Dismissal of Josh McDaniels: Cultural Clash, Mistakes to Blame
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - We don't have an hour,
00:03 so let me give you the Cliff Notes version.
00:05 So, and I'm gonna write about this
00:07 for Pro Football Network tomorrow,
00:08 but I'll give you some nuggets here
00:10 which are very interesting.
00:11 So, when Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler,
00:13 the general manager, came in from New England,
00:16 they wanted to bring in their culture.
00:18 And what that meant is harder practices,
00:20 a different way of doing things.
00:22 And some of the players just rejected it.
00:25 In fact, one team source told me they could tell
00:27 the signs were not great before the season started,
00:29 there just was not a great vibe around the team.
00:32 And then we fast forward to about a week and a half ago
00:35 when I'm told the captains called a team meeting,
00:40 Josh McDaniels was in there.
00:41 Josh McDaniels was the one who said,
00:42 "Hey, whatever's on your mind,
00:44 "even if it's about me, bring it."
00:46 And McDaniels stood there, I'm told,
00:47 by two people and took it.
00:49 And it was very critical.
00:50 Some guys went after him a little bit.
00:53 Now some of the New England players,
00:56 guys who used to play for the Patriots, spoke up
00:58 about how things have to be done a certain way here
01:00 and they need more discipline.
01:01 And that's what Josh was trying to bring in.
01:03 But to me, I think there was just too much of a rejection
01:06 from players who are not familiar with McDaniels.
01:08 And we don't even have time to go
01:09 for the bad personnel decisions.
01:12 Like the Darren Waller extension that six months later,
01:15 they trade him and not moving Hunter Renfro, they tried to.
01:20 Hunter Renfro got his contract extended
01:22 after McDaniels became the head coach.
01:24 He and Dave Ziegler made that decision.
01:26 So too many mistakes.
01:28 They got basically season and a half to get things going.
01:31 They couldn't, it was obvious
01:32 that something was gonna be done.
01:34 The only question was, guys, would it happen now
01:36 or at the end of the season?
01:38 And it happened right now.
01:39 And Antonio Pierce takes over as the interim head coach
01:43 who I worked with at ESPN.
01:45 Very intense guy.
01:46 Now, you might've heard him, guys,
01:48 talk about how he wanted things to be a little bit looser
01:51 'cause the guys were too uptight.
01:53 It's because of the way things were being run by McDaniels.
01:57 Guys were just too uptight, not playing loose.
01:59 And that's what Antonio Pierce was trying to get done here.
02:01 Get guys to play to their potential.
02:04 (upbeat music)
02:06 [MUSIC]