Image courtesy of the New England Patriots

SANTA CLARA, CA – Josh McDaniels was re-invigorated by his time away from the NFL.

It’s been well-documented that McDaniels used his time wisely, spending it with family, but also visiting several colleges, picking the brain of anyone and everyone he thought could help him add to his extensive offensive repertoire. One of those stops was Boston College, where he hung with the Eagles and caught up with head coach and longtime friend Bill O’Brien.

During the final day of media availability for the Pats on Thursday before The Big Game on Sunday, I asked McDaniels about that visit and his relationship with O’Brien.

“Yeah, Billy sent me a message after the AFC Championship game and he’s just been a great friend of mine,” he said. “Bill’s a great coach. He does things the right way. No doubt in my mind he’s going to get that place where he wants it. But, I’ve learned a lot from Bill over many years. We first got together in 2007. He had a lot more experience than I did, so it’s been a two-way street our whole relationship.

“He does a great job of evolving offensively. The way he runs his team, the way he runs his practice, it’s just been great for me to have an opportunity to have somebody that’s such a great friend of mine so close. My daughter goes to BC now, so that makes it a little easier as well. I’m always pulling for Billy, pulling for BC and appreciate the friendship and the relationship that we have.”

With the landscape of college football so different, I also asked Josh if he has been able to learn anything in terms of offensive scheme or anything like that during his time over in Chestnut Hill, or if it was more of a bouncing ideas off each other type of visit.

“The game is different. Obviously, depending on the team you have and the skillsets of the players, you can take some things that people do, for sure, from every level,” he said. “But, the game is different once you get into the National Football League. The defensive fronts usually command a ton of attention and those kinds of things.

“There’s definitely some things you can take and steal from at different places, but I think once you get into this level, there’s certain things you have to do that you don’t necessarily have to do in college.”

With both O’Brien and McDaniels having worked with Tom Brady extensively, I also had to ask McDaniels if there’s anything he and O’Brien talked about when it comes to working with Drake Maye, particularly if there’s been any carryover on or off the field.

“There’s definitely a difference in terms of what we’re doing now with Drake,” McDaniels added. “Drake’s skillset is different. The system, the terminology and the communication and the language we speak is very much the same, but there’s obviously a few things that Drake has enabled us to do.

“We’ve always tried to tailor what we’re doing to who we have and certainly, this year has been no different.”