The Colts are scrambling for a head coach weeks after the top choices were taken. The jilted assistant coaches are in the wind, a few staying and handshake deals voided. Indianapolis fans are ready for blood.
Yet the hole Josh McDaniels has dug for himself might be the deepest.
The morning after the Patriots’ offensive coordinator’s stunning last-second spurning, in which he reneged on an agreed-upon deal to become the Colts’ head coach and chose to remain in New England, shock waves were still traveling around the football world about how a coach could torch his bridges not just in Indy but throughout the league and desert his to-be assistants. McDaniels knew, though, that going all-in on the Patriots and all-out on everyone else could be the death of his football ambitions.
McDaniels’ agent, Bob LaMonte, told McDaniels this could be the biggest professional mistake of his life, NFL Network reported Wednesday morning. LaMonte is also the agent for Colts GM Chris Ballard, so the 11th-hour heel turn devastated McDaniels’ own agent for multiple reasons.
For now, those most affected by the change of heart are the ones McDaniels recruited to join him with the Colts. Matt Eberflus left the Cowboys to become McDaniels’ defensive coordinator, and Mike Phair, former Illinois defensive line coach, had agreed to the same job with the Colts. Both will remain with the team regardless of who the next head coach is, ESPN reported. Others had agreed (with no signatures) to fill out the staff, and are now left with no jobs, weeks and months after positions they could strive for were filled.
“The coach I spoke to last night who was going to be on that staff is now looking for a job,” former Giant David Diehl said on Sirius XM. “… He had other options … and as of 10:15 last night, he still hadn’t spoken to Josh McDaniels, and today he has to figure out the future of his coaching.”
What McDaniels has communicated to the ones he abandoned before they could even unite is in debate. ESPN’s Dianna Russini reported that four members of his to-be staff were “blindsided” and kept in the dark about his about-face until the reports leaked. The network’s Josina Anderson said the 41-year-old McDaniels spoke to each one of the coaches shortly after informing the Colts.
Those he left behind will be pitied, but have their futures open. By abruptly planting his flag in New England, McDaniels is gambling on Robert Kraft and a likely whispered deal that he’ll be Bill Belichick’s successor. If that backdoor deal falls through — or if McDaniels bombs as head coach when given the chance — he has dug his NFL grave.