It just keeps getting worse when it comes to Mike McDaniel and the Miami Dolphins. Every bit of the coach’s quaintness and charm has evaporated along with his team’s hopes, leaving us with a pile of bland, flavorless goo. Never was this more apparent than Monday, when McDaniel struggled to eat his own word salad while trying to explain Tua Tagovailoa’s post-game comments.
Normally I’d transcribe a quote of two from this video, but truthfully the amount of mealy-mouthed waffling from McDaniel makes me want to punch my laptop — and this a company computer, so I better not. You get the gist of what he said from the tweet, even if you can’t listen out loud. Fundamentally we have a quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa who is at the end of his rope. It’s his perception that some of his teammates don’t care enough to dedicate themselves to getting better, hence skipping player-only meetings and film sessions.
Assuming Tua’s version of events is accurate, then calling out his loser teammates is absolutely the right move. If a team has expectations and fails to meet them, while failing so spectacularly on the field as the Dolphins have, then it’s incumbent on the players to hold each other accountable. To then turn around and get completely undermined by your head coach, who is desperately trying to smooth everything over like a high school guidance counsellor, is utterly ridiculous.
Every single problem the Dolphins have right now is a symptom of Mike McDaniel. His loose, “let’s all have a good time” attitude fostered this lack of accountability out of the gate — and as soon as the team began to lose it became impossible to take him seriously. Instead of being a hard-nosed football coach first, then relax things when the team responded, he arrived in Miami wanting to be everyone’s friend, not their leader. Now that’s manifesting itself by McDaniel desperately trying to plug his sinking ship, and there are more holes than he has fingers and toes.
The 2025 season was always going to be an uphill battle for Miami. The team were essentially all-in on a plan that failed last season with Tua under center, and didn’t have a way out. The only identity present in South Beach was “maybe they’ll be better if they get healthy,” which is hope, not a plan — and entering a season guided by hope is always a bad recipe. It’s become apparent over the last six weeks that the Dolphins haven’t quit, or else they wouldn’t have dragged the Chargers into a one score game, but they’re also not trying, not really. When you watch this team play there’s no sense of urgency, nobody barking on the sideline to demand better, no players who are seething after a bad play. Just a ho-hum conglomeration of individuals who have adopted McDaniel’s same, milquetoast attitude to football of “oh well, we’ll get ‘em next time.”
That’s what’s most disappointing about McDaniel’s time at the podium on Monday. This was a chance to draft off what Tagovailoa said and assert himself. Own the mistakes of the past, and say that the status quo wasn’t going to fly anymore. Show some teeth that his team has lost five games, their only win coming against the Jets, the worst team in football.
Instead he became the embodiment of his tenure with the Dolphins — shrinking when the pressure is on, and trying to shirk responsibility. We know this experiment is over. McDaniel getting fired is a “when” not “if” question at this point — but it would be nice to see him at least try to turn things around on his way out the door. Instead we got more of the same, and that’s a damn shame.
