If we flame out in the playoffs I would fire Caley and hire him. But chances are Mike is gonna get a HC gig right away. Titans should get him so he can mentor Ward
He could come in as a coaching and personnel consultant, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind if they fired Ben McDaniels and brought McDaniel in as the wide receivers and offensive passing game coordinator. If oc is his next move I can see him going to Detroit, Philly, Washington or Tampa. The browns could also be in play as a hc
He has a winning record with Miami and is credited with turning the program around. He made Tua look competent for a while as well. Give him a promising QB and his offense will be humming. Miami even turned it around this season after starting so horribly. I see him getting HC offers for sure.
I'm also not completely negative on McDaniel as a head coach. If the Titans hire Kliff instead of him, they are stupid IMO.
I say offer him 10 million for a 1 year consulting gig. He can sit out the oc jobs for a year and maybe help Caley. If we have to fire Caley then he's already in the room and that may give us an advantage when he hits the OC market again. Think of it like a retainer to keep him off other teams.
Are you considering this - a 12-5 season - a wasted year??.... Mike McDaniel does not run the same offense as Nick Caley. Swapping OCs, and making the entire team learn *another* new system, would be a giant mistake, barring, of course, something happening we don't know about.
fair point, but i think it's been a lateral move from slowik to caley. nothing has changed from last year with blitzers going unblocked, running game nearly non-existent and lack of open receivers or protection for CJ. the system should be made with CJ at the center point and tailoring plays around him. shanahan's offense would work wonders for CJ and i think mike mcdaniel would embody that..
These next (hopefully) 2-3 games will say a lot as far as which direction this team should go. I don't see a big deal about switching "again". They're in a prime window now. There are scores of examples of coordinators coming in and turning it all around in one off-season (as you've already referred to the Wade example in 2011). The offense, play-calling, and execution has improved as the season has gone on... and yet there are still plenty of "WTF ARE THEY DOING?" examples in each/every game throughout the winning streak. Now that everything gets ramped up/magnified by x 1000, coaching/gameplans/execution is going to be even more magnified. If Caley and the offense falls flat on their ass, or embarases themselves, there won't be much recollection of them having a decent game vs. Arizona in early December or seeing Davis Mills lead drives vs. the Bills in early November. The only unknown is if Demeco wants to protect himself from an obvious HC-in-waiting candidate. Perhaps that's what Kubiak was doing all those years (and it ended up coming to fruition when Wade ended up becoming the interim HC).
You think improving in literally every offensive metric over last year (other than running, which is a Mixon issue) represents a "lateral" move? They've allowed one sack the past four games. Altogether, they very nearly reduced the # of sacks by half. And, again... you think they've made a lateral move? I was vehemently opposed to the approach they took - hiring an inexperienced OC and bargain-bin shopping for OL. But... the results have been fairly encouraging, especially when you consider a rookie play caller and three starting rookies (+ a center who had one career start prior to this year). Honestly, your complaints should be directed at Caserio; not Caley and certainly not Stroud. He let Diggs walk and knew Dell would not be available; his replacements were Christian Kirk and two rookies. He knew Mixon was hurt; his replacements was a washed Chubb and a fourth round rookie. His OL was a mess; his solutions were cheap has-beens and a second round rookie; they've either released, traded or benched 3/5 of their projected OL. I have a no doubt a good, veteran OC likely fixes or works around those issues better. But, right now, the Texans offense is playing pretty well, and Caley's system looks viable. I'm not sure who you think the offense is tailored around? CJ has been given control to run the offense based on how he reads and reacts to the defense. And Slowick ran the Shanahan offense; it didn't look at all like a good fit for CJ. Most of his success in '23 was off-script. Again, I did not advocate for a first-time playcaller. BUT! He's here, and Caley has gotten better. Get Dell back; give Stroud and the rookies another year in the system; and add more talent to the RB, TE and OL rooms and I think they're going to have a *very* good offense in '26.
The running game might have been better this year, and helped the offense just a bit, if the pro-bowl starting running back didn't miss the entire season. Maybe, maybe no.
