Mike McDaniel Sealed his Fate Today; Zero Chance he Can Save His Job

Originally posted on Dolphins Talk | By Mike Oliva | Last updated Oct 5, 2025 9:26 PM ET

Mike McDaniel Sealed his Fate Today; Zero Chance he Can Save His Job

After today’s collapse by the Dolphins to the Carolina Panthers, there is zero chance Mike McDaniel will be the head coach of the Miami Dolphins beyond this season.

Mr. Stephen Ross may fire Mike at any moment, or in a month, or in December.

Mr. Stephen Ross may let Mike coach out the season.

Either way, at 1-4 and after this loss today, there is no chance McDaniel is the Dolphins’ head coach next season.

Now you can argue that Ross should fire McDaniel immediately and put the poor guy out of his misery. And having him coach these last 12 games is not doing McDaniel any favors.

But that is just a perspective.

Either way, Mike is done.

And today’s loss is all the things wrong with the Mike McDaniel era in a nutshell.

Poor time management, poor trench play, and long stretches of the game where the offense did next to nothing.

As a head coach gets more experience and more games under his belt, these are things you are supposed to improve on.

Not McDaniel, these are issues he is getting worse at.

But there was one play, yes, one play, that McDaniel cannot come back from.

With 1:10 seconds left in the game, and Miami down 3, Mike McDaniel PUNTED THE FOOTBALL!

Wait?

What?!

Yes, he punted the football.

His defense gave up over 200 yards rushing on the day.

His defense gave up 418 yards on the day, and he is punting the ball away, with the odds of not getting it back, and “hoping” his defense gets a 3 and out?

Well, HOPE isn’t a plan, and it backfired.

McDaniel punted away any chance at a win, and the Dolphins lost.

I understand converting a 4th and 17 on your own 15 is a low percentage play, but TRY!

At least TRY to get it and go down with your best unit (your offense) on the field.

Don’t punt it away and hope your defense, which was terrible all day, makes a stop.

You see, these are coaching instincts that you either have or you do not.

Mike McDaniel does not have them.

This team is bad, but McDaniel is bad as well.

He is a bad head coach, and he is bad at his job.

I don’t know how many more games Miami will win the rest of the year, but we are at the point where if McDaniel were fired at any time, nobody can say he wasn’t given a fair chance to keep his job.

In fact, some would say he punted his job away today with this loss.

This article first appeared on Dolphins Talk and was syndicated with permission.

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