Belichick vs. McDaniels: Patriots-Raiders Business or Personal?

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels praised his longtime mentor, New England's Bill Belichick.

When the New England Patriots (7-6) take the field at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday for their Week 15 matchup with the Las Vegas Raiders (5-8), head coaches Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels will be standing on opposite sides of the field with a lot of history between them.

Since joining the Patriots as a personnel assistant in 2001, McDaniels has been connected to the future Hall of Famer. The pair have celebrated six Super Bowl championships together, in an unprecedented run of success.

They even have one regular season meeting opposite each other - a 20-17 overtime victory for McDaniels as head coach of the Denver Broncos over Belichick’s Patriots in 2009.

While each coach is primarily focused on earning a much-needed win this weekend, McDaniels remains cognizant of the impact Belichick has had on his career.

“Look, it’s obvious I wouldn’t be here, or even in the National Football League, if it wasn’t for Bill,” McDaniels told reporters on Wednesday. “Robert [Kraft], Jonathan [Kraft] gave me a great opportunity a long time ago. He’s been invaluable to me in a lot of ways. Hard to measure all of them … he’s been a great mentor for me.”

After spending more than two decades in Foxboro (save for a two-year stint as the Broncos’ head coach Broncos, as well as one as St. Louis Rams’ offensive coordinator), McDaniels agreed to become the head coach of the Raiders on Jan 31. Though his team has experienced its share of struggles in his first season in the Nevada desert, the 46-year-old coach carries a piece of Belichickian wisdom and counsel each time he wears a headset.

“I got to see firsthand how to do it the right way,” McDaniels said of Belichick. “His philosophy on everything; offseason, training camp, in-season, postseason, evaluations, draft, free agency. He gave a lot of his time to me, and I was able to hopefully pick up as much as I could.”

Though Belichick’s example was not enough to translate to success in Denver, it nearly earned McDaniels his second head coaching job three years earlier than his departure for Las Vegas. In 2018, decided to remain with the team rather than accept the head position with the Indianapolis Colts. Though the move sent shockwaves through the NFL — especially in Indianapolis — McDaniels’ stayed in New England, largely in part because head coach Bill Belichick’s desire to keep his longtime assistant in the Foxboro fold.

In fact, it was reported at the time that Belichick had offered to ‘open his world’ to McDaniels; tutoring him on the head coach’s approach to roster building, finances, the salary cap and coaching staff management.

“I’m watching him the second time around, and now I’m looking for different things,” McDaniels said. “How he handles adversity, what he’s doing here in the offseason, how he’s handling the bye week? What’s he doing in April, May, June, etc. It gave me a great opportunity to kind of look at it through a different lens and really try to take some time to process those things while I was watching somebody that’s obviously the best that’s ever done it … for the second time.”

Though much attention will be paid to their impending reunion by fans and media alike, neither Belichick nor McDaniels is expecting the other to be overly nostalgic leading up to Sunday’s kickoff. 

“Honestly, it’s a unique opportunity,” McDaniels said regarding coaching against Belichick. “And I would say that I look forward to all these opportunities, they don’t come out around often. “I know he’s going to get his football team ready to play on Sunday. I don’t think he’s going to care a whole lot about how much he mentored me or what he did and vice versa.”

As for Belichick, McDaniels apparently knows his longtime mentor all too well. Although the ‘HC of the NEP’ has always been complimentary when speaking of his former protege, he was typically terse when asked about having to adjust for his absence this season.

“We've talked about that,” Belichick said abruptly. “We've been in this transition every year.”

In short, Belichick’s response means that he and the Patriots are all-business heading into Week 15, exactly as McDaniels predicted.

“I don’t think he would expect anything less from me than to just compete and do everything we can to help our team win, and I know that’s what he’s going to do,” McDaniels said with a smirk. “So, I look forward to the competition. I know they do it the right way. Eager to have our team go through our week of preparation here and get ready for a hell of a football game on Sunday.”

The Pats and Raiders will get underway at 4:05 p.m. ET at Allegiant Stadium. 

For Belichick and McDaniels, it won’t be personal. 

It will be strictly business. 

---

Follow Mike D’Abate on Twitter @mdabateNFL and Listen/Subscribe to his daily podcast: Locked On Patriots

New England and beyond! Get your Patriots game tickets from SI Tickets ... here!

Follow Patriots Country on Twitter and Facebook

Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Patriots? Click Here

More Patriots coverage from Sports Illustrated here.