So the Pats RE-HIRED Josh McDaniels...what gives?

I think this move actually says more about Josh McDaniels than the Patriots, and probably more about his reputation than his actual ability.

The reality is actually pretty ironic. Last year when McDaniels traded roughly 100 first round picks and a bag of gold bouillon for Tebow he was crucified. They didn't play particularly well last year and he got run out of town on a wave of, "Why did we give everything away for a 6'0" left-handed QB that throws like girl," rage even though it was just as much Orton's fault.

Fast forward to right now and the entire city is screaming for the Broncos to KEEP Tebow (who completed a staggering NINE passes on Saturday by the way) and invest in him as a franchise player. It's less than two fucking years later and nobody remembers that McDaniels basically got fired for picking a player that was just voted the most popular athlete in the country last week... What!?

But for the Patriots I think the move was two-fold and totally unrelated to the Denver nonsense. First, it doesn't hurt to have someone on your staff that's familiar with the opponent's personnel, which McDaniels obviously is, even though it's a completely different system under Fox. I think the effect is minimal but you know Bellichick is always looking for any advantage he can get.

Second, it was to protect themselves from what happened a couple of years ago when Mangini was the offensive coordinator and took the Jets head coaching job right before the post-season started. Mangini completely checked out and the Patriots ended up losing to a lousy Denver team in the Divisional round as Mangini was trying to recruit players and staff to follow him to NY in the office during the week leading up to the game. That's not going to happen with O'Brien on his way to Penn State but Bellichick is still bitter and probably scarred by that experience, as is evidenced by THIS article that came out last week.

I think having McDaniels, who Brady and the offensive veterans are totally familiar with, around certainly can't hurt and maybe they can convince him to take the OC job next year since there's no way he's getting another head job this year. It's never going to happen again because the NFL is going to change the rules about coaching hires after this but there really wasn't any downside for the Patriots.