The Raiders thought they were getting an “offensive genius” in Josh McDaniels in 2022, but very little about the team’s offense during McDaniels’ 22 months in Las Vegas even qualified as competent.
McDaniels’ offense was complicated, and his play-calling was suspect nearly every week.
Derek Carr couldn’t work with Mcdaniels, and the Raiders essentially had a locker room mutiny in Josh’s final week with the team in October of 2023.
McDaniels spent the 2024 season out of football but returned to New England as Mike Vrabel’s offensive coordinator in 2025 and offered his first awful offensive effort in week 1 against the Raiders.
Narratives change quickly in the NFL, and the New England fan base that was so eager to welcome McDaniels back is already starting to wonder if they’ve been bamboozled.
In fact, the Patriots’ own friendly media is already asking questions.
On Monday, the Boston Sports Journal’s Mike Giardi talked about the Patriots’ regular season opener, and he has concerns about the effect McDaniels is having on second-year quarterback Drake Maye.
“It felt like there’s too much going on in Drake Maye’s brain as he tries to process all the stuff that he’s got put in his head since Josh McDaniels and Mike Vrabel took over,” Giardi said on Monday.
“I think [Maye’s] instinct is to extend plays and to make something bigger happen, and I don’t think that’s how they want him to play for often, and so to me there’s a little bit of a battle,” Giardi continued. “I’m not pressing the panic button [or] sounding the alarm or anything, but I do think it’s something to monitor going forward where you’ve got to figure out what’s the best way to get the very best out of this quarterback who likes to play from shotgun, who wants to push the ball down the field.”
“How can we do that and yet do it within the structure of how Mike [Vrabel] and Josh [McDaniels] want to play?”
For Raider fans, Giardi’s comments are all too familiar.
If Carr couldn’t function with McDaniels, there’s no reason to think Maye or anyone else not named Tom Brady is going to find success with him, either.
x: @raidersbeat
McDaniels did exactly the same thing in Las Vegas as he did in Denver. He weakened the starting quarterback, he designed pitiful game plans, he didn’t use the good players, in short he wrecked both teams. It’s mind numbing that Mark Davis hired the numbskull.
Great points. Mark is easily fooled. I’ve never seen someone demoralize a team like McDaniels does
Mc Daniels is one of those OCs who will take their system (square peg) and declare we are going to shove it in to this round hole (our players) come hell or high water.
Instead of adapting his system to his particular players strengths.
100%! The best coaches always have the humility to adjust to their players. Kyle Shanahan is as attached to “his system” as any coach. But when he had Trey Lance, he wasn’t running the same offense as he does for Purdy. He’s added more gap runs to the outside zone… McDaniels doesn’t seem to adjust anything. Some coaches get way too high on their own supply, and think THEY are the stars.
Another reason to enjoy this victory! I wish they would have had more uptight camera shots of his uptight face when his offense kept laying turds.
Make doofus can stay out East Coast. I’m glad we got rid of the incompetent coach coordinator. Whatever you wanna call him. He was trash from the beginning and he’ll be trash until the day he dies. The only reason why he was any good is because of Tom Brady.
Mark the dummy Davis’ brain child.