Should Mike McDaniel Give Up Play Calling Duties?
In his three years with the Dolphins, this is Mike McDaniel’s worst start to a season. Of course, this might have to do partially with Tua being injured, but honestly, McDaniel deserves a big part of the blame. He has always been considered an offensive genius but that seems to not be the case anymore.
After the Dolphins’ offense was in the top three in essentially every offensive ranking, this year, they are in the bottom three on most of them. It seems that defensive coordinators have now figured out how to stop the Dolphins’ offense, and McDaniel is having a hard time adjusting to that. But honestly, I don’t think it’s the playbook that’s not working. His play design seems to be good; the real problem seems to be the play calling.
There has been a lot of talk about this recently, and this last game against the Seahawks was an opportunity for McDaniel to prove to everyone that he is able to adjust and call plays properly. But he did the complete opposite and now everyone is doubting him more than ever. The plan for the game had to be pretty simple: run the ball. That should be the plan, especially when your quarterback is injured and the opposing team’s defense struggles against the run. But for some reason, that is not what McDaniel did.
The Dolphins’ offense seemed to be working decently in the first drive with a couple of run plays, but for some reason, McDaniel again abandoned the run. Nobody understands why he keeps doing this; it never works out for the Dolphins to abandon the run; most of the games the Dolphins won last year included a lot of running. Especially when the best current player in your offense is a running back (Achane), it should be pretty simple to do that. But for some reason, McDaniel once again abandoned the run, even though it was working really well at the beginning of the game.
Honestly, there seems to be no logical explanation for this, and he should be smart enough to know this. You shouldn’t let your backup quarterback have so many passing plays against a defense that is mainly good against the pass. McDaniel’s decision-making and play-calling have been absolutely baffling at some times. The run is working and making the drive advance, and then he proceeds to call three terrible pass plays in a row that net -3 yards; it’s just absolutely baffling.
Another issue that keeps coming up every week is the short-yardage situations and McDaniel’s inability to call a good play on a 3rd and short or 4th and short. This also includes the red zone issues and the terrible plays he calls then. After week one, we all thought he had found the solution to the problem by just letting Alec Ingold run the ball, but then that stopped working, and we were back at level zero.
I believe McDaniel needs to give up the play-calling duties and let someone else do it, maybe offensive coordinator Frank Smith. I know it is hard to make a decision like that, especially when you are supposed to be an offensive genius, but at some point, you must admit you are the problem and do what’s best for the team. At this point, he is truly hurting the team’s chances by being predictable and calling pass plays every down, even if the opposing defense is playing with two high safeties. You got to adjust and run the ball, especially since the Dolphins are really good at it.
I still believe McDaniel is a great coach and can take the Dolphins far, but he needs to realize that right now, he is hurting the team, and he needs to be able to adjust. I am not claiming to be smarter or a better coach than him, but just learn from your mistakes, that’s all. He seems to be making the same mistakes repeatedly, and even when people point it out to him, he is not fixing it. Something needs to be done if he wants to keep his job. He just got a contract extension, but that doesn’t mean his job is safe. So, if he doesn’t want to lose his job, he might need to give up play-calling duties for now, or at least make the necessary adjustments and get some wins, even without Tua, because the entire team can’t just depend on whether Tua is playing or not. Let’s go turn this season around before it’s too late.
Yes, he should! He refuses to run the ball, even with bad 2nd and 3rd string QB’s. He’s late getting the plays in. His team lacks discipline. maybe if he spent a little less time being their buddy and a little more time focusing on fundamentals, (like lining up correctly) The team wouldn’t committ so many stupid penalties. He needs to focus his efforts on game planning and not trying, and failing, to call plays.
Yes I believe they should try something g different whet we are doing is not working and drives are stalling due to bad calls at times. Maybe it should be a collaboration. Get the ball to our playmaker use the tight end more and running backs out of the backfield but not the dump pass over and over. Get other receivers involved