The Patriots are bringing former assistant coach Brian Daboll back into the fold.
Speaking on a conference call Monday morning, Bill Belichick said, "Were in the process of bringing Brian Daboll back onto our staff. As soon as we get that worked out, hell be part of our coaching staff going forward; similar to what offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels did last year but without any specific responsibility at this time."
McDaniels rejoined the Patriots last January after the Rams dismissed head coach Steve Spagnuolo. McDaniels was a lame duck under new head coach Jeff Fisher, who made it clear he was moving on to his own coordinator in St. Louis.
Brian Daboll was offensive coordinator in Kansas City in 2012, OC in Miami in 2011 and spent two years as OC with the Browns under Eric Mangini (2009-10). Mangini hired Daboll as his quarterbacks coach when the former Patriots assistant was hired as head coach of the Jets. Daboll coached Chad Pennington and Brett Favre as the Jets QB coach in 2007 and 2008.
There were hard feelings between Belichick and Mangini when Mangini went to New York. The root of those were said to be that Mangini was recruiting a staff for New York before he left the Patriots.
But Daboll's hiring by Belichick may signal a softening of those hard feelings after six years have passed.
"Its great to have Brian back," said McDaniels on a conference call after Belichick's completed. "Hes a very good football coach, very knowledgeable and can help us a will certainly help us in a lot of different ways. Certainly having another set of eyes with experience and has a lot of understanding of our system and how we go about doing things, I think, is only a positive for us and can help our football team going forward. I look forward to doing that with Brian.
New England Patriots
"Last year when I came back, really anything they asked me to do, I was excited to do," McDaniels added. "You know, anything you can do to help at this time of year is useful, whether thats drawing practice cards or sitting in a meeting and having a few ideas on a certain situation in the game plan or anything like that during the course of a week. Everything is so important; every detail is very critical at this time of year and having another football coach on your staff to help is nothing but helpful for us."
Last season, McDaniels joined the Patriots as then-OC Bill O'Brien finished his tenure in New England before moving on to Penn State. McDaniels tamped down the notion he's planning on leaving the Patriots.
"I'm excited to be here and like I said before, Im very, very happy with my role here," said McDaniels.