The New England Patriots are losing personnel to other teams, something that is seemingly becoming an offseason tradition in Foxborough. First the Denver Broncos signed offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as their new head coach. McDaniels is a promising 32-year-old whose offense set all kinds of records in 2007. He’ll replace Mike Shanahan, taking over an offense with weapons like quarterback Jay Cutler and wide receivers Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal. Yesterday, the Pats lost their vice president of player personnel since 2002, Scott Pioli, to the Kansas City Chiefs and their open general manager position. Pioli has a fantastic record of drafting players, especially in the later rounds.
In leaving Bill Belechick, will either of these two guys fare better than their predecessors. Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini have all struggled as coaches since leaving Belichick’s side. Pioli is a front office guy, but there’s speculation that he was merely good at finding players that Belechick would like and would fit into his system. McDaniels looks awful promising, and is in a great situation in Denver, so I think he’s got a good chance to break the Belichick curse. As usual, the expectations for a Belichick disciple are high, but I think McDaniels will deliver.
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