With the 2024 Miami Dolphins season winding down and ending here in the next few weeks, many fans are upset and disappointed that they will not make the playoffs. And they are looking to place blame as to why.
Many fans are upset with the general manager.
Many fans are upset with the quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa.
Many fans are upset with the offensive line play.
Many fans are upset with the special teams’ play.
While all of those things are important and a big reason this season has failed, the Miami Dolphins’ most significant problem is with their head coach, Mike McDaniel.
He just isn’t good at his job.
Some guys just aren’t cut out to be NFL head coaches. Bill Arnsparger, Norv Turner, Dave Wannstedt, Buddy Ryan, Dom Capers, and Romeo Crennel are just a few brilliant NFL minds who were great assistant coaches or coordinators but failed miserably as head coaches.
Mike McDaniel is a name you can probably throw in that group.
We now have a three-year sample size of McDaniel as a head coach, and the arrow is pointed down.
It’s trending the wrong way. Things aren’t getting better. They are getting worse.
Of the 32 NFL head coaches in the NFL currently, McDaniel is in the bottom ten, and he may be in the bottom five.
Very few first-time NFL head coaches walk into a situation where the team they are taking over is coming off a 10-win and 9-win season and got two future Hall of Fame players added to his roster in the first two seasons in Tyreek Hill and Jalen Ramsey.
He also added superstars like Bradley Chubb and Terron Armstead to his roster.
Arguably, the most talented Miami Dolphins roster since the Shula years. And he has nothing to show for it.
Not a division title.
Not a playoff win.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
And it goes beyond not winning on the field. Let me point out the ways.
Sticking by Danny Crossman and making excuses for him while his special teams unit fails year after year, week after week, is head-scratching. Fire Crossman already.
Miami’s special teams have arguably been the worst in the NFL the past three seasons, and McDaniel does nothing about it. Results do not seem to matter, and Crossman gets a free pass. Do you think Shula would stand for this? Do you think Jimmy would stand for this? Do you think someone like Belichick or Parcells would stand for this? Of course not.
At this point, it’s silly to be upset with Crossman (he is bad at his job as well), and the anger fans have should be directed at the guy who keeps him employed (i.e., Mike McDaniel).
One of the big in-game decisions NFL head coaches have are challenges and when to throw the red flag. Coming into the 2024 season, Mike McDaniel was ranked DEAD LAST among NFL coaches, only winning 3 of 13 challenges with a .231%; this year, Mike is 1 for 2 on challenges, which has him at a .267%, still dead last in the NFL.
Let’s discuss his team’s record against good teams. In 2023 and 2024, Mike McDaniel’s Miami Dolphins were 1-10 against teams with a record over .500 and 16-4 against teams with a record of .500 or worse. With all of Miami’s talent and all of the money they have spent to bring in and keep talent, this record is horrible.
It’s shockingly bad and honestly a fireable offense because the NFL is a results-oriented business, and the results just aren’t there.
We can discuss how Mike McDaniel’s offense has gone from wild, exotic, and exciting to bland and boring. They used to make multiple big plays a game. Have they made a big play this season since Week 1 vs. Jacksonville, when Tua hit Tyreek for a long pass?
With three meaningless games left to play, the team went from the #1 rushing offense in 2023 to the second-worst in 2024.
Every other coach and coordinator has caught on to Mike McDaniel’s offense, and he has yet to adjust or come up with a counter-move to keep his offense moving and evolving.
McDaniel was brought here as an “offensive genius” (really, folks, we need to stop with the genius label until these guys actually win something; he was never a genius), and if his offense is failing and just ordinary, then that is a huge problem.
I could go on with endless examples of McDaniel’s poor clock management and how he wastes timeouts and has horrible end-of-half and end-of-game clock management, but I have to get to bed tonight and don’t want to list the 20+ examples of this he has had through three seasons.
I could go on and on about how Tua has low-key thrown McDaniel under the bus multiple times, saying that the plays are too complicated and too many guys are in motion for him to get to the line of scrimmage, make sure the blocking assignment is good, and to audible out if necessary.
I could go on and on about how the Dolphins are viewed as a “soft” team around the league, to the point former players (and even current players who have joined the Dolphins from other teams) have said that. The reason they are soft is that they don’t play a physical style of football (which is not what McDaniel wants), and they just don’t push the players hard in practice (notice how many veteran rest days Dolphins players get in training camp compared to to other teams. It’s a lot more.)
McDaniel’s teams are unprepared when they play good teams.
McDaniel is unprepared on the sideline. (For example, on Thanksgiving night, getting a delay of game on 4th and 4 when he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the ref and didn’t realize he had to call a timeout, so he took a delay of game on 4th down.)
As the offseason approaches, I know we Dolphins fans will get excited when Miami signs this or that guy in March, and we think the team will have improved.
With ten draft picks currently, Miami will select some guys that the fan base loves. Fans will be excited about the new young players added to the roster in late April.
Come summertime, when everyone is making their 2025 season predictions, some outlets and media talking heads will shout on TV, Radio, or their Podcast, “Hey, watch out for the Dolphins. This may be their year.” Fans will get their expectations sky-high.
But just know (and I take no joy in saying this), come September, when the games are for real, the Dolphins have no chance of being successful with Mike McDaniel as their head coach.
That isn’t a prediction…that’s a SPOILER!
In this league, you cannot overcome a bad head coach, and Mike McDaniel is a bad head coach who is not good at his job. And we now have a three-year sample size showing that.
First off, kudos to dolphinstalk for allowing comments.
Second, coach is mediocre at worst. I didn’t read any arguments about the “genius” label when we dropped 70 on Denver last year, or when Mostert was leading the league in TDs, and Tua was an MVP candidate. Or the year before when we screamed back from 21 down to beat the Ravens, and then finally beat the Bills? Or while he was beating the crowned genius Belicheat every time they met. And if you are going to trash someone, at least check your math–1 for 2 on challenges is not .285%. Plus, number of challenges won doesn’t necessarily equate to bad challenges.
There is no denying that our record against good teams has been horrid lately. Same goes our ability to field a capable backup QB (White, Huntley, and Boyle?!?) , or a solid offensive line (hello talent scouts and GM). i don’t understand the Crossman thing either. But at the same time, we have fielded a team that COULD legitimately win any game–if the players execute the game plan. It’s been years since we’ve been able to say that, and I think ownership wants more, which is good.
If you recall, lots of prognosticators said the fins would miss the playoffs this year, in large part due to lingering injuries and cap-related roster turnover. And here we are–tied for 8th in the AFC (after 2 losses at the gun, no starting quarterback for 4 games, and a rookie defensive coordinator leading a team with no proven pass rushers, and always seems to be thin on CBs).
Bottom line is that I am not ready to cast Mike or his philosophy aside. He can do better, but he’s done a lot. I’d also really love to know what recently fired coach you think is going to save the franchise?
Mike Vrabel
Hard not to like Vrabel as a person. He did some good things as a coach and he’s got an infinitely better playoff resume. I was actually surprised when TN canned him. But why did they? After a brief stint as a division winner (in a pretty soft AFC South, with prime time Derick Henry and RT) he delivered consecutive 3rd and 4th place finishes and got fired–with records worse than ours. So what is more palatable, to give our guy (who has won some big games in the past) one more shot, or to bring in a new guy a new GM, and suffer another multi-year purge in the hopes that he can figure out how to not lose to the Chiefs, toughen up the team, and stop players from getting injured? Kind of moot anyhow, since the team is stuck financially again. Guess I am a diehard. Happy Hollidays.
Excellent article. Of course, he’s horrendous. Expect pushback from the diehards though….it’s already begun. People are apparently easy to satisfy.
Oh…..McDaniel was 3 of 13 on challenges prior to this year – a .232 avg. With being 1-2 this year, he is now at .267, even worse than you state.
On the contrary, Don Shula would rarely fire his assistant coaches. He stuck with God-Awful defensive co-ordinators Chuck Studley and Tom Olividatti for years. And while we’re on the subject, I’d like to say what nobody else says, “Don Shula wasted Dan Marino’s career.” Dan Marino was saddled with no running game and a lousy defense most of his career. Don Shula, who had personnel control, made crazy picks like Eric Kummerow and Jackie Shipp in the 1st round, when we desperately needed defensive help. You must have a short memory or you were not around in the Dan Marino era, Mike Oliva!
I am not ready to cast aside McDaniel either but changes need to be made…there are some glaring issues with this team!
Just to clarify, The 1 of 2 on challenges this year was added to his 3 of 13 coming into the year (4 of 15 is .267% lifetime). He lost the challenge today and is batting .250 now! The things he challenges are clear losers most of the time and it’s not usually close.
The short yardage calls are head scratching. I love Achane but no one is ever going to confuse him with a short yardage back when you need to get a yard or less. Why even have Jeff Wilson Jr. on the roster if you are never going to use a power back? Which brings me to one of my biggest issues that no one discusses…all of the Dolphins wide receivers are in the same mold, not a single big possession receiver on the roster. How do you score in the redzone or convert 3rd down at a high rate if you can’t pound the rock or throw to a big target? Washington, Cracraft, Hill, Waddle and Berrios before he got injured are all built the same…I have never seen a WR Corps built like this, not a single guy that can consistently win a 50/50 ball…not one!
Saying the Dolphins are always behind the sticks on offense is an understatement…excluding sack yardage lost, you would be hard pressed to find a team with more plays for negative yards per game…it’s baffling how many times they lose yardage on some ill conceived running play or WR/TE screen behind the line of scrimmage. This doesn’t even consider the self-inflicted penalty wounds.
It’s just bad football and it explains why they don’t beat teams above .500…good teams don’t beat themselves. Hell, they aren’t even physical enough to beat bad teams at times. The Titans have the #1 pick in next year’s draft…you know what team cost the Dolphins the division last year and put them in this untenable end of season situation needing help from Kansas City this year…the Tennessee Titans. If they had beaten the Titans last year, they would have hosted a playoff game. Had they beat them this year, the Jets game would have simply been a win and in…they had a better conference record than Denver before today. Had they beaten the Titans and the Jets today, they would have been 6th seed (go figure)…
The team lacks toughness, discipline, and the will to win on the biggest stage…that’s an entire organizational issue, that’s a culture issue!
There are a lot of issues with this team, their roster composition, their age, the salary cap constraints and average draft capital. I would rather have a team full of players that hate to lose and fight, than have guys that roll over when it gets tough.