Patriots' Josh McDaniels Labels Time off as a Blessing

McDaniels, who won six titles on Bill Belichick's staff, discussed his first year away from coaching since 2000 while speaking with reporters on Thursday, stating:

Yeah, I think it was something you don't ever think about doing, but I would say it's a blessing to have the time to go back and look at what you've been through in terms of the changes and different highs, lows. You look back at the past in terms of what we've done schematically and what the league is doing now strategically. I had a really good opportunity last year to watch football without a lot of deadlines, which was a new, interesting opportunity for me and just see different things that were coming up throughout the course of the league.

McDaniels labeled his time away from the sport as a healthy opportunity to evaluate his coaching career and the area that he needed to improve. While he has had struggles during both of his tenures as a head coach, the Patriots are hoping that he can remain among the top offensive coordinators as he returns to the franchise in the post-Belichick era.

New England was just 4-13 last season as they had one of the worst offenses in the league. They ranked 30th in scoring offense and 31st in total yards.