5 people that link the 49ers franchise to the Miami Dolphins

This Sunday’s Week 13 game against the 49ers will be a revenge game of sorts for these members of the Miami Dolphins organization.

The Miami Dolphins are one of the top teams in the NFL after 12 weeks of the 2022 season, but things are about to get a lot tougher Mike McDaniel and company.

The last few opponents that the Dolphins have faced haven’t exactly been juggernauts. The Lions, Bears, and Browns aren’t the league’s worst teams, but they certainly don’t present the type of threat that Miami is going to face over the next few weeks. They’ll be on the road for the next three contests, with games against the Chargers and the Bills looming.

But first, they’ll have themselves a date with the San Francisco 49ers, who boast what is likely the league’s best defense. The unit led by coordinator DeMeco Ryans has allowed exactly 0 points over the last 6 quarters, and has some of the game’s most talented players at every level of their defense.

But the reason that this game could be one for the ages is because of the familiarity between the two. Some fans have gone as far as to refer to the Dolphins as the “South Beach 49ers”, as there are plenty of players and coaches that have experience with both organizations.

Here are five members of the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers that link the two teams:

1. Mike McDaniel

The biggest name that links the Dolphins and 49ers is Mike McDaniel. The new head coach in Miami, McDaniel spent five seasons in San Francisco as an assistant on Kyle Shanahan’s staff, with whom he worked under for a vast majority of his 17-year coaching career.

This game promises to be one of the marquee matchups of the season, and in large part because of the familiarity of the coaches. Both offensive game plans will feature similar blocking schemes and running game philosophies, as both have derived from the well-renowned Shanahan coaching tree. McDaniel is always one for good sound bites during the week, and he’ll surely have some witty comments about his former mentor leading up to the game.