Back-to-back Dolphins playoff berths will produce the first extension for a 2022 HC hire. The team has agreed to a new deal with Mike McDaniel, according to ESPN.com’s Jeff Darlington.
The third-year HC agreed to a deal that will tie him to the Dolphins through the 2028 season. This comes after the Dolphins booked consecutive postseason appearances for the first time in more than 20 years. McDaniel, 41, has rejuvenated Miami’s offense. The team led the league in total offense for the first time since Dan Marino‘s age-33 season (1994), and Tua Tagovailoa has shown substantial growth since the Dolphins hired the Kyle Shanahan disciple.
This offseason brought a Tagovailoa megadeal and new agreements with Tyreek Hill — a reworking that brought more guarantees the future Hall of Famer’s way — and Jaylen Waddle. As other clubs who hired new HCs in 2022 still determine how to proceed regarding long-term plans, Dolphins ownership is evidently confident in the team’s direction under McDaniel.
Known perhaps as much for his eccentricities that have produced numerous interview soundbites, McDaniel displayed an immediate ability to coach up Miami’s offense. While the 2022 Hill trade made a significant impact on Tagovailoa’s trajectory, the league’s lone southpaw QB starter turned a corner once Stephen Ross hired McDaniel.
Amid a concerning concussion-marred 2022, Tua still finished third in QBR while leading the league in passer rating and yards per attempt. The 2020 first-rounder then paced the NFL in passing yards in 2023, staying healthy and guiding the team back to the postseason. The Dolphins had not previously secured consecutive playoff berths since they strung together five in a row during the Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt years (1997-2001).
Hired in the aftermath of a controversial Brian Flores firing — a move that prompted the former Dolphins HC to file a racial discrimination lawsuit — McDaniel has also gone through three defensive coordinators and seen his team limp to the regular-season finish line in both the 2022 and ’23 seasons. Miami went 9-8 in 2022, a season overshadowed by Tagovailoa’s injuries, and 11-6 last season. The Dolphins wrapped the ’23 campaign with a wild-card no-show on a frigid Kansas City night. This generated more questions about the Super Bowl viability of the nucleus McDaniel and GM Chris Grier have assembled.
That said, the Dolphins nearly upset the No. 2-seeded Bills despite third-string rookie Skylar Thompson starting in the 2022 wild-card round. Grier and McDaniel also have forged a strong relationship, per Darlington; that was certainly not the case with the veteran GM and Flores. Ahead of Grier’s sixth season with roster control, the Dolphins will continue to pair him with his 2022 HC hire. The rest of the 2022 HC additions — Kevin O’Connell, Matt Eberflus, Brian Daboll, Doug Pederson, Dennis Allen and Todd Bowles — are still on their initial deals. One other 2022 HC hire, Josh McDaniels, did not make it out of his second season.
Well deserved! Great offensive mind and always a good sound bite
Still doesn’t hide the fact that teams with winning records expose the Dolphins for what they really are. S-A-W-F-T.
And Miami starts the season with a gauntlet: Jacksonville home, Buffalo home 4 nights later, Seattle away.
Is that really a gauntlet? Who is catching the ball in Jacksonville? Who is catching the ball in Buffalo? Seattle maybe, but there is no reason they couldn’t win all three of those games.
Dolphins feasted on cupcakes like your typical college football factory. Against winning teams like Buffalo or Baltimore, Dolphins got smoked like a tailgate BBQ.
Agree. They’re a finesse team not a physical one for sure.
Dolphins were 10-1 against losing teams last year and 1-5 against teams with a winning record. They had a soft schedule and took advantage but couldn’t hang with good teams. I’m with Chucky. Dolphins are phony contenders.
link to x.com. Fun meme about Mike! Great coach
He will be stuck in WC purgatory til Tua leaves
The Doofins don’t deserve him.
What’s with the filter on the thumbnail pic? Mike is as white as white can be, why is the thumbnail altered to make him look like a minority?
Setting aside the weird trolling about a biracial man, you think someone can’t naturally be more tan in some photos than other photos?
Even weirder is McDaniel trying to act black in front of the players. He comes across as a nerdy kid from the suburbs, but talks like he grew up in the hood. He’s a brilliant offensive mind and scheme creator, but I don’t see much else to him beyond that.
Well, one, he IS half-black. And his players sure don’t seem to think he comes across inauthentic.
True thats he’s bi-racial but he grew up in Aurora CO and went to Yale. Not exactly the pedigree to relate to many NFL players.
And yet he clearly does. This is a very weird angle you’re taking.
Did you watch Hard Knocks Miami? My point is he isn’t a typical NFL HC
No one would say he’s a typical NFL HC, but you were saying very different words than that.
The things people worry about. Social media and comment sections are a plague on our society. Why can’t we talk about football? The man is a good coach regardless of race or skin tone.
Black and white aren’t races, they are skin tones. Just because a person has mixed ancestry it does not mean that person is “black”, especially when their skin is white.
@highwaymenace: No one cares, this is a football website. Please shut up.
Though I don’t agree with the extension, can this be the year McDaniels and the team finally get by Buffalo? I don’t believe it but want to be proven wrong. Tyreek Hill wants that 2000 yard season but hopefully the boy wonder can keep him focused more on the postseason–and good health–instead.
He is a good fit for that team.
Since he built the team to match his style of football, I would hope so.