Josh McDaniels the favorite to replace Shanahan in Denver, Rams also interested

January 7, 1:03 AMNew England Patriots ExaminerSean Crowe

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Is McDaniels the next Belichick?

Michael Lombardi of the National Football Post is reporting that the Broncos are extremely impressed with Josh McDaniels and that he could be the favorite to replace Mike Shanahan.

Almost immediately after that report surfaced, Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the Rams are all of a sudden interested in the Patriots’ offensive coordinator as well.

The odds of McDaniels returning as Patriots’ offensive coordinator seems to be getting smaller by the day.

You have to wonder if the Tom Brady injury was actually a blessing in disguise for McDaniels. Last season, he was the offensive coordinator who was given the keys to the Ferrari.

Fair or not, the prevailing opinion around the NFL was that you could give anyone Tom Brady, Randy Moss, and Wes Welker and they'd put up huge offensive numbers.

When Brady went down and McDaniels was able to put together an extremely productive offense with Matt Cassel, a guy who hadn’t started a game since high school, he was all of a sudden acknowledged as the real deal.

If the Denver job is offered, McDaniels should take it. There aren’t many job openings at places where the quarterback position is set for the next 10 years. With Jay Cutler and that group of receivers, he could bring his version of the spread offense to Denver with very little risk of failure.

The Rams, on the other hand, might not be the best opportunity. They have no quarterback, no semblance of a defense, and their running back is a talented, me-first head case.

Pretty sure I’d stay away from that one.

In Cleveland, meanwhile, it appears to be a done deal. Eric Mangini has tricked some poor schmuck into giving him another NFL head coaching job.

Either Mangini has naked pictures of someone in Randy Lerner’s immediate family, or he’s the best car salesman in the NFL. Either way, I’m not the only one shocked that he’s about to be employed in the NFL again.

On the bright side, he’s not half the coach Romeo Crennel was. And look how well that worked out…

• National Football Post report
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch report
• Josh McDaniels interviews for Cleveland job

Sean Crowe is the New England Patriots Examiner and a Senior Writer / NFL Community Leader at Bleacher Report. You can email him at scrowe@gmail.com.You can check out his Bleacher Report archives here.