Josh McDaniels will oppose his former boss when the Las Vegas Raiders face Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots this Sunday.
McDaniels served multiple roles on Belichick’s staff from 2001 to 2008 before returning for a 10-year run as New England’s offensive coordinator in 2021. Speaking to reporters Wednesday (h/t Pro Football Talk), McDaniels called Belichick a “great mentor” on and off the field.
“Look, it’s obvious I wouldn’t be here, or even in the National Football League, if it wasn’t for Bill,” McDaniels said.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVCiJATrE5Q&w=560&h=315]
McDaniels said learning from the decorated head coach was “invaluable to me in a lot of ways.”
“I got to see firsthand how to try to do it the right way,” he continued. “His philosophy on everything: offseason, training camp, in-season, postseason, evaluations, draft, free agency. He gave a lot of his time to me, and I was able to hopefully pick up as much as I could.”
While McDaniels called it a “unique opportunity” to coach against Belichick, he’s not expecting his former mentor to show any mercy this weekend.
“I don’t think he’s going to care a whole lot about how much he mentored me or what he did and vice versa,” McDaniels said. “And that’s not a bad thing. I don’t think he would expect anything less from me than to just compete and do everything we can to help our team win, and I know that’s what he’s going to do.”
McDaniels won their only prior encounter as the Denver Broncos’ head coach in 2019. Although the Week 5 win highlighted a 6-0 start, Denver finished 8-8 and fired him after a 3-9 start to the 2020 campaign.
The 5-8 Raiders are likely out of the playoff race, but McDaniels can spoil his old team’s wild-card pursuit with a road win.