Report: Raiders expected to hire Josh McDaniels as next head coach

The Las Vegas Raiders are expected to hire New England Patriots OC Josh McDaniels as their next head coach, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. McDaniels hadn’t been taking many interviews with teams looking for new head coaches. It was reported Thursday that McDaniels was expected to interview with the Raiders and that a deal could be reached. This despite some reports saying McDaniels wasn’t gaining much interest from teams and wasn’t expected to leave Bill Belichick and the Patriots.

The emergence of Patriots personnel executive Dave Ziegler being hired by the Raiders as GM could be a reason why McDaniels ended up taking the job. It was also reported Thursday that New England could replace McDaniels with Bill O’Brien at offensive coordinator. O’Brien served as a coach under Belichick from 2007-2011 before leaving for Penn State and the Houston Texans. He’s currently the OC/QB coach for Alabama.

As for the Raiders, they bring in one of the bright young offensive minds in the NFL. McDaniels’ work with QB Tom Brady and the Super Bowl winning Pats teams is well documented. McDaniels has received quite a bit of criticism for taking the Indianapolis Colts HC job in 2018 and then backing out of the deal to return to New England.

Las Vegas made the postseason for the first time since 2016 this year, going 10-7 and sneaking in on a blown game by the Colts. The Raiders ranked 18th in points and 11th in yards this season. McDaniels will be tasked with making improvements on that while also figuring out the defensive side of the ball; the Raiders were 26th in points allowed.