for two decades. 
• Was able to lure his defensive coordinator from the Giants, who just this week spoke about their belief that he would be back and how important that was. The DC already knows the scheme HC-A wants to run, how to gameplan in a similar fashion, and they speak the same language. A rising coaching star out of Yale, the DC has interviewed for head coaching jobs and has coordinated NFL defenses the previous three years.
• HC-A's special teams coordinator is rumored to be a former NFL head coach who had an impressive tenure as STs coordinator of the Patriots, where he also earned Bill Belichick's respect to be named receivers coach at the same time. After the coordinator left New England, their unit fell apart and was arguably the worst of Belichick's tenure.
• The QB coach comes from the Patriots and helped Mac Jones become the best rookie QB last season. 
• HC-A retained the current receivers coach, who after an impressive playing career, has been a successful NFL coach for 16 years with two different teams. Young receivers Hunter Renfrow and Henry Ruggs, along with veterans Nelson Agholor and Zay Jones all flourished under this assistant.
• On the personnel side, HC-A will be working hand in hand with his preferred chief, and their relationship goes back years. The general manager was sought-after by the Broncos a year ago, and impressed in both the draft and free agency with the Patriots in his first year with a heavy hand in the team's personnel decisions.
• The assistant general manager has interviewed for general manager jobs and comes with seven years as a top lieutenant with the Bears, and eight seasons with the Broncos. 

HEAD COACH B

• A defensive-minded head coach, his team fell from the top seed in the AFC to second in the division, sixth in the AFC and a first-round exit with four losses in five games. The defense allowed an average of 35 points in the four losses.
• His offensive coordinator, a former NFL head coach, took a head coaching job with the Raiders despite HC-B being 70 years old this upcoming season.
• HC-B's preferred choice for his new OC may stay in a college job instead. His two internal candidates have never coordinated an offense or called plays before. A top external candidate has twice been fired as an NFL HC and his offenses as a head coach were never better than 26th in the league in points his final four seasons.
• HC-B's defensive coordinator(s) has been a jumbled mess since Brian Flores helped the team to a Super Bowl title in 2018 and then became the head coach of the Dolphins. The team's defense, which needed to be the backbone of the team, collapsed down the stretch in '19 and '21, and was 15th in yards in '20. The defense is jointly believed to be coordinated by the son of the head coach, and a former player who had no previous coaching experience. There were reported issues between the leadership of this unit and the players this past season. It's not believed there will be any coaching additions or subtractions.
• The special teams underperformed greatly in '20 and has a coordinator with only four years experience, all with the Patriots, out of coaching a community college.
• HC-B could be losing his running backs coach to retirement after 31 years in the NFL. He's widely known as one of the best coaches on staff and his unit is always among the best performing, despite the personnel.
• HC-B, after years of subpar drafts drained the available talent, seemed to get it right with a new personnel chief last season, but that person has become a general manager for another team. The possible internal replacement is a veteran personnel man who has never run his own department, and one who isn't known for rocking boats with his own player opinions. He has interviwed for several GM jobs but has not been offered one. Another candidate is a former fired NFL head coach with no previous personnel experience.

So which one is Bill Belichick, who is rightfully viewed as one of if not the best NFL head coach of all-time, and which one is new Raiders coach Josh McDaniels?

It's still very early in the hiring process for McDaniels with the Raiders, but if the first week was any indication — and also what he proposed to do with the Colts (hello new Bears coach Matt Eberflus) — he seems to be putting together quite the staff in Las Vegas, and it could lead to a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out) for Patriots fans and the Krafts.

The Patriots, after being the model of stability for two decades, have more questions than answers on their coaching and personnel staff than ever before. Meanwhile, McDaniels is adding people on both sides that many would be thrilled if they were still in New England, lending a hand to Belichick.

If you were drawing up a dream cabinet for Belichick in New England, the names of McDaniels, Dave Ziegler, Scott Pioli, Bill O'Brien, Brian Flores, Patrick Graham and Joe Judge would be on them.

How many does McDaniels have? How many does Belichick?

What McDaniels has done in Las Vegas so far has been impressive.

In just one season with increased responsibilities, Ziegler got off to a fast start with New England with an impressive draft and free agency period. He's respected around the league — he could have had the Broncos' job a year ago — and was known to possess the type of voice that speaks up to Belichick in personnel. Eliot Wolf, the top Patriots internal candidate to head up personnel, has a ton of experience and is known to have a good eye for talent, but he's more on the quiet side.

Champ Kelly, the Raiders' assistant GM, goes back to the Broncos with McDaniels and Ziegler and is widely viewed as a future GM and in very short order. He's coming off a top post with the Bears. The Patriots have Matt Groh, who just finished his first year as director of college scouting. He's the son of Al Groh, a former Belichick assistant.

McDaniels will have a strong hand in the Raiders' offense and will call the plays, and he's bringing Patriots QB coach Bo Hardegree with him. The Patriots might not get O'Brien to leave Alabama, have two internal candidates (Nick Caley, Mick Lombardi) with no experience, and could have Adam Gase running their offense next year.

Patrick Graham was a rising star with the Patriots as a defensive line and linebackers coach with the Patriots from 2011-15. He was stuck behind Matt Patricia for defensive coordinator, let his contract run out, and bolted the Patriots for a sideways job as Giants defensive line coach. He was tapped as Flores' first defensive coordinator with the Dolphins, and was Judge's DC with the Giants. Graham is among the smartest coaches to come through the Patriots' system. The Giants badly wanted to retain him as DC. The Patriots will likely continue with some alignment of Steve Belichick, Jerod Mayo and Bill Belichick.

Judge is rumored to be McDaniels' new special teams coordinator, a job he excelled in with the Patriots to the point Belichick had him coach receivers at the same time his final season. The Patriots' special teams' performance the past two seasons under Cam Achord speaks for itself.

Edgar Bennett has been retained as the Raiders' receivers coach and I can personally attest, from covering him in Green Bay as running backs and receivers coach, that he is an excellent coach. Reminds me of a young Ivan Fears, who is expected to retire from the Patriots. Both got the maximum out of their units and were very respected by their players. Mick Lombardi deserves credit for developing Jakobi Meyers and often making chicken salad out of chicken bleep, but the lack of development from N'Keal Harry and Agholor, among others, is also on Lombardi's resume — fair or unfair to him.

We'll have to wait to see how things shake out for the Raiders and Patriots going forward, but the scoreboard so far seems to favor McDaniels.

Of course, tilting the scales overall — big time — is Belichick himself. It's great that McDaniels seems to be putting together a great staff, but if he's not a better head coach his second time around, it's not going to matter. And Belichick has, in previous years, been able to fill any gaps in coaching and personnel with his own incredible knowledge and abilities.

So this is very far from being decided.

NICKEL PACKAGE

1. Count me in favor of Adam Gase as the next Patriots' offensive coordinator, if that's the way it goes. What happened to him as head coach of the Dolphins and Jets — two bad franchises — should be ignored when it comes to being an OC. What I saw in his work in Denver and early Miami, when he had a heavy hand in the offense, was an OC who was very smart each week in the way he attacked schemes, especially the Patriots. That's likely where he earned Belichick's respect. Some key quotes on Gase from some of my past work:

“I really like Gase,” Peyton Manning said. “I like playing for guys that are smarter than me and work as hard as me.”

Receiver Wes Welker, who came from the more regimented Patriots under coach Bill Belichick and coordinators Josh McDaniels and Bill O’Brien, said he had never been with a coordinator who actively listens the way Gase does. Welker said he can have fun with Gase, something we’re guessing didn’t happen very much at One Patriot Place.

“He’s got a great personality,” Welker said. “It's been fun that we can have fun and joke around.”

The job Gase did with Ryan Tannehill in 2016 before his knee injury was nothing short of miraculous, and similar to Josh Allen with the Bills. 

2. Gase will operate from the Patriots' playbook, just the way it's always been. He would be able to bring new ideas — he melded Manning's Colts playbook with Denver's so he has experience with that — but people really need to stop wishing Belichick is suddenly going to flood his staff with all these veteran, experienced coaches. He's going to be 70 years old this season. You really think Belichick, at this point, is going to go crazy and try new things? If anything, the past few years and his personnel choices tells you Belichick clings to the past and former players to be more comfortable.

3. I gave the Patriots a pass last year for not coaching the Senior Bowl because of the long Covid season and because Belichick had already given them the week off before they were offered the gig. But for Belichick not to be seen this week in Mobile, after an early playoff loss and losing Ziegler to the Raiders? Not a great look.

4. Reason No. 123 why I'm not worried about Mac Jones and neither should you. He gets it.

5. I commend Brian Flores for what he's trying to do with his lawsuit, but not the timing and continually putting Belichick in the crosshairs. First there were the text messages, which Flores said he did not speak to Belichick about publicizing, then Flores told NPR that Belichick had an influence on the Giants' coaching decision. “I think there are back-channel conversations and back-channel meetings that are had that oftentimes influence decisions,” Flores said, as transcribed by ProFootballTalk. “I think (the Giants’ hiring process) is a clear example of that. Bill Belichick is a clear example of that. His résumé speaks to that. It was clear to me that decision was made with his influence. That’s part of the problem. That needs to change. There needs to be a fair and equal opportunity to interview and showcase your abilities to lead and earn one of those positions.”

Not sure why Flores continues to feel the need to insert Belichick.