Las Vegas Raiders running back Brandon Bolden knows Josh McDaniels well, having played eight seasons under the offensive coordinator in New England. But it's the first time Bolden is seeing McDaniels lead his own club.
"It's like if you're used to your older brother babysitting, but now the parents are nowhere around and you're stuck with your big brother for the weekend," Bolden said Wednesday, via the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "It's been cool these past years to see him going to Denver and coming back to New England, and now I've had him since I was a rookie, and now he's where he is now."
If we're following Bolden's analogy correctly, McDaniels always toed the Bill Belichick line in New England but now has the freedom to be looser. (It's either that or he's throwing a huge rager in Vegas.)
After crashing and burning in Denver in his first time away from Belichick, by all accounts, McDaniels is taking a different approach in Vegas. From the coach on down through all the players, everything we've heard is that the new coach isn't trying to re-create the Patriot Way.
"This is something totally different," Bolden said. "Josh is going to put his own spin on things. Are there a few things we learned along the way because I was there with him a lot of that time? Sure. But we're not trying to be New England. We're the Las Vegas Raiders, and that's what we're going to play as."
Given that pretty much every Belichick disciple who tries to enact Belichickian authority quickly withers, it's a positive sign that McDaniels is taking a different approach.
And unlike the big brother in charge for the weekend, McDaniels doesn't even need to make sure the house is clean by the time mom and dad get home.
