New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels announced on Monday that he was removing his name from consideration for the San Francisco 49ers head coach job. There have been reports McDaniels was a co-favorite for the job alongside Kyle Shanahan, but Eric Branch is reporting the job was McDaniels if he wanted it.
There have been mention of family issues. McDaniels has four kids and would need to relocate his family across the country. The issue does not appear to have been just the relocating the family. Instead, it sounds like it was more about making sure he has the absolute perfect opportunity. McDaniels has already been fired once as a head coach. If he does not find success in his second head coach job, he may not find another one in the NFL.
With that in mind, it would not be surprising at all that McDaniels would want to wait for as close to a perfect opportunity as he can find. McDaniels was complimentary of the 49ers presentation, but clearly he was not completely sold on the organization. And there are certainly plenty of red flags. Firing back-to-back head coaches after only one year apiece is one such flag. The team has been described as a “clean slate,” but of course, that is because the team is in the midst of a huge rebuild, more or less starting from scratch. It is something to build on, but I imagine there are better opportunities. For example, if the Colts ever fire Chuck Pagano, getting a chance to work with Andrew Luck might be his call.
Kyle Shanahan on the other hand has not had a head coaching job yet. That’s not to say he would immediately jump at the 49ers job, but by all accounts he is interested. There will be contract and personnel control negotiations to hammer out, and that is something that could create its own set of problems. But, the option is there for the time being.