Monday, January 9, 2012

Belichick yet to disclose McDaniels' role in playoffs

BY NICK ST. DENIS

For the 2012 season, Josh McDaniels' job will be offensive coordinator the Patriots. But for now, it's whatever.

After current offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien was officially named the new head coach at Penn State, the Patriots hired McDaniels, who had just finished his season calling plays for the Rams, to work as an offensive assistant for the remainder of the Patriots' playoff run.

"We’ll probably talk about those things as we get a little closer to game time," Patriots coach Bill Belichick told the media Monday regarding McDaniels' current role. "Right now we’re really just concentrating on our game plan and our scouting report preparations for Denver."

McDaniels' first game back with New England will be against the only team he served as head coach for in the Broncos. Denver's offense is led by quarterback Tim Tebow and receiver Demaryius Thomas, both of whom McDaniels drafted prior to last season.

Since O'Brien will finish the playoffs as the play-caller, one would imagine that McDaniels' role will be pouring out information on the Broncos' personnel.

"As we get through the week and later in the week, we’ll talk about game day logistics," Belichick said. "Again, he’s been here before. We’ve all worked together. I don’t really anticipate it being a problem."

Follow Nick @NickStDenis
Follow AFC East Daily @AFCEastDaily