Browns Analysis: Josh McDaniels is eager to state his case for a second chance to be a head coach, and the Browns are squarely on his radar. He also is on theirs.

Bill Belichick used Cleveland as a priceless training ground to build an NFL empire in New England.

The prospect of Josh McDaniels leveraging Belichick's school of schools to land in Cleveland is more intriguing than ever.

McDaniels is enthusiastically interested in the Cleveland opening. The Browns have used back channels to indicate a mutual preliminary interest, but they have not invited him to an early interview. The Green Bay Packers did, and he said yes.

Browns General Manager John Dorsey has been good at cloaking what he is up to, including in the eyes of some obvious candidates. However, indications are that McDaniels is a very serious candidate.

There have been times the Browns had to pull teeth to interest coaches and free agents. This is different.

The team went 0-16 in 2017. In the wake of improving to 7-8-1 in Dorsey's first year as GM, their situation is viewed as the best among teams with openings. Pro Football Talk, for example, opined that second place isn't close, but the perception exists among plenty of coaches, not just media analysts.

Baker Mayfield, an emerging roster, salary cap room galore, Dorsey, and an improving view of ownership are among Cleveland's assets.

In his capacity of Patriots offensive coordinator, McDaniels had a substantial visit with Mayfield in advance of the 2018 draft. They hit it off.

McDaniels has imagined a chance to succeed Belichick as head coach, but no one presses THAT issue. Belichick gives no clues about when he might retire.

Potential Browns candidate Bruce Arians, 66, recommends that the team select a pilot with meaty NFL experience.

Belichick, also 66, has reached more Super Bowls (eight) than any head coach in history. McDaniels, 42, has been at his side for all eight.

In public, McDaniels talks rather like Belichick. Deliberately. Methodically. He was asked before a recent game against the Steelers about other teams adopting some of New England's plays, and vice versa.

His answer:

"There's a lot of really good coaches and a lot of unique designs. People are always creating new things to try to give themselves an advantage. We're all football coaches. We all see different games when we're looking at tape of an opponent, like Pittsburgh.

"You're trying to make decisions on what works for your team, because none of us have the same players. If our guys can do something well that somebody else might have done and it fits who we are, great.

"The most important thing is you have to play with good fundamentals. You have to block, you have to run, you have to throw and catch, you have to pick up blitzes. It's not a play call or scheme or some design. It's playing good solid football."

McDaniels doesn't joke around in press conferences like, say, Freddie Kitchens, but he is a bright fellow (A-plus student at McKinley High School) with a sense of humor.

When he landed the Broncos head coaching job in 2009, he gleefully went on the Jim Rome show and admitted he was a fan. Rome's shtick is sarcastic comedy.

By McDaniels' second year with the Broncos, Denver was burning. Getting fired was painful then, but McDaniels now regards it as a tremendous learning experience, along the lines of Belichick's in his early years as Cleveland's head coach.

Peripheral considerations work both for and against McDaniels.

Belonging to the Belichick tree invites the observation that none of his eight assistants who went on to be NFL head coaches enjoyed more than spotty pro success. The group includes McDaniels himself. Hired at age 32 in Denver, he got off to a 6-0 start in 2009 before things came apart. He was dismissed with four games left in his second season.

The tree also includes Romeo Crennel and Eric Mangini, who became fired Browns head coaches with a combined record of 34-62.

Yet, there are multiple branches in the B-Tree discussion. Crennel's 2007 Browns set an expansion-era record by going 10-6. Nick Saban went just 15-17 with the Dolphins but is doing all right in college. Mangini (Jets) and Jim Schwartz (Lions) took teams to the playoffs.

Bill O'Brien is emerging as a successful B-Tree guy, having piloted the Houston Texans to their third AFC South title in three of the last four years. Worth noting: McDaniels was O'Brien's boss in New England in 2007 and '08 (McDaniels was offensive coordinator; O'Brien was an offensive assistant).

After McDaniels left for Denver, O'Brien was Tom Brady's position coach in 2009 and '10 and offensive coordinator in 2011. The 2011 regular season ended with the Rams firing head coach Steve Spagnuolo, whose offensive coordinator was McDaniels. The Patriots were 13-3. Suddenly free, McDaniels was hired by Belichick as a special assistant for what became a run to the Super Bowl.

O'Brien finished that postseason as offensive coordinator, knowing he was on his way to be head coach at Penn State. McDaniels regained his old job as offensive coordinator in 2012 and has had it ever since.

The Patriots' regular-season records with McDaniels as coordinator were 12-4, 16-0 and 11-5 from 2006-08. From 2012-18, the records have been 12-4, 12-4, 12-4, 12-4, 14-2, 13-3 and 11-5.

McDaniels has been a Browns head coaching candidate multiple times, first in 2009 when then-owner Randy Lerner interviewed him. Lerner deemed that the youth-inexperience factor was too evident and hired Mangini.

Yet, McDaniels impressed Denver owner Pat Bowlen and got that job. His home opener, against Mangini's Browns, produced a 27-6 win. He improved to 5-0 by beating his old boss, Belichick, 20-17. His record the rest of the way was 6-17.

McDaniels was on the verge of becoming the Colts' head coach last January. New England had a first-round playoff bye, freeing him to accept Indy's request for an early interview, which went well.

What appeared to be a sure hire unraveled.

McDaniels got close enough to taking the job that he was well into lining up a coaching staff. His defensive coordinator was Matt Eberflus, who stayed even after McDaniels pulled out and Frank Reich became head coach. Worth noting: The Browns plan to interview Eberflus.

McDaniels has prepared to explain his side of the Colts story to the Packers, Browns and anyone else who might interview him.

The Packers, still banking on 35-year-old Aaron Rodgers, want someone who knows how to work with a superstar quarterback. McDaniels joined the Patriots during Tom Brady's second season and soon became his position coach. Between McDaniels' first and second shifts in New England, he has been Brady's offensive coordinator for 10 years.

Naturally, the question arises: How good can McDaniels be without Belichick and Brady nearby?

His quick answers might be that Belichick has given him substantial autonomy to construct the offense and call plays, and that when Brady was injured in 2008, the Patriots went 10-5 with Matt Cassel as the starter.

Relocating to Ohio would be a homecoming for both McDaniels and his wife of 16 years. She was Laura Johncock when she grew up in Parma and attended Valley Forge High School. For a while, she lived in Westlake, a popular settling spot for Browns players and coaches.

Josh and Laura met in 2000 as coworkers for a Cleveland plastics company, FiberTech. That was when Josh began applying his John Carroll education toward a career in the business world, only to realize his real ambition was to coach football.

He landed a graduate assistant job at Michigan State under Saban, who had been Belichick's defensive coordinator with the Browns. The connection led to an offer to work with Belichick's Patriots in 2001, coinciding with Belichick's first run to a Super Bowl.

McDaniels went to John Carroll as a quarterback but became a wide receiver after Nick Caserio (now a Patriots executive) won the job. John Carroll's stadium is named after a former player, Don Shula, the all-time NFL wins leader with 347 (Belichick heads for the playoffs in third place with 289, counting his all-time best 28 postseason wins).

The all-time record for wins at McKinley is held by Josh's father, Thom, with whom Josh spent his high school career. Josh started at quarterback for two seasons, including the epic '94 campaign that included a 42-41 loss at Massillon in the 100th game in the great rivalry, a playoff win over Massillon in a packed Rubber Bowl, and a loss in the state semifinals to Cleveland St. Ignatius.

John "Spider" Miller, now the head coach at East Canton, was a veteran member of McKinley's staff when Josh played.

"Josh had great character and integrity and was a leader among his peers," Miller said Thursday. "He got along with teachers, teammates and everyone else. Football-wise, the apple didn't fall too far from the tree with his mom and dad.

"He was a student of the game. He put us in great position to win games and was just a great young man who wanted to learn, listen and get better.

"His work ethic is second to none. The coaches he has been with have noticed that. He just worked hard at everything he did."

McDaniels has been happy working in New England. He and Laura have four children (the oldest in eighth grade) who have settled into their Boston-area schools.

Coaches move. McDaniels' 15 years with Belichick in New England is an NFL eternity. If the Browns are interested, he's all ears. Behind the scenes, the Browns are interested.

Reach Steve at 330-580-8347 or

steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP