McDaniel Ready for Old Friends on Jets Staff
There's going to be an awful lot of familiarity for Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel when his team faces the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday.
It's actually almost going to be like being back on the San Francisco 49ers coaching staff.
While the Dolphins have wide receivers coach Wes Welker and tight ends coach Jon Embree who joined McDaniel from the 49ers, the Jets coaching staff features former McDaniel co-workers Robert Saleh, Mike LaFleur, Miles Austin and John Benton — head coach, OC, WR coach and OL coach, respectively.
“This whole team, the Jets, is probably, outside of the team I just left, has the ... I’ve worked with all these guys for so long," McDaniel said this week. "Robert and I were both hanging on as young NFL assistants back in 2006, and then we both ended up being let go in Houston at some point and scratching and clawing to stay in the league. One of the closest coaches, to me, that exists in the league. And then probably the guy that I’ve worked alongside the most besides Kyle Shanahan is Mike LaFleur, who does an unbelievable job over there that credit really hasn’t been given to him, but I’m sure that credit will sometime in the future. Maybe near, hopefully not too near like next Sunday. Coach Saleh, very close. Mike LaFleur, very close. Jeff Ulbrich, the defensive coordinator, I’m very tight with. I mean, there’s a laundry list of guys. Even Miles Austin, their receivers coach, was the first player that I had ever coached that we got into coaching in San Francisco.
"So the list, John Benton, (Defensive Line Coach Aaron) Whitecotton, (linebackers coach Mike) Rutenberg — I mean, there’s a laundry list of guys. Very, very, very good relationship working and personal. So that’s why I have a clear-cut vision of what it’s going to take for our guys to be happy with their performance on Sunday, because I know how detailed and passionate and how much energy those guys in wherever they’re at New York (or) New Jersey those guys are preparing for us today on Wednesday and for the rest of the week.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR EVEN MORE COVERAGE ON THE MIAMI DOLPHINS, CHECK OUT SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S MIAMI DOLPHINS PAGE ON SI.COM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SALEH HAS TREMENDOUS RESPECT FOR McDANIEL
That familiarity, of course, works both ways.
And the respect McDaniel has for Saleh is mutual, and it's been there since they first worked together for the Houston Texans in 2006.
"Since then, we’ve been pretty darn close," Saleh said Wednesday. "Eventually, that room added Matt LaFleur and Richard Hightower. So, it was a really, really cool room, but, initially, it was just he and I. We had a lot of really cool conversations, a lot of cool date nights with whoever he was with at the time — not his current wife, who is a beauty, but with my now wife. We’re very close. We’re very close."
Saleh provided interesting insight as well into McDaniel's personality, which has become a talking point early in his tenure as an NFL head coach — though it shouldn't overshadow the great work he's done so far with the Dolphins.
"When you’re an assistant, you kind of have to fall in line and you take on the personality of the person you’re following, if you will," Saleh said. "To just watch him from afar, watch some of his press conferences, talking to some of the guys who are on staff, you always knew when he got his opportunity, he was going to seize the moment and take absolute charge and show how, not necessarily strong of a personality, but how convicted he is in his beliefs and his philosophy. All the BS narrative of how would he handle adversity, he’s going to knock it out of the park because he knows who he is. He has a philosophy. He has conviction. He’s a good man. He’s got great principles. He doesn’t break. He doesn’t fold under pressure. When you’re an assistant to Kyle (Shanahan), and I say this respectfully, that’s the biggest pressure cooker you can be in. All the rest of the stuff is easy. He’s going to be fantastic for a long time."
