With so much speculation surrounding the Miami Dolphins players on the field, the question of whether or not Mike McDaniel will be retained in 2026 has been put on the back burner.
Most of the NFL discussions this week have surrounded the future of Tua Tagovailoa. His future is a major question mark. McDaniel has done nothing to change the impression that Miami will do whatever it can to get him out of the organization this summer.
McDaniel did everything he could to help Tagovailoa develop, but you can only do so much when a player is dealing with uncoachable problems, like health concerns.
Mike McDaniel's biggest flaw wasn't Tua Tagovailoa, it was not trusting his own instincts
McDaniel was the run game coordinator for the 49ers before joining Miami. His bread and butter has always been watching backs knock defenders over for a big gain. The problem is that McDaniel didn't trust himself. He trusted his quarterback and put Tyreek Hill's goals ahead of the team's. He masked them as wanting the same thing.
It took a 2-7 record and continued inconsistency from Tagovailoa to finally change his approach to play calling. By then, it was too late. Miami was already so far behind that even a miracle may not have saved their season.
The realization that Tagovailoa isn't the quarterback to lead this team comes at you hard, and it leaves the Dolphins without a legit starter for the 2026 season. Miami is likely to do whatever it can to move on from Tagovailoa this offseason, and that is going to cripple the Dolphins in some way.
McDaniel never learned from his own mistakes. He continued to put the ball into his quarterback's hands, and when he didn't deliver, he kept everything the same.
Ross has to see the back and forth with McDaniel. The coach speaks about conviction and getting upset over players not learning from their mistakes, all the while looking in the mirror and not telling the guy looking back that he, too, is making the same mistakes over and over.
Against the Steelers, the game was close early on, so why did McDaniel abandon the run instead of wearing down the defensive front with physicality? Why did he turn to Tagovailoa early in the game?
In the first series of the game, Miami threw the ball three of their first four plays before punting. The next series was two runs, two throws, and one of those was intercepted. Miami couldn't generate a significant rushing attack because McDaniel wasn't committing to it.
Eventually, these mistakes are all going to need to be answered for, but Ross may wait until after next season. If we are being realistic, McDaniel will be retained and then fired midway through next season. That is owner Stephen Ross' "MO."
For all the "genius" accolades that McDaniel gets, the reality is that he doesn't trust himself enough to be the leading figure on the team. He caters too much to what the players are driving for, and that doesn't always add up to what the team needs to deliver. By the time he found that out this year, it was too late.