The Miami Dolphins are trying their best to wring some sort of success out of head coach Mike McDaniel, who is not proving to be the massive upgrade over Brian Flores that many fans hoped he would be. All it will take for a regime change to take place in South Florida is one more subpar season.
CBS Sports' Cody Benjamin listed McDaniel as the coach with the second-hottest seat in the entire league, as only Brian Daboll of the New York Giants was deemed to be under more pressure. Benjamin believes that McDaniel, who had his first under .500 season in the NFL in 2024, will be fired.
Considering that the roster is already starting to shed some of their better players, chief among them Jalen Ramsey, and the defense is thoroughly subpar, McDaniel will need to turn Tua Tagovailoa into Dan Marino if he is to make some headway in a very deep AFC.
Mike McDaniel's Dolphins hot seat keeps getting warmer
McDaniel has made the Dolphins a much more exciting team than they were under Brian Flores, especially on the offensive end due to hs unbridled creativity. However, Miami has not won a playoff game in three years despite the fact they clearly have the talent to do so.
The Dolphins often play like a stereotypical "warm weather" team. The beginning of any given season is always great, as McDaniel's high-speed offense has them breaking records and looking unstoppable. When the weather gets colder, Tagovailoa's efficiency drops, and the lack of high-end play in the trenches comes back to bite them.
McDaniel has had some limitations put on him by the much-maligned Chris Grier, namely being saddled with an injury-prone quarterback in Tagovailoa and never having built an elite defense. Still, the late-season collapses are frustrating for everyone involved. Both McDaniel and Grier must take the blame for them.
There's a very good chance that if Miami is terrible in 2025, both McDaniel and Grier will be shown the door in what will become a complete and total rebuild. Such a move would confirm that McDaniel's offensive sizzle wasn't enough to get this team turned around.