Pats offensive guru McDaniels takes over in Denver with a smile

That was unacceptable to Bowlen, who reached out to a man half his age to resurrect a once-proud franchise.

McDaniels is a baby-faced 32-year-old whiz kid who is younger than some of his players.

McDaniels, who's been around football fields since he was a toddler hanging out at the high school in Canton, Ohio, where his father coached, said his young age shouldn't matter to anybody.

"My age has never been a factor. It's never going to be a factor," he said. "It's about performance. It's about what you're capable of getting the players to do."

McDaniels goes from one potent offense to another. With talented players like Jay Cutler, Eddie Royal, Brandon Marshall, Tony Scheffler, Ryan Harris and Ryan Clady, it's seemingly just a healthy running back away from greatness.

The Broncos finished second in the NFL in yards last season but middle of the pack in scoring, done in by Cutler's 18 interceptions, Marshall's 18 drops and an astonishing seven tailbacks on injured reserve.

The Broncos would like to see most of Shanahan's offensive assistants stick around, although McDaniels' hiring put a wrench in Cutler's hopes that position coach Jeremy Bates, another 32-year-old wunderkind who calls the plays, will stay.

Denver's dreadful defense now belongs to the engineer of the Patriots' powerful offense.

The Broncos, who yielded more points (448) and pried away fewer takeaways (13) than any team in the league last season, will be adjusting to their fourth defensive coordinator in four years. Nine times they allowed 30 points or more and Cutler and the offense just couldn't keep up.

"As much as I've coached offense the past four or five years here, I'm a football coach that's built to understand defense," McDaniels said. "That's where I learned my foundation. ... and I think that my goal as the head coach is not just to improve the defense. It's to improve the team."

One intriguing possibility to serve as McDaniels' defensive coordinator is Dom Capers, a veteran of two NFL head coaching jobs who assisted the Patriots' secondary last season. Another is former San Francisco head coach Mike Nolan.

McDaniels is the fourth member of Belichick's coaching staff to leave either for a head coaching job in the NFL or a prestigious college job. None of them has been very successful out on his own. Romeo Crennel left for Cleveland in 2005 and Eric Mangini joined the Jets a year later. Both were fired last month, with Mangini replacing Crennel in Cleveland. And Charlie Weis is on the hot seat at Notre Dame.

McDaniels said he's been shaped by Belichick, Weis and Nick Saban, who gave him his first job as a graduate assistant at Michigan State in 1999.

"I hope I've taken all the good things from them," McDaniels said.

The standoffish personalities of his three notable mentors didn't necessarily rub off on him, though.

"I think you'll certainly see me bring a little bit of a different vibe," McDaniels said. "I'm going to have a lot of energy. I can smile."

Bowlen said he changed his mind about hiring a general manager and indicated his top adviser, personnel chief Jim Goodman, would have an increased role instead.

"I have no plans to hire anybody else," Bowlen said.