This is the NFL, and it’s every man for himself. And after Mike McDaniel put his foot in his mouth last week at league meetings regarding how he would be “pumped” if Tyreek Hill was voted a team captain for the Dolphins before the 2025 season, he needs to distance himself from that statement and Tyreek Hill overall after the news of this week.
In life, there is a belief that when an addict is in a relationship with someone who is clean, the person who is clean cannot fix the addict or solve their problems. Rather, it’s the addict who will turn the person living the clean lifestyle into an addict.
I feel this is the Tyreek Hill and Mike McDaniel relationship.
Whether Mike McDaniel is on the hot seat entering the 2025 season can be debated, but what cannot be debated is that he must stop going out on a limb and twisting himself into a pretzel to defend Tyreek Hill and justify his bad behavior.
When Tyreek quit in the middle of the Week 18 game against the NY Jets, McDaniel, in the coming days, gave answers that were nothing more than word salad trying to spin the situation.
In his end of season press conference regarding Tyreek, McDaniel said: “The relationship – we met for I want to say an hour yesterday, and I think the competitive spirit of his can represent postgame, especially in a season or a game that nobody likes, it can allude to a relationship being one way. I was very direct with him. He was very honest and it was great terms that we were discussing. Discussed multiple things including without wavering that it’s not acceptable to leave a game and won’t be tolerated in the future, and he embraced accountability. I wouldn’t say there’s anything necessarily to fix as much as we had to clear the air in a rough and tumultuous situation.”
You wouldn’t say there’s anything to necessarily to fix?
Jesus, Mike, you are paying him $30 million per season, and he quit in the middle of a Week 18 game where you had to win to have any hopes of making the playoffs. There is something to fix!
This is the problem with Mike McDaniel. He wants to be everyone’s best friend and never holds anyone accountable.
Be a head coach and just say that Tyreek’s actions are not acceptable and that if he wants to be part of this team next year, he will have to change his behavior.
Is that hard?
I didn’t go to Yale, but I figured it out in a matter of moments.
You aren’t throwing the player under the bus, criticising him, or attacking him. You aren’t being a “HATER.”
You are just setting a standard for any player on the team, let alone a team captain who is making that much money.
Then last week at the annual league meeting when asked about Tyreek being a captain in 2025, which is a fair question because you know, team captains don’t usually quit in the middle of games, I know you can’t give the answer you want to give (which is to say he shouldn’t be one) but you could have instead tap danced around the question to say something like, we will figure out the team captains later this summer.
But no, you gave the worst answer possible, saying you would be “PUMPED” if Tyreek Hill were a team captain in 2025.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?!
WHY?!?!?!?
There is a middle ground. You don’t need to throw him under the bus and make him look bad, but you don’t need to stroke his ego when he is wrong and has unacceptable behavior.
The famous Judge Judgy line: “Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining.”
Now, one week later, McDaniel looks like a fool for saying that, as Tyreek has another in a long list of off-the-field incidents.
Memo to Mike: Stop defending Tyreek Hill. He is going to bring you down with him!
Distance yourself from him.
Find an outlet, whether a radio interview on 560 WQAM, or go on the in-house Dolphins Podcast Network, go on a national radio show like Dan Patrick or something, just do an interview in the next week and distance yourself from your lunatic wide receiver.
I’m not saying you have to throw Tyreek under the bus and badmouth him, but clean up the. You will be “PUMPED” if Tyreek is a team captain line.
It’s really a bad look right now for you.
And anyone with common sense knows Miami will move on from Tyreek now this offseason, or they will tolerate him for one more season and move on from him after next season when it is more advantageous from a salary cap perspective.
When Miami moves on from Tyreek, you don’t want the headline to read, “Dolphins Move on from Tyreek Hill and Mike McDaniel.”
Stop defending Tyreek Hill and playing a pseudo-shrink telling us how there is nothing to fix and he is a great guy.
Stop being Tyreek’s friend and start being his coach!
