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Could Josh McDaniel's two years in Denver go down as the worst head coaching reign in NFL history? Of all the failed former Belichick assistants to get head coaching jobs, he's got to be the worst.
The Denver Broncos announced today that they’ve fired their head coach, Josh McDaniels, just two years after hiring him away from the Patriots. McDaniels’ tenure in Denver has been marked mostly by losing and mind boggling personnel moves. I can’t say as though I’m surprised… Just this past week in our NFL power rankings I asked, "Is Josh McDaniels the worst coach in the NFL right now? Seriously, Wade Phillips is gone. It may be true."
Then when I was making my week 13 picks, I said "I’m not sure if there’s a coach I have less faith in than Josh McDaniels." So yeah, I wasn’t a fan. Of course, I didn't like him the moment he spent way over the market to bring Brian Dawkins to Denver... After the jump, take a look at the damage McDaniels did in just two years.
In just two years, McDaniels traded away his franchise QB Jay Cutler(not totally his fault), used essentially a first round pick on CB Alphonso Smith only to give up on him a year later and send him to Detroit where he’s actually played well, mortgaged the teams future to move into the first round for Tim Tebow, and finally traded Peyton Hillis(one of the best backs in the NFL this year) for Brady Quinn. The last one really is a head scratcher when you couple it with the Tebow pick.
[Note by JasonB, 12/06/10 9:32 PM EST ] This is only a small capsule of the disaster he's been for Denver. Check out rajav's comment for the stunning list of missteps and misdeeds. My favorite is making his little brother, whose experience was as a high school QB for 3 years, QB coach of the Broncos.
All of that would be excusable if he simply won games… but he doesn’t. Then to cap off his disastrous reign as head coach he’s involved in Spygate part two where the exact same guy who got the Patriots in trouble for filming practices does the same thing for McDaniels. The guy fell on the sword and McDaniels claims he never watched the tape, but how on earth can he justify hiring the guy in the first place? So yeah, I’d say firing him was a pretty good idea.