MIAMI — Mike McDaniel walked to the lectern in the fieldhouse of the Baptist Health Training Complex and delivered his first one-liner of the day. However, the microphone didn’t completely pick up McDaniel, who tapped and blew into the mic.
For someone known as a problem-solver throughout his 15-year NFL coaching career, his first fix in Miami was an easy one.
The Dolphins on Thursday officially introduced McDaniel, 38, as the team’s 11th coach in franchise history, where he set forth his plan to address a two-decades-long playoff drought.
It was the culmination of a month-long search to find the successor for Brian Flores after he was fired in January, a process general manager Chris Grier called “deliberate,” beginning with seven known candidates and ending with McDaniel wearing a Dolphins pin on the lapel of his blue suit as he spoke to reporters.
The Dolphins were the only team to interview McDaniel, who spent this past season as offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers after a series of stints as an assistant with five other teams. While Grier and owner Stephen Ross were drawn to McDaniel’s reputation as an innovative mind — Ross said some he spoke to referred to McDaniel as a “genius” — McDaniel became just as enamored with the prospects of joining the organization.
“I was coming here to interview for a dream position, a dream of mine,” McDaniel said of his second interview, held in person last Friday. “That’s what I thought it was. But as I walked through this building, the gorgeous building we stand in, saw the people, looked into their eyes, felt their passion, I quickly realized that this was my dream job. I had to go get it.”
The path that led the Dolphins to McDaniel was made somewhat bumpy after the filing of Flores’ lawsuit last week alleging racial discrimination and offers of payment from Ross to lose games during the 2019 season. McDaniel said he had no reservations about taking the job given the suit, mentioning an owner in Ross who “right, wrong or different, all he cares about is winning.”
McDaniel likened the Dolphins’ $135 million practice facility, which opened summer 2021, and Hard Rock Stadium to that befitting an SEC school, all a part of Ross’ “broad, grand” vision.
“That’s what I’m here to get the football to. And that’s what we’ll do,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel didn’t divert from the personality that quickly made him a cult-like figure among Dolphins fans on social media during the search process. He slipped various wisecracks and jokes into his prepared remarks and steadied himself with more when taking questions.
When asked how much say in personnel he will have – a point of contention between his predecessor and Grier – McDaniel quipped, “As much as I want to talk, I guess.”
He later called his relationship with Grier “a very comfortable situation for a coach to go into” and said they will evaluate players and have discussions to “collectively do the best thing for the Miami Dolphins.”
McDaniel, known for his acumen in the run game, crafted one of the most creative offenses in San Francisco with coach Kyle Shanahan and said his scheme for the Dolphins begins with “a unique design of everything that’s tailored to our players.”
When looking at the team on tape, McDaniel saw “a defense I didn’t want to go up against” and an offense with “tools,” beginning with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, whom he will be responsible for bringing the most out of.
“I’m not sitting here concerned with how good Tua can be,” said McDaniel, who added that he will call plays in Miami but work in collaboration with his offensive staff. “I’m concerned with as a collective unit what we can grow together, because that’s what wins football games. I haven’t seen a quarterback win a game by himself, ever, really. He has someone to throw to. He better not be getting tackled before he throws, somebody better block. And the defense better not allow them to score.
“But the biggest thing for me with Tua is that I want him to come in and work every day, and I’m very confident that he will. I want to provide teachers that can develop him. I’m very confident in the people we’re discussing this week and the plan we have for that. All you want is a guy that’s driven to be great, a guy that’s driven to get better and that gives you a chance. And it’s my job to make sure that he has the best chance to showcase his talents, and that’s everyone’s job really.”
In many ways, McDaniel’s points of emphasis — working as a collaborative group and finding unique teaching methods to get the most out of his players — were no different from that of any other coach, though not dressed up in the typical cliche-filled coach speak.
McDaniel reminisced on his earliest football memories — riding his bike from Greeley, Colorado, to the Denver Broncos’ training camp practices — noting that he once lived on 27th Avenue and the latest stop in his journey has brought him to 27th Avenue in Miami Gardens. Those formative years included a pair of Super Bowl wins in the 1990s for the team he grew up idolizing.
It’s a level of postseason success the Dolphins haven’t achieved in two decades – the team last reached the AFC Championship Game in the 1992 season – and the drought has brought cynicism, some warranted, to change for fans that have seen much of it over the years.
Asked why he, the Dolphins’ fourth non-interim coach in the last decade, would be different, McDaniel deadpanned: “Why not?”
“It’s not about me,” he continued. “It’s about my relationship with players. It’s not an individual ordeal. … It’s obvious to me how true of football fans the Miami Dolphins fanbase is because they haven’t won a playoff game in 20 years. But you can feel the passion, you can feel the interest. That just makes it all the more exciting because how great will that feel when, collectively, we can get it done. That obstacle is more something that can facilitate the end goal because it’s a bigger prize.
“What’s the last 20 years have to do with this year? Unless we can take some of those points from those years and apply them to this year, it’s irrelevant. It’s a group of men trying to do a common goal. I don’t really look at the past history except like, hey, it’s just going to be that much more gratifying for everyone. If the players can feel that, I think the players and coaches alike, it will really galvanize them to go after that.”
