The Miami Dolphins found their offensive coordinator under first-time head coach Mike McDaniel.
Los Angeles Chargers run-game coordinator and offensive line coach Frank Smith landed the job on Monday, a league source confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The news was first reported by NFL Network.
Smith interviewed for the job on Saturday and was the third known candidate after other reports named Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London and New Orleans Saints wide receivers coach Curtis Johnson, who had a previous decade-long stint in the same role with the Miami Hurricanes, as those up for the offensive coordinator vacancy.
McDaniel, who comes to Miami after holding the role of offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, said at his introductory press conference with the Dolphins on Thursday that he plans on calling plays, like 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan did in San Francisco. Before becoming offensive coordinator in 2021, McDaniel was a run-game coordinator himself with the 49ers.
Smith just completed his first season in that role for the Chargers and is largely credited for turning around a line that struggled in 2020 before he arrived.
Smith also has a background in developing tight ends. He was tight ends coach for the Oakland and Las Vegas Raiders from 2018 to 2020, working with one of the league’s best at the position in Darren Waller. He held the same role with the Chicago Bears from 2015 to 2017. Smith’s first NFL job came under former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, as assistant offensive line coach from 2010 to 2014.
Smith, a Miami (Ohio) grad, was a college coach before that, holding the role of offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Butler from 2007 to 2009 and leading the line in the 2006 season. He was a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2004 and 2005.
While McDaniel didn’t call offensive plays with the 49ers, it appears he will go with a similar coach/offensive coordinator relationship as he had under Shanahan. McDaniel will be a first-time play-caller after Shanahan did in San Francisco, and Smith will be instrumental in developing the offensive game plan.
Smith enters the offensive coordinator role after leading a team’s run game, similar to the transition McDaniel made ahead of the 2021 season. His background can help fix two major issues the Dolphins had last season between developing the run game and the team’s offensive line, complementing the reported hire of Matt Applebaum from Boston College as offensive line coach.
With the 38-year-old McDaniel being a young, first-time head coach, some believed he could opt for a more veteran presence at one of the coordinator positions. Smith is 40, and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, who McDaniel is retaining in that role from previous coach Brian Flores’ staff, is 45.
McDaniel is building what is mostly a young coaching staff, but he can also get those older, more experienced voices from tight ends coach Jon Embree, whom he brings from the 49ers, running backs coach Eric Studesville and special teams coordinator Danny Crossman, who remain in Miami. Embree will also be assistant head coach while Studesville will hold the title of associate head coach.
Smith becomes offensive coordinator after Flores, last year, went with co-coordinators of Studesville and George Godsey, who was the primary play-caller for most of the 2021 season. Both also led their position groups as Godsey doubled as tight ends coach. Godsey has since become tight ends coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
McDaniel nearly has a full coaching staff but still has an opening offensively for a quarterbacks coach. On defense, he has vacancies for a defensive backs coach and outside linebackers coach. Those roles were held by Gerald Alexander and Rob Leonard, respectively, under Flores.
