Mike McDaniel Must Grow as a Head Coach for Miami to Succeed

Mike McDaniel Must Grow as a Head Coach for Miami to Succeed

Coaching matters. It matters more in the NFL than in any other sport.

That is why the weight of the entire 2025 Miami Dolphins season is on the shoulders of Mike McDaniel.

There has been a lot of talk about whether Mike McDaniel is on the hot seat entering this season, which is somewhat silly, as every NFL coach is on the hot seat every year. Ok, maybe Andy Reid, Mike Tomlin, and a select few aren’t. But the vast majority are.

And for Mike McDaniel, whose resume as a head coach is a blank sheet of paper with no accomplishments, 2025 is a big year for him.

Let’s rewind a bit, though, and look back to where we were the first two seasons McDaniel was in Miami. 2022 and 2023.

Two seasons in which Miami made the playoffs, but if you are a long-time reader of this website and my work, or if you listen to the DolphinsTalk.com Podcast, you know I had serious questions about McDaniel and the job he was doing.

In 2023, even when the Dolphins got off to a 9-3 start, I stated that the weakest area on this team was the head coach, and that Mike McDaniel looks over his head in that role.

Many Dolphins fans got upset with my comments, yelled at me, and cursed at me, but in time, I was proven right.

Yes, a rookie head coach does get a bit of a honeymoon period and learning curve, no doubt. However, let’s also be totally honest: we have seen little to no growth from year 1 to year 2 to year 3 at McDaniel.

And the 2023 season, and the job McDaniel did was terrible, and I said so at the time.

I understand Miami going to Kansas City in sub zero weather in the playoffs was an uphill battle they weren’t going to win, but the playcalling in that game was embarrassing, the team was unprepared (and I’m talking about the veterans who were here all year, not the injury replacements who were thrown to the wolves), and the lack of any logic in what was done that day was head scratching.