After being fired as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, Mike McDaniel is making the interview rounds. The offensive guru became a candidate for open offensive coordinator jobs the moment he was fired, but given the number of head coach openings, McDaniel has taken interviews for several head coaching jobs.
To date, McDaniel has interviewed with the Las Vegas Raiders, Cleveland Browns, and the Baltimore Ravens for their vacant head coaching jobs, as well as with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Chargers, and the Detroit Lions for their offensive coordinator jobs.
But ahead of a scheduled second interview with the Browns, McDaniel has pulled his name out of the running.
As first reported by Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, McDaniel informed the Browns on Tuesday, ahead of his second interview which was set for Wednesday, that he is “withdrawing” from their head coaching search. That second interview with the Browns was set to be in-person:
As noted by Pelissero, McDaniel is believed to have several job offers for an offensive coordinator position, and while he mulls those over you might look at the situations in Las Vegas and Baltimore to be preferable from a head coaching standpoint. In Baltimore, you get to coach two-time league MVP Lamar Jackson, and for a team that has won a Super Bowl and is in the playoff mix almost every season.
While there is a much longer way to go to get the Raiders back to relevance, Las Vegas does have the first-overall selection, and therefore the keys to the first quarterback in the draft.
That is likely to be Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza, who capped off a dream season with a win in the National Championship game on Monday night over Miami.
Then there are the Browns, who are set to pick sixth in the draft, and have to navigate a cloudy quarterback picture with Deshaun Watson, Shedeur Sanders, and Dillon Gabriel, and at the moment have a lot of work to do to get cap compliant for the 2026 NFL season.
And even if he does not get either of those head coaching jobs, he could perhaps go call plays for Justin Herbert in Los Angeles or Jared Goff in Detroit for a season or two before re-entering the head coaching interview carousel.
Given the options, you might understand McDaniel’s decision.
