McDaniel

[Pappy13]

I think he's one of the best young coaches in the league...

I did too, up till this year. This year has changed my mind and not just since Tua went down. Week 1 we looked about on par with what we looked the last couple of games last year including the playoff game. Week 2 was a disaster. The big plays aren't there anymore, especially against better defenses. Sure we looked unstoppable the first 6 weeks last year and then teams started to adjust to what McDaniel was doing, especially the better defenses and then we looked ordinary or worse. That's not a good trend and I'm not sure we are going to get back to where we were in those first 6 weeks of last year. McDaniel seems to be relying more and more on behind the line of scrimmage stuff and less and less on down the field throws, again even when Tua is in the game. When Tua isn't in the game it looks even worse.

I'm super worried that we have seen the best that McDaniel can produce. He surprised some teams early on but now there's game tape on him and they know what's coming and they know how to stop it. That's when you have to adjust and I don't see those adjustments coming. When you lose your starting QB it shouldn't cause the entire offense to fall apart and it has. A decline I expected, this I couldn't have imagined. He's had a couple weeks now to adjust and it hasn't happened. All the underneath stuff only works if they respect your deep game. The Dolphins haven't connected on a deep pass this year I don't believe. That's very worrying.

And I'm not really calling for him to be fired and even if I was, the Dolphins aren't going to do that, they just gave him a new contract. But I am worried that McDaniel is not everything I once thought he was. He's looking more and more average everyday. He wouldn't be the first coach to take a turn for the worse after getting a big contract. Not saying it's gone to his head, but I do think he needs to figure out a way to turn things around both with and without Tua or he's not going to be around after this year big contract or not.

And I haven't even talked about the defense which looks like dogshit giving up a couple of big plays through the air and the ground every game and only occasionally looking like a real defense. Let's not forget that if we don't get a strip and recovery at the goal line in game 1 we are 0-4. It's looked bad all year, not just in weeks 3 and 4. I thought it was very worrying when our highly respected defensive coordinator left when it looked like Miami was an up and coming team and the defense turned on him. That's not a good sign and it's looking more and more like he saw something that not everyone could see, especially with several of the starters. They might be happy now with their new coach but they aren't getting the results that the last defensive coordinator got even if they weren't as good as we all thought they should be with him. Maybe that had less to do with the defensive coordinator and more to do with the players as he suggested.

I sort of expected the defense to have a bit of a decline, but I never expected what's happened to the offense, with or without Tua. I expected it to be even better than the 1st 6 games of 2023 and maybe that would compensate for the defensive decline a bit, but that hasn't been the case. We are in for a very long season, perhaps 2 or 3.

Dolphins problems extend well beyond their injured quarterbacks

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

It's entirely possible that McDaniel would make a great offensive coordinator and has been promoted to his level of incompetence as a head coach.  That's the norm in the NFL.  For every highly successful head coach there are a great many more who were promoted to their level of incompetence in that capacity.  Brian Flores is doing a great job right now as the Vikings' defensive coordinator.  A great head coach he was not, but he's a great coordinator.

The Peter Principle is not unique to the NFL but it is often extremely glaring in the NFL.  There is absolutely nobody I would take over Rex Ryan for defensive coordinator, head coach not so much.

[Denver2]

The league nerfed us with the new motion rules.

[Phishfan]

The league nerfed us with the new motion rules.

It's not a new rule. Players were never allowed forward motion at the time of the snap. Somehow Tyreek was getting away with it.

[Downunder Dolphan]

The league nerfed us with the new motion rules.

It's not a new rule. Players were never allowed forward motion at the time of the snap. Somehow Tyreek was getting away with it.

Not new, but the NFL mentioned before the season started they would be monitoring this very closely, and throw the flags a lot more often when they saw something amiss... and specifically referred to us and San Francisco in the process.

Tyreek skipped most of the preseason while waiting on a reworked contract, so perhaps not surprisingly, this is the result.

It's a failure of the players, the coaching (and arguably the management). The team had more than enough notice to be prepared, and should know they would be under the microscope. At this level, there are no excuses, it's sloppy and unprofessional and it just shouldn't happen.

[Downunder Dolphan]

So, has McDaniel come up with something creative and to motivate the team to success in the Patriots game, or has he spent the week hanging out with these guys?

[Downunder Dolphan]

They could afford to do it because Wentz was still on a rookie deal.

News flash - we still could have had Tua on a rookie deal for one more season.

We still could have had Waddle on a rookie deal for another two seasons.

We could have left Tyreek to play out his existing contract for at least another season (as well as Ramsey).

[Spider-Dan]

News flash - we still could have had Tua on a rookie deal for one more season.

We still could have had Waddle on a rookie deal for another two seasons.

It doesn't make sense to complain about overspending and then insist that the team should have delayed paying players.  Waiting means you either a) pay more than you would have locking them up earlier (i.e. making the overspending problem worse) or b) decide the pick was a failure and move on, getting little-to-nothing in return as you start over.

We could have left Tyreek to play out his existing contract for at least another season (as well as Ramsey).

The only thing that is keeping them in a Dolphins uniform right now are their reworked contracts.  Otherwise we'd be sitting through trade talks right now, just as the Raiders are with Adams.

Now, you can argue that the team should trade Tyreek and Ramsey and just blow it all up (which would be consistent with the rest of this thread).  But if that's the case: who cares about the cap?  It won't matter because the team will be tanking anyway.

[Downunder Dolphan]

It doesn't make sense to complain about overspending and then insist that the team should have delayed paying players.  

I was just pointing out that we had the choice of keeping those guys on their existing contracts. We could have done what the Eagles did with Wentz who were still able to afford Foles as a backup. We didn't necessarily have to lose all of the players we did during the off-season.

These are things that Grier had decided (no doubt to please McDaniel) thinking that last year and this year were our chances at a Superbowl run. It's now looking like that thinking has backfired, and we are going to be in an almighty mess for the next few seasons because of it.

[Spider-Dan]

That's not a fair comparison, for two reasons:

1) PHI did not even have the option to pay Wentz when Foles was playing there; the CBA doesn't allow extensions or re-negotiations for first-round rookies until after year 3.

2) To the extent that PHI's decision can be compared to MIA, MIA didn't give Tua a new contract until after year 4, whereas PHI gave Wentz a new contract at the earliest opportunity (after year 3).

[bsmooth]

Has McDaniel lost the team? This game is pathetic, even by previous pathetic games.

[Denver2]

So, has McDaniel come up with something creative and to motivate the team to success in the Patriots game, or has he spent the week hanging out with these guys?

Well the running game looked nice. He was known as a run game guy so maybe he’s going back to what he knows best.


Despite my frustrations on Monday night a week ago I’ll never give up on this damn team.

I really like McDaniel and want him to be successful, he grew up
In Colorado and I find him an inspiring guy who is true to himself.

You guys may be right and we will see but I really hope he can turn it around and I can come back and gloat

This is a great dolphins fan community and even if the dolphins make me cry again even if not for the team I wouldn’t want to give that up lol

[Downunder Dolphan]

Well the running game looked nice. He was known as a run game guy so maybe he’s going back to what he knows best.


Despite my frustrations on Monday night a week ago I’ll never give up on this damn team.

I really like McDaniel and want him to be successful, he grew up
In Colorado and I find him an inspiring guy who is true to himself.

You guys may be right and we will see but I really hope he can turn it around and I can come back and gloat

This is a great dolphins fan community and even if the dolphins make me cry again even if not for the team I wouldn’t want to give that up lol'

I do like him... but I want to see something more than a 1-D game plan. More than revolves around Tua to Tyreek, and then plan B, and no plan C.