CLEVELAND, Ohio — Patriots offensive coordinator and Canton, Ohio native Josh McDaniels arrived at the Browns facility just before 10 a.m today to interview for their head coach vacancy, and if all goes well, he could become their 18th full-time head coach.

Team owner Jimmy Haslam sent his private jet to New England to pick up McDaniels, 43, and his wife Laura, but that’s not unusual. The other Browns candidates who have interviewed in Cleveland, including Mike McCarthy and Brian Daboll, were brought in via Air Haslam.

It’s also not unheard of for a candidate to bring his wife to an interview. It’s happened with the Browns before, both with candidates that they’ve hired and those that they haven’t.

McDaniels, who played wide receiver for John Carroll University in University Heights, also planned to bring his wife to interviews in Carolina and with the New York Giants, a source said. But those interviews never materialized when the Panthers hired former Baylor coach Matt Rhule on Tuesday and the Giants quickly snatched up Patriots special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach Joe Judge less than an hour later.

That left McDaniels with one option in the Browns — but an excellent chance to realize a dream and coach his hometown team.

A six-time Super Bowl winner, McDaniels is the eighth candidate to interview with the Browns in this cycle. The others were McCarthy, Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman, Chiefs OC Eric Bieniemy, Vikings OC Kevin Stefanski, Bills OC Brian Daboll, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and Eagles DC Jim Schwartz.

In addition to McDaniels, the Browns have been very impressed with a number of other candidates, including Stefanski, Saleh, Schwartz and Daboll. Stefanski was a finalist last year, and bolstered his resume this year with a full year of playcalling and a wild-card upset of the Saints last weekend. He’ll go head-to-head with Saleh in the divisional round Saturday in Santa Clara, Calif.

This marks McDaniels’ third chance to coach his hometown Browns, having interviewed in 2009 and 2014. In 2009, then-owner Randy Lerner was impressed with McDaniels but only had eyes for McDaniels’ friend and fellow Patriots assistant Eric Mangini, and hired him instead.

Still, McDaniels credits that interview with helping him land the Broncos head coach gig 10 days later, when he became the youngest head coach in the NFL at the time at 32 years and eight months.

“It was very worthwhile," McDaniels said then. “It was an incredible experience to meet Randy Lerner and go through that process, interview for the first time for a head coaching position. I’m very, very grateful he gave me the opportunity to do that.”

After going 11-17 in his two-plus seasons with the Broncos, McDaniels was fired 12 games into the 2010 season with a 3-9 mark. In 2014, after Rob Chudzinski was fired by Haslam after one season, McDaniels had an eight-hour sitdown with the search committee, but opted to remain in New England. The Browns ended up hiring Mike Pettine that year.

In 2018, McDaniels agreed to take the Colts job, but backed out the same day when the Patriots convinced him to stay and backed it up with a raise. Still, the snub of widely respected Colts GM Chris Ballard was viewed negatively around the league, and McDaniels has had to repair the damage in the last two hiring cycles.

“I wasn’t 100 percent sure what the future was. I just hadn’t had any clarity on that,’’ McDaniels told Jim McBride of the Boston Globe. “So, where did I fit in? Were there any plans? I just didn’t have much clarity on what my role was here moving forward.’’

McDaniels interviewed with the Packers last season but the job went to Matt LaFleur, and this is McDaniels’ lone interview in 2020. In those interviews and this one, McDaniels has to assure teams that he’s learned from his mistakes with the Broncos. He was also fired by the Rams after one season there in 2011 when Steve Spagnuolo was dismissed after a 2-14 season. McDaniels returned to New England and won three more Super Bowl rings.

“I don’t know that I was as patient as I needed to be in most situations, whether it was game-planning, on the sidelines, preparation for the draft, personnel moves, whatever,” he told Dan Pompeii, then of Bleacher Report, in 2016, of his time in Denver. “There is an element of this game that tests your ability to slow down and make a good decision. I was allowing the way I felt at the moment to make the decision.”

Sources say Stefanski and McDaniels have both had colleagues in their ears over the past few days warning them to think twice about the Browns job because of the short leash here for coaches. This is the fifth search for Haslam, and none of his previous four coaches has lasted a full three seasons. Two, Chudzinski and Freddie Kitchens, lasted a year.

McDaniels, sources have said, will need to feel comfortable with the front-office setup to take the job. Chief Strategy Officer Paul DePodesta, who’s leading the search, and his analytics team are expected to play a larger role going forward, and McDaniels must be on board. McDaniels would have a large say in hiring the general manager, and will likely try to bring Dave Ziegler or possibly Nick Caserio from New England, both of whom played with him at John Carroll. Former Browns, Patriots and Falcons personnel executive Scott Pioli is another possibility.

McDaniels loves Baker Mayfield and is excited to work with him, a source told cleveland.com. He flew to Austin, Texas three days before the 2018 draft for a private meeting with Mayfield, and the two hit it off.

Stefanski, meanwhile, is on his way to Santa Clara, Calif., for Saturday’s playoff game. The Browns are fully prepared to wait for their man to finish out the playoffs, if need be, a source said.

They’re exercising patience in this search and are determined to get it right. But they also have a long history with McDaniels, widely regarded as one of the best offensive minds in the game, and if he knocks their socks off today, the wait could be over.

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