Dissecting the Decision to Move On from McDaniel

The Miami Dolphins have decided to make a coaching change four days after the end of their 2025 season.

Miami Dolphins Vice Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Garfinkel, new head coach Mike McDaniel, owner Stephen M. Ross, and general manager Chris Grier, are photographed during a press conference at Baptist Health Training Center in 2022. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Now we know why Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross didn't put out any statement regarding head coach Mike McDaniel and his status at the end of the 2025 regular season finale like he had last year.

Ross hadn't made a final decision, and now he has.

And now the Miami Dolphins are without a head coach after firing McDaniel after four seasons on the job, and they can pursue John Harbaugh or any other candidate they want.

Whether it was Harbaugh's sudden availability that precipitated Ross' decision might never be known, and the same goes for whether the GM candidates the Dolphins interviewed this week made it clear they didn't think he was the right person to lead the team, and Ross heeded their advice.

But the reality is this was the right decision for the Dolphins.

WHY ROSS MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE

McDaniel succeeded in some aspects in his four seasons as head coach because he led the Dolphins to the playoffs in each of his first two years, and that's something the Dolphins hadn't done in back-to-back years in two decades.

So that counts for something.

McDaniel also maximized Tua Tagovailoa's skill set after his first two ho-hum seasons, and getting that done was a big part of the assignment after the Dolphins decided to build the franchise around him.

And he never lost the team because the Dolphins showed the ability to bounce back after poor starts each of the past two seasons, going from 2-6 to 8-9 in 2024 and from 2-7 to 7-10 in 2025.

But McDaniel never got the Dolphins that ever-elusive playoff win, and the organization also went in a drastically different (and worse) direction in 2025, with a shaky outlook heading into the offseason that screamed that a change was needed.

The Dolphins most definitely should make a run at landing John Harbaugh as their new head coach, and that was true from the moment he was fired by the Baltimore Ravens, but it never felt right or appropriate to do it as long as McDaniel remained head coach.

This is a mistake Ross made before — ironically, that time it involved John Harbaugh's brother — and it's a recipe for disaster. If you recall, after giving Tony Sparano a contract extension in 2011 as a goodwill gesture after reaching out to Jim Harbaugh behind his back, Sparano didn't even finish out the next season.

McDaniel is a genuinely good guy, and it's hard to feel too bad for him, one, because he'll likely land a new job pretty soon, even if it's as an offensive coordinator, and two, because he's got three years left on his contract, thanks to the extension that Ross gave him in September 2024.

MAYBE ROSS HAS LEARNED

McDaniel was fired after four seasons on the job, giving him the longest stay as Dolphins head coach since Dave Wannstedt lasted four seasons plus nine games.

An argument can be made that it should have been three years for McDaniel after the Dolphins' disappointing step back in 2024, but the counter argument is that he didn't have Tagovailoa at quarterback for four games early in the season and then the final two.

At the very least, Ross didn't make of sticking too long with this head coach, as he did with Sparano and with Joe Philbin.

Let's be honest, the Dolphins look like they have a tough road ahead to get back to contender status, and maybe wholesale changes can make the recovery go faster.

Regardless, this was the right move, and not just to appease the fan base.

As Ross said last year, the status quo wasn't acceptable. Going from 8-9 to 7-10 and this time without the starting QB missing any games because of injury wasn't status quo; it was worse.

And it left Ross with no choice.