Is Dolphins' Mike McDaniel on hot seat ahead of 2025 NFL season?

While Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is widely respected as one of the NFL's top offensive minds, he failed to notch a single playoff victory across his first three seasons with the organization. 

For a piece published on Tuesday, ESPN NFL analyst Ben Solak suggested that McDaniel's job is one that has a "question mark" attached to it heading into the 2025 campaign. 

"I believe two things very strongly," Solak wrote. "First, McDaniel's work building an offense around QB Tua Tagovailoa is some of the best offensive scheming in the league. Second, his offense fades against truly great defenses, in cold weather and on the road -- in short, playoff football. The Dolphins need a strong season from their defense, which could have an extremely inexperienced and shaky secondary following a Jalen Ramsey trade, to make a postseason push. Otherwise, it'll be four seasons without a playoff victory under McDaniel -- tough to defend."

As it pertains to Ramsey, Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk noted how Dolphins cornerbacks coach Mathieu Araujo recently referred to Ramsey as a starter who is "no longer gonna be here." It seems unlikely Miami would find a like-for-like replacement for the veteran at this stage of the offseason.

That said, Tagovailoa's health remaining the biggest concern for McDaniel and Co. is a trend that's not disappearing anytime soon. Tagovailoa suffered a minimum of two reported concussions during the 2022 season and was later sidelined for four games this past fall due to yet another concussion. He then missed the campaign's final two contests because of a hip injury. 

The 2024 Dolphins went 2-4 without Tagovailoa in the lineup. ESPN's Bill Barnwell previously pointed out that Miami "went 1-6 and averaged 15.1 points per game on offense against teams with a winning record" during the 2023 season. 

Per Joe Schad of the Palm Beach Post, former New York Jets flop Zach Wilson will begin training camp on track to serve as Tagovailoa's primary backup this coming fall. History shows Tagovailoa is one hit away from missing a significant portion of any season, meaning how Wilson improves over the next few months could ultimately determine if McDaniel holds onto his job beyond the first weekend of January 2026.