Hyde: Miami Dolphins were soft at the top with Grier, McDaniel

[Sunstroke]

There's a lot of room on the continuum between essentially Pee Wee Herman reincarnate and Brian Flores.  Just because you don't want Pee Wee Herman 2.0 doesn't mean you want Brian Flores.  There are other options besides those two.

Pee Wee Herman as McDaniel? No, no, no... McDaniel is much more on the Ferris Bueller side of the nerd spectrum...

[Spider-Dan]

If "Pee Wee Herman" can get the Dolphins to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons while all the tough guys who preceded him (like Brian Flores and Nick Saban) can't, perhaps the fans are fixating on the wrong factors.

In fact, looking at the last four Dolphins coaches to make the playoffs (McDaniel, Gase, Sparano, and Wannstedt), none of them seem to be the kind of authoritarian that is being lusted for.

It's almost like it's not about the results.
Like they want a coach who is tough on these spoiled players for it's own sake.

[CF DolFan]

Like they want a coach who is tough on these spoiled players for it's own sake.

There is a world of difference between he and the middle of the road coches like McDermitt and the Harbaugh brothers that comparing him to Flores or Saban makes no sense. McDaniel is so left of tough it really does have a negative effect on the team. You can't allow players to continually break rules regardless of who they are. It will negatively affect everyone else.

[Spider-Dan]

Who is a losing coach with the correct amount of toughness?

I mean, Andy Reid is pretty widely considered the top coach in the league right now, and he's famously not an authoritarian.  So it seems to me that the issue - as always - is not how tough you are, but how many wins you are stacking.

So the actual problem is the record, not the toughness.

[Dolfanalyst]

There is a world of difference between he and the middle of the road coches like McDermitt and the Harbaugh brothers that comparing him to Flores or Saban makes no sense. McDaniel is so left of tough it really does have a negative effect on the team. You can't allow players to continually break rules regardless of who they are. It will negatively affect everyone else.

Exactly.  It's not that he's not an authoritarian -- it's that he's simply not effective.

If you used a scale from 0 to 100 to measure someone's authoritarianism, with a score of let's say 50 being optimal for an NFL head coach, the fact that Brian Flores has a score of 90 and is way over the top with regard to what's optimal is nonetheless immaterial with regard to the fact that McDaniel has a score of just 5.  McDaniel is still inadequate, regardless of what Brian Flores or the other over the top authoritarians of the world are doing.

[Dolfanalyst]

If "Pee Wee Herman" can get the Dolphins to the playoffs in back-to-back seasons while all the tough guys who preceded him (like Brian Flores and Nick Saban) can't, perhaps the fans are fixating on the wrong factors.

In fact, looking at the last four Dolphins coaches to make the playoffs (McDaniel, Gase, Sparano, and Wannstedt), none of them seem to be the kind of authoritarian that is being lusted for.

It's almost like it's not about the results.
Like they want a coach who is tough on these spoiled players for it's own sake.

Again, making the playoffs is nothing special.  Nearly 44% of NFL teams do that every year.  It's about a coin flip in terms of probability.

And again as well, "lusting for an authoritarian" is a strawman.  Just because you don't want McDaniel/Pee Wee Herman doesn't automatically mean you want an authoritarian.

Hypothetically McDaniel could be part of only 5% of the population who are totally unfit to be an NFL head coach.  That would leave 95% of the population to choose from.  Surely you could find a non-authoritarian who is also a non-McDaniel within that 95%.

[Spider-Dan]

Again, making the playoffs is nothing special.

Then why is McDaniel the only Miami head coach to make the playoffs in back-to-back years since the Clinton Administration?
If it's so easy, why couldn't the earlier tough guy coaches make the playoffs at all?

Again: perhaps the fans prioritize the wrong things.