Takeaways from the Dolphins Assistant Coaches Media Session
New Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel introduced his coaching staff Wednesday when the team conducted a media session with all the assistants at the Baptist Health Training Complex.
Like literally.
Not that he talked about each of the assistants one by one, but McDaniel made a general statement about his staff before the offensive assistants walked out behind their individual tables, to be followed later by their defensive counterparts.
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While McDaniel didn't necessarily say anything unexpected about his assistants, the mere fact he walked out to set up the stage was pretty cool and yet another example of what so far has been a very open — and much appreciated — media approach.
Here were some of the takeaways from the session, which lasted a little more than an hour:
The former Dolphins players were popular
Maybe the most noteworthy aspect of McDaniel's staff is the presence of former Dolphins players Sam Madison, Patrick Surtain and Wes Welker, and not surprisingly they attracted the most media attention Wednesday afternoon.
It makes sense, really, because Madison and Surtain formed the best cornerback tandem in team history, and Welker developed into one of the best slot receivers the NFL has seen after he moved on to New England and later Denver.
Madison and Surtain being reunited to coach Dolphins cornerbacks is a great story and a handful of media members (myself included) have covered the team long enough that this was like seeing an old friend.
For those who have followed the team long enough, it was no surprise that the last assistant coach to finish up his interview was Madison, who always was among the most cooperative and talkative players during his playing days in Miami.
Boyer addresses defensive play-calling issue
Defensive coordinator Josh Boyer is well aware of the reports suggesting it was former head coach Brian Flores who called the defensive plays in the second half of last season, with the implication being that the change is what led to the resurgence in the second half of the season.
Boyer quickly shot down that notion, saying he called the plays all season after the game plan was finalized with input from everybody on the staff.
Boyer added that's how things are going to continue to operate in 2022.
As far as how to explain the improvement, Boyer chalked it up to a little bit of scheme change, a little bit of a different approach, a little better execution (the part that Boyer never would mention but is undeniable is the quality of the opposition, particularly at the quarterback position, dropped considerably).
When it comes to the defensive scheme, Boyer says what the Dolphins will do in 2022 will depend on the personnel, though considering McDaniel has more than once pointed to Miami's defensive performance at San Francisco in 2020 as a reason for keeping Boyer, it's hard to envision the Dolphins deviating very much from what they've been doing.
One last thing with Boyer, he was asked point blank whether he ever felt any pressure to lose on purpose in 2019, in light of Flores' allegations that owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 per loss that season.
'“No. I’ve never felt that," Boyer said. "That’s never come up for me. Every conversation that I’ve had is, ‘Put guys in the best position to succeed and try to win the game.’ For me personally, that has never come up. There’s a lot of things that are out there that are surprising. I know that there are some things that are out there that are not true."
Studesville surprised he was retained
McDaniel ended up retaining three of the four coordinators on the 2021 coaching staff — Boyer, special teams coordinator Danny Crossman and co-offensive coordinator/running backs coach Eric Studesville.
Of the three, Studesville was the only one who said Wednesday he was surprised he was retained, though maybe he shouldn't have been considering it had happened before.
Remember that Studesville also was among the coaches that Flores retained when he replaced Adam Gase as head coach in 2019.
Studesville lost the title of co-offensive coordinator this year but he replaced it with associate head coach while maintaining his role as running backs coach.
When asked the question, Boyer started his answer with the "y" sound before switching gears and just talking about how excited he is at the idea of working with McDaniel.
Smith 'super excited' about Tua
We close with the new offensive coordinator, Frank Smith, who said he didn't know a whole lot about quarterback Tua Tagovailoa after being hired but said he was "super excited" to work with him.
"At the time, I was worrying about other position groups and other priorities," Smith said. "But as I’ve been here, and you’re studying him as a player, super excited. Extremely accurate passer. His patience with things and what we’re going to be able to do is going to be really, really cool.
"I know just in the limited stuff from this week, just super excited the more tape we get to watch. With the hiring process, you get in here, and you’re trying to get a staff together, you’re trying to figure out, combine, all this. And now as we’re getting into it every week, more and more tape, we get more and more excited. … You’re going, ‘This is going to be really, really cool to have him at quarterback for us.' ”
