Josh McDaniels says there are no hard feelings toward Raiders

Josh McDaniels said he thinks there are more lessons to be learned from life’s failures than its successes.

If that’s the case, he’s earned a master’s degree from his two unsuccessful stints as an NFL head coach.

McDaniels is undeniably one of the most accomplished offensive minds in league history, having accumulated three Super Bowl rings as a quarterbacks coach and three as an offensive coordinator with the Patriots.

But he was fired during the second season both times he has been a head coach, most recently by the Raiders in 2023.

Each time, he has found himself with a similar fallback plan.

His third stint as New England’s offensive coordinator will begin Sunday when the Patriots host the Raiders at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

McDaniels said Thursday that the list of lessons he took from his time in Las Vegas would be too long to share.

“You go in there every opportunity and do the best you can,” he said. “You learn more, honestly, when you fail than when you have success.

“I’ve always tried to take each opportunity as an experience that I can learn from. Some you learn more from than others.”

Old friends

On Sunday, McDaniels will match wits with Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, whom he hired in Las Vegas in 2022, and Pete Carroll, whom he faced off against in a Super Bowl.

McDaniels has been showing his offense film of that game and a 2020 game in which the Seahawks defeated the Patriots, but he knows better than to think Carroll hasn’t evolved, especially working with Graham.

“Pete’s one of the best coaches in the history of our league,” McDaniels said. “He’s done it for a long time at an elite level. Produced wherever he’s been. Always has an entirely different defensive perspective, and it’s changed over the years.

“You add Patrick Graham in there and all the things he can do, you’ve got a Rubik’s cube. It’s a good team with a lot of good players, and obviously the unknown of how much is Pete’s influence with Pat and Pat’s influence with Pete.”

Graham shares a similar respect for McDaniels.

“He’s one of the best competitors I’ve ever been around, one of the smartest coaches I’ve ever been around,” Graham said. “Understands all three facets of the game. Appreciative of him bringing me out here, when he brought me out here, and then the things I learned from him.”

Raiders wide receiver Jakobi Meyers started his career under the tutelage of McDaniels in New England, then signed with Las Vegas when McDaniels was the coach.

“I’m happy to see him back there. I feel like it’s a spot he probably should have stayed,” Meyers said before realizing how that would be construed. “I mean, not that he should have stayed, but I’m happy to see him back. That’s all I can say.”

McDaniels is now working for Mike Vrabel. The former Patriots linebacker got to know McDaniels when he was a personnel assistant working his way up to the coaching staff.

When Vrabel returned to New England as head coach this offseason, McDaniels was an easy choice as offensive coordinator.

“When you talk about Josh, I think schematically and the way he teaches the quarterback,” Vrabel said at the time of what made McDaniels an appealing hire. “The versatility of the offense and the base foundation of the offense. His growth in that offense.”

No hard feelings

McDaniels is downplaying Sunday’s game against the team that fired him on Halloween during the 2023 season.

“I don’t harbor any ill will toward any of the things that haven’t worked out in my career, and there’s been many of them,” he said. “… I have a lot of relationships across the league that are good and healthy and hope to continue those.”

Including in Las Vegas.

“Certainly there’s still some people there that I know well and have relationships with and hopefully will have forever.”

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.