4 areas Mike McDaniel is failing the Dolphins (and it could cost him his job)

It's time to say it. Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is treading water, and while he likely is not on the coaching hot seat, he surely should be. The loss to the Indianapolis Colts wasn't the problem. The problem is the way the Dolphins are playing and losing.

There are a lot of directions to point a finger if you are looking to blame someone for the mess the team is in. For this piece, we are pointing in the direction of the head coach.

After two seasons of watching McDaniel's offense thrive, his inability to counter defenses has put him in the crosshairs of the Dolphins fan base.

Mike McDaniel is hurting the Dolphins in these key areas

Play-calling has been a major issue, even when Dolphins are winning

Tua Tagovailoa is the perfect quarterback in this current system, but McDaniel's failure is the fact that if he is dumbing it down for his backups, he needs to take it lower. The talent on the offense is too good to be playing this bad, and it starts with the play-calling.

McDaniel's choices make little sense. A 3rd-and-1 with three of the best running backs in the NFL, and he calls the number of his fullback? His continual attempts on fourth down not only sap the team of momentum, but the calls themselves make little sense. The Dolphins have become predictable, and when something is working, like the running game, McDaniel calls a pass play that makes little sense.

Instead of trying to get the ball to Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, he simply lets them get taken out of the game and instead throws to Julian Hill on critical downs. It isn't working.

Inability to hold his players accountable for their mistakes

The Dolphins players apparently don't care about how they play. There is no accountability. The Dolphins have beaten a two-win Jacksonville Jaguars team and a one-win New England Patriots team, and it took the entire 60 minutes in both to win.

The only consistency in the offense is the penalties they still make prior to the snap. Maybe McDaniel's plays are fine, but he is playing catch-up from the holes his linemen are creating, and by holes, we mean yardage. They are either moving backward or canceling big plays.

The Dolphins lack discipline because McDaniel is a soft coach who believes the players themselves should be able to serve as the motivators and leaders of the team. He let the players create a "leadership" group, but they are not leading anything more than McDaniel to the unemployment line.

Not realizing that special teams are an important part of the game

One week, there was a pre-snap penalty on a punt. Another week, there was another missed field goal. Yet Danny Crossman still has a job.

The special teams should be the easiest part of the team to manage. The kickoff rules are much easier, yet still, the Dolphins can't succeed in that department. Ultimately, McDaniel is responsible for every facet of the team and he is failing the offense with his play-calling and special teams by keeping a coach who demands little from his players.

McDaniel does not possess the ability to make in-game and half-time adjustments

Three years into his head coaching career, McDaniel still can't make the adjustments most coaches can to give themselves a better chance to win. His offense remains the same, whether it is working or not. There is no change in discipline coming out of the locker room. It is the same thing every week, and the same mistakes are being made, yet nothing changes.

The Dolphins have lost to the Colts, Tennessee Titans, and Seattle Seahawks. Those three games were easily projected to be wins for this year's squad. When Tua went down again, McDaniel didn't adjust; he kept things the same. Instead of recognizing the limitations of his quarterbacks or the lack of quality wide receivers behind Hill and Waddle, McDaniel threw out the same offense as though the other players could handle it. They couldn't.