Responding for Josh McDaniels

One of my favorite blogs is Covering the Redskins. Bram Weinstein also does field reporting for Triple X Internet Radio, which I've heard a few times when these Redskins weren't on local television. Bram dismissed Wunderkind? Josh McDaniels, saying:

First, nuh uh, Bram, he's 31 and a half.

Or maybe Tom Brady is evidence that Josh McDaniels is a good coach? We'll find out, but it should be noted that McDaniels joined the Patriots staff in 2001 (as a personnel assistant) which, incidentally, was the year they turned into a good team. He's seen both sides of the ball as he became a defensive assistant between 2002-2003. In 2004 he was promoted to QB coach, in 2006 he was the offensive coordinator, though he retained his QB coach position throughout.

One might note after looking at Tom Brady's stats that he became much better after McDaniels showed up. For instance, prior to McDaniels, he scored touchdowns on ~4.5% of his passes. After McDaniels that number was: 5.9, 4.9, 4.7, 8.7. Pre yards per attempt: 6.9, 6.3, 6.9. Post YPA: 7.8, 7.8, 6.8, 8.3. His QB Rating, which I don't care much for anyways, was higher with Daniels than any season prior. Three of his four Pro Bowls came under Josh McDaniels. Etc.

These stats are cherry-picked, as there are some categories where he showed little or no improvement such as int%, barring this season, and completion%, again barring this season. But should we do that? Can we possibly ignore Tom Brady's historic 2007 regular season, perhaps the greatest season ever produced by any quarterback in the game's history? If the answer to that is no, should we ignore Josh McDaniels' contribution to that?

The fact is, looking at Tom Brady's stats from '04 through this year, it is pretty clear that the present Tom Brady is a better qb than the one we met in '01 and knew through '03. Of course that should be the case as quarterbacks tend to improve with the amount of experience they accumulate, but that by no means completely denies any impact that McDaniels had on Tom Brady's development.

And then you have articles such as this one where prominent league sources are singing his praises:

I don't know whether all the above in aggregate means he's a good candidate for the Head Coaching position here. But I do suspect that it makes him deserving of more than a mere cursory look and the suggestion that he's never developed a scheme in his career. Maybe he hasn't, but let's interview him and find out.

Just my opinion.