Miami Dolphins Fans: It’s Time To Get Excited About McDaniel

As expected, Mike McDaniel is the new Miami Dolphins head coach.

With most of the job vacancies being filled, this led to certain sections of the fanbase wondering when the organization was, in fact, going to hire anyone.

They went down the route of McDaniel, who has earned an excellent reputation after his time as the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator. Here is why it is time for Dolphins fans to get excited about McDaniel.

Learning From Great Coaches

During his relatively young coaching career, McDaniel has worked alongside some great NFL coaches. The year that has grabbed the most media attention recently is the 2013 season, which saw him as the wide receiver coach. Alongside him, there was offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan, whose dad was also the head coach. The coaching staff also included quarterbacks coach Matt LaFleur and tight end Sean McVay. All three have gone on to coach the NFL with plenty of success.

Shanahan has reached the Super Bowl during the 2019 campaign as 49ers as head coach, as well as guiding them to the NFC Championship game this season. He lost to a McVay-led Los Angeles Rams, despite six straight wins against his former colleague. This will be McVay’s second Super Bowl appearance in four seasons as head coach.

Matt LaFleur is already staking his claim as one of the best head coaches to never make the big game, with 13-win seasons in each of his three years as Green Bay Packers head coach and what looks like a back-to-back MVP winning quarterback. At the tender age of 42, an appearance in the Super Bowl appears only a matter of time.

Brian Flores had back-to-back winning seasons before being fired. He appeared to be a rare success for the so-called “Belichick disciples” or “Belichick tree,” with many of his former assistants going on to struggle at the head coaching level. This new wave of exciting young head coaches all seems to stem from what is now being known as the “McVay tree” that also sees him going up against one of his former assistants in Super Bowl 56, as head coach Zac Taylor will see his Cincinnati Bengals side face off against McVay and the Rams. McDaniel was also the offensive assistant alongside Shanahan and LaFleur as the Atlanta Falcons made it to Super Bowl 51.

Just because he has worked with these coaches, it is no guarantee that he will be a success as a head coach with the law of averages, meaning that there is likely to be someone at one point in time that will struggle at the coaching level in a complete opposite way to Belichick’s former assistants. However, McDaniel’s could well be the next great young offensive head coach from what we have seen.

[pickup_prop id=”20222″]

Getting The Best Out Of QB1

There is, of course, one great big elephant in the room. How will he get the best out of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa?

This is something that was seen to be emphasized by owner Stephen Ross, with the intent for the new coach to be “fully in” on the former Alabama QB.

The Dolphins fanbase is indeed torn when it comes to their thoughts on Tagovailoa. Some feel that he is a bust and will never be able to perform at the NFL level, while there are others that feel he needs the right system around him to be successful.

This is something that McDaniel excelled at in San Francisco. While the limitations of Jimmy Garoppolo ultimately cost the 49ers a place at Super Bowl 56, he found a way for the Niners to succeed and win games around him.

Bringing In Fangio Will Help Keep The Defense Elite

The Dolphins managed to improve on defense throughout the 2021 campaign after a slow start. In 2020 and 2021, the defense was the heartbeat of Miami’s success. McDaniel does not come in with a defensive mindset, but there are reports coming out from Omar Kelly that former Denver Broncos head coach Vic Fangio will come in as the defensive coordinator.

Whilst he may not have had success as a head coach, Denver was excellent defensively. His success stems back further to his time as the Chicago Bears defensive coordinator. As can be seen from the table below, his teams always perform well on that side of the ball, something that won him AP NFL Assistant Coach of the Year in 2018.

Finding someone that has been mostly excellent defensively in the last five seasons is a perfect opportunity to fill the void left by Flores.

Fixing A Struggling Run Game

Sky Sports writer Cameron Hogwood called him “the unsung genius behind the San Francisco 49ers’ running game” back in 2020. Before getting the job as the run game coordinator, the Niners run game was really effective and limited Garoppolo to eight attempted passes in the NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers. He oversaw a 49ers team in 2021 that was seventh in the league for rushing yards, and fifth in rushing touchdowns.

He will have a task trying to fix the run game that has been an issue for a number of years. They have had just six 1,000 seasons on the ground since the turn of the millennium, with just one since 2014 and none since 2016.

Only the Houston Texans (1,422) and Atlanta Falcons (1,451) had fewer total rushing yards than Miami (1,568). This is less than Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor (1,811), a player they passed on four times in the 2020 Draft.

Getting back a solid run game will help create a balance for this Dolphins offense.

Dolphins fans, McDaniels is a guy to be excited about. He was the best candidate available and was so pretty much all offseason so far. Shanahan called him “one of the smartest coaches around,” fullback Kyle Juszczyk said he was the “absolute best in the game” and spoke about “nobody getting more out his players than McDaniel.”

Grab your popcorn; this should be an exciting ride.