At this time three years ago, Tom Brady and Josh McDaniels were entering their 16th season together on the New England Patriots. Now, both have moved on to new opportunities.
McDaniels was officially announced as the Las Vegas Raiders' new head coach Monday, joining new general manager and former New England director of player personnel Dave Ziegler to form "Patriots West."
McDaniels was Brady's offensive coordinator and position coach for well over a decade, so the two are very close. And the (soon to be retired?) Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback seemed very pleased to see his old colleague land a new gig.
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"I'm really excited for Josh," Brady told Jim Gray on the "Let's Go!" podcast Monday night. "He’s a tremendous coach and I was very fortunate to be around him as long as I [was].
"Anytime someone gets that opportunity it is tremendous for them and their family and to be the leader of an organization is a great feeling. And he certainly deserves to be that, works extremely hard, is so smart, prepared, understands really what it takes to put together a winning culture. He’s been around that for a long time and obviously I wish him nothing but the most success."
Former Patriots QB Matt Cassel, who spent his first four NFL seasons with McDaniels from 2005 to 2008, also gave his old boss a shout-out on Twitter.
McDaniels, who started as a personnel assistant with the Patriots in 2001 and worked his way up to offensive coordinator in 2006, left New England in 2009 for a brief stint as the Denver Broncos' head coach. He was fired after just 28 games and an 11-17 record, returning to the Patriots in 2012 and turning down the Indianapolis Colts' head coach job at the last second in 2018 to remain in New England.
It appears he's finally ready for Round 2 as a head coach, though, choosing a Las Vegas franchise with a solid quarterback in Derek Carr and a familiar face at GM in Ziegler.
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"It’s an exciting time for a lot of these franchises that are getting new coaches," Brady added. "There’s a lot of hope, and you go from the end of the season which is lots of disappointment to shortly after finding some coaches to lead you to a different place. So for a lot of organizations that’s very, very exciting."
Raiders players reportedly are disappointed the team hired McDaniels instead of keeping interim head coach Rich Bisaccia, so McDaniels has some work to do gain the trust of his new squad.