PFT’s Mike Florio Slams Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel as Top Coach on Hot Seat

"The problem is this ... the narrative now, we're changing the culture, we're changing the culture - well who set the culture? Who created the culture? Who's responsible for the lackadaisical vibe?" Florio said yesterday on DolphinsTalk.com Podcast. "With McDaniel, I love who he is. I love how he is. He's an iconoclast to a certain extent. You don't expect to see this guy who's chill and skinny, and everything about him, I love it.

"But, does it work in a locker room of grown (expletive) men if you're not going to get up someone's (expletive) if they're five minutes late? If you're going to tolerate some of the things that have a dotted line to whether or not you're going to have the discipline necessary to win, that's the problem."

When McDaniel was hired by the Dolphins, his quirky personality was what won many people over. The head coach has a fun, goofy way of engaging with his players and the media, and at first, it brought success in Miami.

The Dolphins made the playoffs in his first two years and won 11 games in 2023. However, it all came crashing down in 2024, and the questions started to surface.

Florio believes if the Dolphins' culture doesn't show real change soon, McDaniel's time in Miami could be coming to an end.

"They keep saying we're going to change the culture, we're going to change the culture - at some point you're going to change the coach. I think it's as simple as this: Brian Flores was too far this way on the hard (expletive) spectrum, and teams tend to hire the exact opposite of the guy they just fired," Florio said. "So, they went all the way to the other end - breath of fresh air, completely different from Brian Flores - well, the best the answer may be somewhere in the middle.

"And my concern is, and this is what dysfunctional teams do, they just keep going back and forth on this pendulum. So post-McDaniel, they'll go hire a hard (expletive), and then after they've had enough of the hard (expletive), they'll go back to the nice guy."

Most of the Dolphins' dysfunction in 2024 boiled over when linebacker Jordyn Brooks called the team soft after their loss to the Green Bay Packers.

"When the call comes from inside the house, after the loss to Green Bay at Lambeau Field on Thanksgiving night, that the defense was soft ... I mean that's the worst word you could put on a football team at any level," Florio said. "'We were soft.' Where does that come from? Where does that come from? It normally comes from the coach."

For McDaniel, though, his entire personality has centered around being the fun, goofy guy, and that's how he's created his success in the NFL.

Florio doesn't believe McDaniel can flip the switch and have success with it, and from there it could just avalanche.

"For McDaniel to try to change, that cuts against his whole authentic vibe. So, I think they're in a mess here. I really do. I think this is going to be a crucial year for him," Florio said. "It's a crucial year for Tua, because I think if there's a new head coach, new coach's first order of business is, I'm getting rid of Tua."

On the positive side, the Dolphins have a healthy Tua Tagovailoa and a fully healthy defensive line trio for the first time during McDaniel's tenure, and Miami believes that's the key to their success.

It will have to be, and the Dolphins will have to prove it in 2025, or there could be some major changes coming in Miami.