McDaniels

FOXBORO —– There were a lot of firsts for the New England Patriots last season, which produced the highest-scoring offense that the NFL has ever seen.

That played a big part in New England posting the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history.

The mastermind behind the Pats offense was first-year offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, a hard-working 32-year-old who went from coaching as a graduate assistant in 1999-2000 at Michigan State, to becoming a personnel assistant for the Patriots in 2001, to climbing through the Patriots’ coaching ranks to become the offensive coordinator at the end of the 2005-06 season.

He was given the tools to produce a highly efficient offense last season, when the Patriots signed six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Donte Stallworth, and veteran running back Sammy Morris to complement an already proven quarterback in Tom Brady along with a young, up-and-coming and talented running back in Laurence Maroney.

This season, Moss, who set an NFL-record for most touchdowns caught in a season (23), and Welker, who set an NFL-record for the most passes caught by a player in his first season with a new team (112), know the playbook and they are on the same page with Brady.

So New England’s offense is already ahead of where it was last year at this time, McDaniels said.

“We had so many new guys last year. They were learning the whole year, at least a good part of the year.”

But, with a year under their belts, things are different this time around.

“From a learning and understanding-the-system standpoint, I think we are where we would want to be. This group of guys is very easy to coach. They learn the system and the new things each week very quickly. They are not learning as many new things as they were at this time last year.”

Last season, when Moss was double-teamed, it opened things up for Welker, Stallworth — who is no longer with the team — tight end Ben Watson and Jabar Gaffney. McDaniels expects the same thing to happen this year.

He also said he planned on getting the Patriot running backs more involved in the passing game.

“We have a good group and we feel like we have a lot of depth there,” McDaniels said. “Hopefully, we should be able to keep fresh running backs on the field all the time. We don’t do the big role thing; they can all interchange with one another. They should be in the game and give us productive plays in either the running game or passing game.”

McDaniels said that the biggest thing he learned about last season is that no team plays you the same way.

“It is totally different every week because the opponent is different, the scheme changes and personnel is never the same,” McDaniels said. “I think from a coaching standpoint, every week you come in you are trying to ‘crack the code.’ You have to figure out what to do and figure out ‘Is this the best way to approach this week or not?’ Whatever you did the previous week doesn’t necessarily matter. You have to go to that next week and find out what gives you the best chance of being successful and try to apply it and work like hell during the week to get it to work the way you want on Sunday.”

roblee@projo.com