INDIANAPOLIS — Josh McDaniels talked to reporters on Wednesday at the NFL scouting combine and said, when it came to poaching Mick Lombardi, Carm Bricillo and Bo Hardegree, that he took the right steps and everything is good between the former offensive coordinator and Bill Belichick.
"I have great respect for Bill and that process," McDaniels said. "I spoke to him directly multiple times about any interest I had in people that were there ... Never want to do the wrong things relative to those things.
"Obviously, I feel very fortunate that I had an opportunity to add a few people that I’ve worked with before, specifically on the offensive side of the ball. But yeah, just try to do the right things relative to communicating with him — or any other coach for that matter — if you’re interested in somebody that works in their organization.”
Lombardi, who went from Pats WRs coach to Raiders offensive coordinator, was a goner. Nick Caley, who is expected to take on more responsibilities, and seniority on him, so it was going to be a while before Lombardi got the chance to be an OC in New England. That move was understandable.
But Bricillo (offensive line) and Hardegree (QBs)? Those are completely different circumstances. They're leaving for the exact same job, lateral moves. Belichick definitely could have blocked those two, or at least stepped up to retain them ... and he didn't. Belichick was instead just fine with inserting Matt Patricia with the offensive line, and Joe Judge with the quarterbacks.
Why would that happen? There are a few possible reasons.
McDaniels saying that he didn't just underhandedly take the assistants to Vegas eliminates that possibility, which could have happened. McDaniels could have known their contracts were expiring and courted the assistants like they were from any other team. That didn't happen.
So either Belichick was slow to re-up their contracts, or he wasn't crazy about the jobs they did.
Hardegree is puzzling. He was in New England for one season and helped tutor Mac Jones. You would think some continuity, after McDaniels left, would be a priority. Guess not.
Bricillo seemed to have good reviews around the building, but perhaps Belichick wasn't crazy about the line's performance this season, which was very up and down. It wouldn't be the first time Belichick quickly moved on from a line coach.
After Dante Scarnecchia retired the first time, Dave DeGuglielmo helped the Patriots win a Super Bowl title in Year 1, but was gone after the next season.
After Scarnecchia retired the second time, Bricillo and Cole Popovich had Year 1 in 2020, and Bricillo was solo in Year 2.
Maybe it's some Two Years After Scar curse.
The bottom line is Belichick allowed offensive assistants at two key spots walk for the same spot with another team. That doesn't just happen. Either Belichick dropped the ball, or he was fine moving on from them. Betting it was the latter.
McDaniels did praise Caley.
“Nick’s players are always well-prepared,” he said. “He’s a really good teacher. He’s a motivator. You never have to ask him to work harder or longer because he always does everything he can to help the team win. I think Nick has a bright future ahead of him.”
McDaniels not worried about Mac Jones' future
McDaniels and Hardegree may be gone from Jones' corner but the former coordinator does not worry about Jones' future after New England's staffing changes.
“Mac’s a great kid," McDaniels said. "He works extremely hard. I was really fortunate to have a chance to coach him, and the people that had touched Mac Jones prior to him coming to New England deserve a tremendous amount of credit. The people that coached him in high school, the people that coached him at Alabama, the parents that raised him — they did a great job with him as a human being.
“I’m not sure I’ve been around a more mature young football player in terms of understanding the game and being able to process at such a speed and at such a level that Mac was. So I don’t have any doubt that Mac’s going to meet the challenge head-on. I wish him nothing but the best, and I’ll be pulling for him, except when he plays Vegas next year.”
Draft receivers talk Patriots
Slade Bolden, the 5-11, 190-pound slot receiver out of Alabama fielded a ton of Patriots questions, especially after he said he molded his game after Julian Edelman.
"That's the easiest answer I got," he said. "That's Julian Edelman, for sure.
"Just the way he played the game, how he worked, his mindset going in - 'You can't guard me, you can't stop me, I'm going to catch everything.' That kind of mindset, I kind of see myself being that kind of person. I try to emulate that the best I can."
Bolden said Alabama offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien often discussed Edelman and Wes Welker with him.
"All the time," he said. "It was basically kind of how they used me if you need a good third-down play, a good third-down catch, or having that guy that's been able to run an option route, or run the catch-tuck-turn type passes, that's the kind of guy Wes was, catch the ball in the middle of the field, with no traffic. That's kind of how I was used as well.
"We used a lot of that even after Bill had left (the Patriots). We used some of their plays as well, different rub (route) concepts where they may bring the tight end, and rub a safety for Edelman to spin out and run like a wheel route, just as an example. We definitely watched it, I watched it, especially on Sundays. I watched those games, for sure.
Bolden was good friends and roommates at Alabama with Mac Jones, who he has asked about the draft process.
"I'm pretty close with Mac Jones," he said. "Obviously we played together, and we were roommates at one time. I spoke with him about three weeks ago. We were just talking about the whole training process, going out to the Combine, and different things like that. He calmed me down, said just go out there and be yourself, have fun, but be confident with yourself when it comes to interviews. You know what to do, you know how to talk, you're smart enough to understand the concepts and coverages, so we kind of talked it up, and talked like we always did.
"He's a different guy, but in a good way. He's fun, he's goofy, he's fun to be around. You all saw him at the Pro Bowl and how he was acting. That's how he's always been."
Another former Jones teammate wasn't surprised by his rookie success.
"It was cool," WR John Metchie told reporters. "Something that we all knew was going to happen, especially all the guys at Alabama. Maybe the country didn't know he was going to do so well, but it was something we all expected, so it was cool to finally see him do that on the NFL stage and get the respect he deserves.
"Mac and I are really close. He was my quarterback that year so Mac and I got along really well. We spent a lot of time together my freshman year, so we have a lot of chemistry back there."
Said Metchie of his Patriots meeting: "It was cool. My meeting with the Patriots went really well. We talked about Mac Jones, of course, Christian Barmore, they have a little group of Bama guys over there, the Patriots are really similar to Alabama as far as the structure of the team with Coach Belichick over there and Coach Saban at Alabama. It was a good interview."