Mike McDaniel One-Year Anniversary: What We've Learned About the Dolphins Head Coach
Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of the Miami Dolphins officially announcing the hiring of Mike McDaniel as their head coach, and it's difficult to give the hiring anything but a positive mark 365 days later.
While McDaniel showed he has room to grow as a head coach, particularly in the game management department, the positives far outweighed the negatives over the past year.
"When we started our search, we were looking to identify someone with several qualities that will have a real impact on our team," owner Stephen Ross said during McDaniel's introductory press conference. "We were looking for those qualities of leadership, intelligence, innovation, and that could really understand what it takes to win in the long run. Mike has all of those qualities. First of all, he’s probably one of the brightest coaches that I’ve spoken to. He is really known for his innovation on the field and many people, talking to them, actually call him a genius. That’s a big word and a lot of pressure on it, but certainly when you talk to people, the first thing they’ll say about Mike is he’s innovative and he’s thinking outside of the box.
"At the same time, the respect that he’s commanded through his over 18 years as a coach is really remarkable. It went so far as I had coaches in his former division calling me and telling me how great he was and I said, ‘why are you calling?’ And they said, ‘really, to get him out of the division.’ (laughter) it says an awful lot about the person and who he is. One thing that really you’ll find out that stands out about him is his passion for football, his passion for how he approaches the game and how he works with people. That’s what it’s all about. It’s really motivating, working with people with passion and intelligence on a consistent basis, that really will produce a winner. And I don’t think you’ll find anybody, and you’ll learn to see, with any more passion for this game in winning and winning the right way."
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McDANIEL'S FIRST SEASON ON AND OFF THE FIELD
McDaniel exhibited a lot of those qualities Ross mentioned during the 2022 season, scoring big points in the way he was able to relate to his players and instill confidence, and nowhere was that as obvious as it was with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.
Part of the mandate for anybody the Dolphins were going to hire last offseason once they decided to move on with Tagovailoa was to find somebody who could maximize his ability, and McDaniel did that in a big way with his backing and with his ability to scheme up the offense to take full advantage of the ridiculous speed of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle on the outside.
It wasn't just Tua with whom McDaniel showed a great ability to relate. By all appearances, by all accounts, McDaniel scored high on that level as well.
McDaniel made it a point — and that trickled down to his assistant coaches — to praise his players to the media and never openly criticize them.
While his press conferences became famous for his wit and quick lines, there were some serious moments — the tragic passing of Senior VP Jason Jenkins, the scary Tua concussion at Cincinnati — where McDaniel got emotional, providing a human element to a setting that's so often about X's and O's.
Looking at the bottom line, McDaniel helped the Dolphins end their latest playoff drought, as he joined Don Shula, Dave Wannstedt, Tony Sparano and Adam Gase as the only coaches in team history to get to the playoffs in his first season.
McDaniel will try to join Shula and Wannstedt in making it two playoff appearances in his first two seasons, and to that end he's bringing in well-respected defensive mind Vic Fangio.
The ability to land someone like Fangio when there were plenty other suitors — while understanding that financial considerations also could have come into play — says a lot about McDaniel and his respect he's earned around the league.
It's one more reason to think one year later that the Dolphins got it right with the McDaniel hiring.
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