Mike McDaniel was fired last week after four seasons as the Miami Dolphins' head coach. It has been reported that it was a tough decision for owner Stephen Ross. It shouldn't have been.
McDaniel is the kind of guy you want to hang out with, maybe have a drink with, the kind of coach fans can rally behind because he drives by a known Bills Mafia hangout in South Beach after his team beat them. McDaniel is you, me, and every other NFL fan who never had a chance to play in the league.
For all those little things that make McDaniel a great guy, it's the opposite for his coaching, and that is why the Dolphins have already won this coaching cycle, at least on paper.
Miami Dolphins will succeed in their coaching search because almost anything will be better than Mike McDaniel
The Dolphins have a new GM, and it is a significant move. For the first time in Ross' ownership, he will have a new GM who will have a loud voice in the hiring of a new HC in the same offseason. Jon-Eric Sullivan is an outsider. A guy that falls out of the Ted Thompson and Ron Wolf Packers' tree.
Sullivan is already the early victor because he won't have to keep McDaniel.
If we look at McDaniel as a head coach, we have to ignore all that nice guy stuff we hear so much of. He wasn't the leader of men so many assumed. He just didn't lose the locker room, but let's be fair too, they didn't rise to a new level to save him either.
McDaniel didn't hold his players accountable. He wanted them to do that on their own. When they didn't learn from their mistakes, he got upset, yet he never learned from his own. McDaniel made the same mistakes he was making in his first season.
Sure, he took the Dolphins to two playoff appearances, but it was his coaching that lost the games. Against the Bills, McDaniel refused to change a system to give his young backup quarterback, Skylar Thompson, a better opportunity. When the game came down to the final drive, his inability to get the play into the huddle cost them yardage and the game.
In 2023, McDaniel's offense was spectacular, but he couldn't adjust once opposing teams figured out how to take away Tyreek Hill. Miami held a three-game division lead heading into the final five weeks. They lost three of those games, including a season-changing loss to the Titans on a Monday night.
McDaniel was far more impressive against the NFL's worst teams, and far less against teams with winning records.
McDaniel assured Chris Grier and Ross that he could win with Tua Tagovailoa. Despite two prior seasons of concussions and other health issues, McDaniel urged the Dolphins to give him a massive contract extension. At least he won't be around to deal with it now. McDaniel can't blame Tagovailoa; he hitched his wagon to that horse on day one. He didn't make the QB better; he only managed to hide his weaknesses better. When teams figured that out, McDaniel couldn't hide them anymore.
Throughout his coaching career with the Dolphins, he refused to "dumb down" his offense when guys like Thompson, Quinn Ewers, Tim Boyle, Zach Wilson, Teddy Bridgewater, and Tyler Huntley had to go into the game. It took Tagovailoa regressing over the course of two seasons for him to finally realize that his job was now dependent on a much better rushing attack, but even that came with the caveat that they run with a sixth offensive lineman.
From his inability to challenge plays correctly, his use of timeouts, his lack of attention to the play clock, and the lack of discipline from the day he arrived, McDaniel was still making the same errors in late 2025 as he was in 2022. In other words, he learned nothing.
McDaniel is getting looks from other NFL teams, as did Adam Gase. That didn't work out well for the Jets. It won't work well for the next team that opts to give McDaniel an HC job, at least not if it is this cycle.
Miami is on the hunt for a new HC. He has to be everything McDaniel wasn't. Tough, disciplined, and accountable to himself as much as he holds his players to the same level. He can't be or try to be their friend, something McDaniel attempted and failed at.
Most Dolphins fans are applauding the move, and many of them still think he and Grier should have been gone after the 2024 season. They have been that bad. It's not Tagovailoa's fault, it's not the fault of too many injuries, and it's not because Grier was inept at doing his job. It's because McDaniel, too, was inept at doing his job.
To put this in a final perspective, good coaches can win despite injuries. They adjust, they pivot, and they make in-game adjustments that put their teams in a better position to overcome those problems. McDaniel couldn't do any of that, or refused to.