Assuming the reports that Josh McDaniels has withdrawn from consideration from the Cleveland Browns head-coaching job are true, McDaniels made a long-term choice.
The way his short tenure in Denver ended, he's probably down to just one more chance to be an NFL head coach, even at 37.
Would you risk that one chance on a Browns organization that just fired Rob Chudzinski after one year as head coach, doesn't have a quarterback and hasn't won than five games in a season since 2007?
Apparently, McDaniels is choosing not to.
He declined to interview with the Browns or any other team a year ago, just after his first season back in New England. He was the head coach -- his downfall started with his insistence on being the head honcho, too -- in Denver for just short of two seaons, being fired late in 2010. He then served as the St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator in 2011 before returning to the Patriots, with whom he won three Super Bowl rings after starting as a quality-control coach and ascending from there.
MCDANIELS WITHDRAWS FROM BROWNS JOB
Patriots OC Josh McDaniels has withdrawn his name from the Browns head coaching job, according to reports. READ MORE
Coaches have left the Patriots with mixed success; McDaniels isn't the only one to come back.
He was considered a potential fit in Cleveland because of his offensive background, the fact he grew up in Northeast Ohio and went to college in Cleveland and that he has room to grow. It's unlikely the new Browns coach will have personnel authority the way McDaniels did in Denver.
There's a definite connection between McDaniels and Browns general manager Mike Lombardi, but the two have never worked together. It appears to be a relationship based upon mutual friend Bill Belichick and the respect both have for the success Belichick has had in New England and the ways he's achieved such success.
In New England, McDaniels works under probably the coach safest in his seat leaguewide in Belichick. The Patriots always win, his young children are settled there and he doesn't have to jump. Presumably, he can wait to jump when he wants to.
The Browns have been mum on their new coaching search; a confirmation that a meeting with McDaniels actually took place last weekend is about the most information anyone has shared. Whatever really happened this time around, or how much mutual interest there actually was with McDaniels and the Browns, we may never know. We just know McDaniels had better choose wisely when he sizes up what's probably his last shot.
