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Josh McDaniels explains why Bill O’Brien will ‘do a great job’ working with Mac Jones
Josh McDaniels worked with both Bill O'Brien and Mac Jones during his two tenures in Foxborough.
Count Josh McDaniels as the latest in a long line of coaches, former players and NFL personnel to praise Bill O’Brien’s return to New England.
Speaking at the NFL Scouting Combine on Tuesday, McDaniels offered high marks for O’Brien, who will take over as New England’s offensive coordinator for the 2023 season.
“I think he’s a great coach,” the Raiders head coach said of O’Brien. “Billy’s worked with a lot of quarterbacks before, and they’ve all had success, and he’s impacted all of those guys in a positive way. He knows the position really well, understands the league, understands how to get the most out of players at this level. He’ll do a great job.”
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At the top of O’Brien’s to-do list in Foxborough is getting Mac Jones back on track following a 2022 campaign where he regressed across the board.
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Both O’Brien and Jones only overlapped briefly at the University of Alabama, but McDaniels has plenty of experience working with both during his time in New England.
Aside from his standing as Jones’ first offensive coordinator in the NFL ranks, McDaniels was entrenched near the top of the Pats’ coaching ranks when O’Brien first joined the organization as an offensive assistant in 2007.
During the two years that O’Brien served under McDaniels, the current Vegas head coach was impressed by his assistant’s prep work and offensive schemes.
“Billy was one of those guys where, when we added Billy back in 2007, he was a guy who came from college and really wanted to make it in the NFL,” McDaniels said. “So it was apparent right away how hard he worked, how smart he was, and you could give him a lot of responsibility and he could handle it. All the things that Billy has accomplished and achieved since then haven’t surprised me at all.
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“Being successful as a coordinator in New England, winning at Penn State, winning in Houston, going down to Alabama and being part of their success there — none of that has surprised me. He’s a great football coach, extremely hard worker. I have a lot of confidence that Billy’s going to do well wherever he’s at, and obviously now that’s in New England.”
O’Brien’s prior stops in both New England and Tuscaloosa should help him build an offensive gameplan better suited to Jones’ skillset.
Thanks to his first tenure in Foxborough, O’Brien already has a firm grasp on the dense playbook that McDaniels cultivated during his reign as the Pats’ OC.
It was a system that Jones thrived in during his rookie season in 2021, with the young signal-caller earning Pro Bowl honors after throwing for 22 touchdowns and 3,801 passing yards.
Add in the other wrinkles from Alabama’s offensive systems that O’Brien honed during his two-year tenure in the SEC, and Jones should have more resources on hand to right the ship in 2023.
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