On Wednesday morning, GM Chris Ballard faced the media in the wake of Josh McDaniels‘ shocking decision to back out on becoming the team’s next head coach. Here’s a look at the highlights plus other news on McDaniels’ flip-flop:
- McDaniels’ agent, Bob LaMonte, told him that he’s making perhaps the biggest professional mistake of his career by backing out of this Colts job at this point, according to sources who spoke with Mike Garafolo of NFL.com (Twitter link). On Wednesday afternoon, LaMonte terminated his relationship with McDaniels, a source tells Dan Graziano of ESPN.com (on Twitter). LaMonte is forfeiting a potentially large commission down the road should McDaniels become a head coach again, but he is also protecting future business by distancing himself from the Patriots OC.
- Colts were going to pay McDaniels “fabulously,” a source tells Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter), so money was not the issue in Indianapolis. Pelissero hears that the coach also wasn’t warded off by Andrew Luck’s injured shoulder, owner Jim Irsay, or Ballard. At the end of the day, the Patriots just convinced him to stay. There’s no new contract in place for McDaniels yet, but Pelissero expects that to happen soon.
- Ballard says two doctors who looked at Luck after the season have determined that he does not need surgery (Twitter link via Pelissero). Luck’s arm strength is good, the GM says, but he is now working on motion and arm speed. He has yet to pick up a football, but the team will not rush him or skip any steps.
- The GM confirmed that none of the coaches from the initial wave of interviews will be in the mix, meaning that Kris Richard and Matt Rhule will not be considered (Twitter link via Pelissero).
- There were other candidates the Colts wanted to interview, Ballard said, but the playoffs got in the way (Twitter link via Stephen Holder of ESPN.com). The Colts are expected to request an interview with Eagles OC Frank Reich and he fits the bill as a coach who was tied up during the playoffs. Of course, the same could be said of McDaniels and that did not stop Indy from interviewing him.
- The Colts will honor the contract of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus and others who have already signed their deals. That’s not an issue for Ballard who explained that he knew Eberflus well through Rod Marinelli. The former Dallas assistant was already a guy he wanted to run his defense.
- The Colts got an uneasy feeling a week ago that something could be stalling with McDaniels, despite moving forward with his contract (Twitter link via Jay Glazer of FOX Sports).
- McDaniels arrived at Gillette Stadium on Tuesday with the intention of cleaning out his office, but Bill Belichick‘s willingness to take his mentorship to a higher level played a big part in McDaniels reversing course, sources tell ESPN.com’s Mike Reiss. Belichick told McDaniels that he would spend more time with him on the inner workings of the team, including roster construction and salary-cap management, which was viewed as “extremely valuable” to McDaniels. That could be part of a succession plan for Belichick in the future, but no assurances have been made to McDaniels.
Yup fake news! I knew that stuff about McDaniels not wanting to leave because of “family issues” wasn’t legit. I still want to know what money they are gonna pony up to get him to stay aside from the “inner workings.” This goes down now as a new Patriots scandal now as Joshgate! I’m open to any other scandal name choices.
I’m guessing there is still a lot more to this story
McDaniels will be good with colts and not with patriots is a cheater team tom Brady did with football in championship with colts 2014
How is Brady a cheater? You do know that the balls were where they were supposed to be…oh, and the Colts balls were also deflated.
McDaniels will be a good coach with the colts
He’s ultimately the loser in this whole thing. It’ll be a very long time before anyone goes near him for a head coaching hire.
Colts sure could have used him. But yeah hopefully more to the story.
McDaniels will be good coach for the colts will be good to have him here and not with cheater patriots and tom Brady did football In championship game with colts 2014
Excuse me? McDaniels is not leaving the Patriots.
Is it really even a rivalry anymore?
Says a lot when an agent decides to drop a client. You don’t see that very often.
It truly amazes me that a few so called football fans on here don’t even know that McDaniels IS NOT GOING TO BE THE NEW HEAD COACH FOR INDY. Information is everywhere, read it.
It’s the same username over and over. Read it.
Puts the Pats in a tough spot if they really are planning to have McDaniels succeed BB. They can’t say anything (Rooney Rule!), so the speculation will continue. Guess the Pats enjoy drama.
Rooney rule doesn’t apply when their is a succession plan in place. Just like the Ravens have already planned to replace Ozzie Newsome after next season.