Josh McDaniels on seeing Drake Maye’s potential in training camp

Morning Sports Update

McDaniels also discussed his year away from football before rejoining the Patriots for a third stint.

By Hayden Bird

December 10, 2025 | 10:59 AM

6 minutes to read

Josh McDaniels reflected on rejoining Patriots, coaching Drake Maye: The turnaround of the Patriots‘ offense from back-to-back 4-13 seasons to the team’s current 11-2 record is due to several major factors (mostly centering around quarterback Drake Maye).

But among the reasons for the success in 2025, offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels returning to New England for what is now his third stint in the role ranks highly. The former Broncos and Raiders head coach came back to the Patriots ahead of the 2025 season, partnering with first-year New England head coach Mike Vrabel.

McDaniels has previous experience alongside Vrabel, though it came two decades prior when the latter was still a Patriots linebacker.

“He was an awesome guy to be around as a coach when he was playing, so smart and did everything he could possibly do to help our team win, including playing on offense,” McDaniels said of Vrabel during a recent interview with ESPN’s Peter Schrager.

The New England assistant pointed out that he shares a background with Vrabel, and that the two are only separated in age by a few months.

“We grew up about 15 minutes apart from one another in Ohio. I had always been aware of him even before he came here,” McDaniels said of Vrabel prior to meeting in New England.

After he was fired by the Raiders in 2023, McDaniels — who had been the Patriots’ offensive coordinator between 2006 and 2008, and then again between 2012 and 2021 — returned to the Patriots prior to the current season.

He told Shrager that he went through interviews just like every other candidate.

“It was really well done in terms of the communication was the way it should be,” said McDaniels of the process, and that he had an opportunity to talk with both Vrabel and executive Eliot Wolf.

“Wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do, how it was going to go, but certainly when the opportunity was presented to me, this was a very simple decision,” he said of coming back to the Patriots.

Upon seeing Robert Kraft following his second return, McDaniels joked about his previous departures.

“It was cool, it was like why do I keep leaving?”

“My best memories certainly in pro football have all occurred here, and I don’t think that’s a secret to anybody,” McDaniels explained of his team with the Patriots (during which he was a part of six Super Bowl wins). “A lot of people since I’ve been back have been incredible, and I look forward to continuing to build this thing here with [Vrabel].”

In between the end of his tenure with the Raiders and taking the job again with the Patriots, McDaniels spent the 2024 NFL season away from football.

“I think the first thing I was doing was really trying to get healthy in terms of just you’re coaching for twenty-something years, it’s a lot of stress, it’s a lot of time-on-task, it’s a lot of putting yourself on the back-burner kind of when you’re doing this thing and grinding on both ends. So it gave me an opportunity to really kind of put myself and my health first,” he said of the break.

“I feel great. That was a really big part of last year for me, which I really enjoyed,” McDaniels added of his health. “Got to take my kids to school everyday, spend time with my wife, see my son play college football, take my oldest daughter on college visits. I got to be a dad, honestly.”

“I think by this time last year, I had a peace and a joy about myself that I don’t know that I had…I didn’t lose it when I was coaching, but I just know that I had regained it [in 2024], and had a different perspective on life and what I was looking for,” he said. “If [another coaching role] was going to present itself or not, I didn’t know. But I certainly found peace and joy, and I have that to this day.”

His success in the first year with Drake Maye has been a surprise to much of the NFL. McDaniels credits his young QB for his demeanor and work ethic.

“He’s a special kid, and I’ve told his parents a number of times [that] they’ve done an incredible job with their boys, and just being around him on a daily basis,” McDaniels said of Maye. “You talk about a kid who’s got his priorities straight, he’s of the highest character. He’s a great teammate, he’s easy to coach, he’s the guy that’s going to work and grind as hard as anybody else. Wants to win, but wants his teammates and the people around him to win also.”

McDaniels, a student of the game as a longtime offensive coordinator, said that Maye was quickly asking “advanced questions” which impressed him.

“That was one of the first things that I realized when I started to have the opportunity to work with him in the meeting room, was the questions he asked were just questions that guy that had been in the league four, five, six years would ask,” McDaniels said. “So you knew you were dealing with a guy that could think the game of football. That doesn’t even include the physical attributes, and the things that he can do physically, which are awesome too.”

Asked if there was a moment early in training camp when McDaniels first recognized that he (and the Patriots) might have something special in Maye, the veteran assistant chimed in.

“There was one in training camp I think where there was a broken play and he scrambled to his right, and Pop Douglas was on like an intermediate route somewhere, then he took off down the field. [Maye] was running to the sideline, and he was like literally almost out of bounds. It was like a couple feet from the sideline, and I didn’t know if he was going to just run out of bounds, throw it away, whatever. [Maye] threw it, and it had to be like 60 yards, and Pop’s running down the sideline and I’m like, ‘There’s no way he can get the ball to this guy, right?’”

“It literally landed [in his hands] and Pop scores, and the place goes nuts.”

“I kind of looked around like, ‘Did anybody else see that? Because that was nuts,’” McDaniels remembered. “He’s been blessed with physical ability and tools, but I don’t want that to take away from all the other things that he does to really put himself in position to be a really, really great player, and impact his teammates. He’s a special guy, and we’re looking to have the opportunity to work with him.”

Trivia: What two players did Josh McDaniels’ Broncos pick in the first round of the 2010 NFL Draft?

(Answer at the bottom).

Hint: A wide receiver from Georgia Tech, and a quarterback from Florida.

Scores and schedules:

The Bruins defeated the Blues 5-2 on Tuesday, Boston’s third win in a row. The Bruins will face the Jets on the road in Winnipeg tomorrow at 8 p.m.

Tomorrow, the Celtics face the Bucks in Milwaukee at 8 p.m.

More from Boston.com:

Tom Brady’s weekly power ranking: The former Patriot QB ranked his ex-team at the top, noting that “hat and t-shirt games are officially back in Foxborough.”

On this day: In 2012, the Patriots and Texans faced off in what was expected to be a heavyweight regular season matchup. The Texans (11-1) and the Patriots (10-2) were potential playoff rivals.

Houston arrived at the game infamously donning letterman jackets, which (while harmless enough in abstract) became a meme-like creation for fans, particularly after Tom Brady and the Patriots scored a 42-14 rout of the Texans. After starting the year so well, Houston tailspun to a 1-3 record down the stretch (eventually losing again to the Patriots in the playoffs).

Daily highlight: Mass. native A.J. Dybantsa threw down a powerful dunk in BYU’s dramatic comeback win against Clemson on Tuesday. Dybantsa finished with 28 points, nine rebounds, and six assists.