The Miami Dolphins opted to part ways with Mike McDaniel after a disturbing 2025 season trainwreck. While Stephen Ross and his executives start yet another head coaching search, it's hard to believe that McDaniel almost became the second-winningest coach in Dolphins history.
It's amazing what one year can do for a record. Bill Belichick may find another NFL team to work for in 2026 or 2027, but if he doesn't return to the NFL, he will fall short of reaching Don Shula's all-time wins record; McDaniel will fall way short.
We wondered four years ago whether or not the Dolphins' head coach could stick around long-term. His quirky nature has never worn out the players, but his record on the field finally did. Now it's time to look at his career in numbers while in Miami.
Mike McDaniel finishes third all-time in Miami Dolphins wins
While the Dolphins' head coach had the youth to make a decades-long career, he didn't have the team built around him to be successful. Most will fault Chris Grier for failing to do his own job, but McDaniel's coaching decisions were not always good either.
The head coach didn't often learn from his own mistakes, something he admittedly was bothered by when his players did the same thing. Now that his time in Miami is over, his career with Miami came close to becoming the 2nd best in team history, but he fell short.
Wins
McDaniel finished his Dolphins career with 35 wins. He was able to move to within one game of Jimmy Johnson, who won 36 games during his time with Miami. Overall, the former coach climbed to 4th place all-time, far behind Shula, and seven behind Dave Wannstedt, who remains 2nd all-time with 42 wins.
Losses
McDaniel finished his Dolphins career with 33 losses. To put this in a different perspective, McDaniel is closer to Shula's total number of losses than to his total number of wins. Shula lost 133 games while in Miami. McDaniel finished his time in Miami with 33; he is more than 200 wins away from sniffing what Shula did in the win column.
Wannstedt coached the Dolphins for four full seasons before he resigned during the bye week of the 2004 season. McDaniel has coached four full seasons. While he may pass the former head coach, it should be noted that Wannstedt managed his 42 wins when the schedule was still 16 games.