The San Francisco 49ers are among the teams that have reached out to New England Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. The others, per Albert Breer of MMQB, include the Los Angeles Rams and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Things getting started ... Rams, Jaguars, 49ers have reached out to show interest in Patriots OC Josh McDaniels.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 2, 2017
49ers CEO Jed York has reportedly always been interested in bringing in McDaniels, but it is unknown how interested the offensive coordinator would be in the 49ers given the current state of the team. He is expected to garner a lot of interest from teams with head coach vacancies this offseason. McDaniels can interview with teams because the Patriots will have a bye week as they await an opponent from the Wildcard round on the AFC side of the playoffs.
McDaniels moving into a head coaching role could take some time because the Patriots are favorites on the AFC side to reach the Super Bowl, which means that he would be unable to begin assembling his staff until after New England is done with postseason play. That late start may concern some teams, but McDaniels' name has been mentioned as a hot commodity over the past few years.
McDaniels has head coaching experience having served in the role with the Denver Broncos from 2009 until 2010. He has had two stints with the Patriots as their offensive coordinator. The first was from 2006 until 2008. The second was after the Patriots hired McDaniels to act as an offensive assistant during their 2011 season playoff run. He replaced offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien in 2012 and has been with the Patriots since. Prior to that, McDaniels was the offensive coordinator of the St. Louis Rams in 2011.
Pro Football Talk has reported that the 49ers will attack the vacant general manager position first. So, why reach out to McDaniels? There are at least a couple of possibilities. The first is that the 49ers already have one or a few general managers in mind and believe that they might have an interest in McDaniels. The second is because the Patriots' bye week would be teams' only opportunity to talk to McDaniels and any general manager that comes in might be fine with him as a head coach so the team might as well reach out.