Early Life

Josh’s father Thom McDaniels was the football coach of an Ohio high school. In 1997, his father was named the high school coach of the year by USA today. His father was the inspiration for him to take up coaching as a future profession. Thom McDaniels was given the moniker "Legend of Ohio high school football" because of his incredible coaching skills. One can understand why young Josh was so inspired by his father.

McDaniels attended Canton McKinley High School and played as a quarterback for the high school team. He joined John Carroll University and also played football there. He could play in many positions but he mainly stuck with his main position as a wide receiver. He played at the University from 1995 to 1998.

Coaching Career Start

McDaniels started his coaching career in 1999 as a graduate assistant for Michigan State University. He was a senior assistant working under Nick Saban. Josh took an advantage of using his father’s friendship with Nick Saban to work under him. He also worked as a plastic sales representative in Cleveland during the time to pay his bills.

McDaniels started his NFL career as a coach in 2001 when he was appointed as the personal assistant for the New England Patriots. For two years, 2002 and 2003, Josh had the position of defensive coaching assistant and he worked with the defensive players helping them improve their game. In 2004, he was promoted to quarterbacks coach. McDaniels was with the team for all of their Super Bowl Championships during his first stint as a Patriot.

In 2008, with the departure of Charlie Weis, McDaniels was promoted to the new offensive coordinator position for the Patriots. But he was still asked to be the coach for the quarterbacks because his talent was also valued there. In 2007, the Patriots set a NFL record for scoring 75 touchdowns in which 67 of the touchdowns were offensive scores. This led to a rumor that McDaniels may leave the Patriots for a job as head coach for another team. Other teams started to recognize his incredible coaching ability and felt that he had the ability to graduate from being an assistant and lead his own team.

Head Coach of the Denver Broncos

On January 11, 2009, McDaniels was hired as the new head coach for the Denver Broncos. He was brought in to replace Mike Shanahan who was the coach for a long time and won a Super Bowl for Denver. Josh got a good deal with the Broncos. He was offered a four year contract for $8 million, which he happily accepted. McDaniel’s tenure as the head coach of the Broncos was stained early on because of a controversy involving the team’s quarterback, Jay Cutler. It was alleged that McDaniels wanted to trade Jay for one of the quarterbacks from his old team, the Patriots. The quarterback he was targeting was Matt Cassel.