Tom E. Curran • E-mail

Two months ago, Josh McDaniels was a precocious, lantern-jawed offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots. The 32-year-old was on the make for a head coaching job that would allow him to bring his scheming brilliance to a team in need.

And now? "He looks like a (expletive) idiot," said an NFL source.

That McDaniels has run into static in Denver really isn't that surprising. Every acorn that's fallen off the Bill Belichick tree seems to, sooner or later, get pounded into mush.

McDaniels just appears to be getting down to business sooner rather than later.

The football acumen of Romeo Crennel, Eric Mangini and Charlie Weis – ex-Patriots coordinators who won Super Bowls in New England then moved into head coaching gigs with the Browns, Jets and Notre Dame respectively – is unquestioned.

But whether it's the tone they try to establish, the talent of the teams they take over or simple bad luck, none have succeeded at the level expected when they left Foxboro, Mass.

Crennel and Mangini were both fired after last season. Weis is 29-21 in four seasons at South Bend and owns the third-worst winning percentage of any coach in the past 104 years of Irish football. Only Joe Kuharich (.425) and Gerry Faust's (.535) are beneath Weis among the 22 ND coaches since 1905.

This is a phenomenon that doesn't stop with former Patriots assistants. Almost none of the players New England has jettisoned since the Belichick regime started in 2000 have had a greater impact elsewhere.

Drew Bledsoe, Lawyer Milloy, Ty Law, Terry Glenn, Deion Branch, David Givens, Tully Banta-Cain, Tom Ashworth, Adam Vinatieri, David Patten, Damien Woody, Joe Andruzzi, Willie McGinest, Tebucky Jones, Marc Edwards and Daniel Graham were all cut, traded or signed elsewhere as free agents. None of them were better off elsewhere.

Defensive lineman Greg Spires – released in 2000 by the Patriots and a starter for the 2002 Bucs Super Bowl team – is the lone player to go on to bigger and better things. The jury remains out on corner Asante Samuel who signed for big money with the Eagles after 2007.

Shards of New England's dynasty have scattered around the league in this offseason like no other during the Belichick Era.

Aside from McDaniels, who replaced Mike Shanahan in Denver, longtime Patriots vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli is now GM of the Kansas City Chiefs. And it was Pioli's decisive move to snag franchised backup quarterback Matt Cassel from the Patriots that has, ironically, led to McDaniels' present mess in Denver.

Slideshow   The Week in Sports Pictures The Giants on top of the football world, getting ready for the London Olympics and more. more photos

Strangely enough, as successful as New England has been this decade, their progenies' inclination to try and replicate the "Patriots Way" elsewhere is what seems to lead to problems.

McDaniels wanted to make a play for Cassel because he A) had success with Cassel in 2008 and B) liked Cassel's approach.

But McDaniels' inexperience caused him to drag his feet. Proof of that was McDaniels telling SI's Peter King that he pursued a deal for Cassel at the start of free agency but not "intensely" because he had six other free agent deals in the works. McDaniels was naïve to think A) Cutler wouldn't hear of the trade talks, B) Cutler wouldn't be miffed and C) that the "back in line, soldier" approach that flies in New England would work on a coddled quarterback with a sense of entitlement. Not from a 32-year-old who looks 22.