Patriots’ Josh McDaniels reportedly withdraws from Browns consideration

Is this the last time I get to use this graphic?

I’ve assumed since the Browns fired Rob Chudzinski that Josh McDaniels was the favorite to be the next coach of the Cleveland Browns. Not to say that McDaniels is necessarily my preference, but his connections to Michael Lombardi seemed all the more indicative that he should be the favorite until I heard otherwise. Well, thanks to Adam Schefter of ESPN, I’ve now heard otherwise.

Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels has withdrawn from consideration for the Cleveland Browns HC job, per a league source.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 8, 2014

One person who knows Josh McDaniels said he had “an awesome” meeting with Browns, but it isn’t right time for him to become a head coach.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 8, 2014

Peter King also had a quick reaction…

Josh McDaniels withdraws in Cle, per @AdamSchefter … Two sides had 7.5-hour meeting Sat. Owner loved him, I hear. Probably for best.

— Peter King (@peter_king) January 8, 2014

I say for the best because selection of McDaniels would have been ripped by many locals after how it ended in Denver. Bad for new regime.

— Peter King (@peter_king) January 8, 2014

At least they had an “awesome” meeting though, right you guys?!

So, what does this mean? Does this mean that the Browns lost their number one candidate coming into the interview process? The Browns have never admitted missing out on Chip Kelly, so we’ll likely never know for sure. What this means is that the Browns will continue to scour ranks of coordinators and position coaches like Ben McAdoo of the Packers and potentially Adam Gase of the Denver Broncos.

Plenty of successful head coaches have been hired from those ranks, so it’s not necessarily a disaster, but you’ll have a tough time convincing me that one of the Browns’ presumed top options is now unavailable, having followed down the unavailability path of Gus Malzahn.

[Related: Marla Ridenour on the state of the Browns, plus the Luol Deng trade – WFNY Podcast – 2014-01-08]