I believe Mike McDaniel’s time as head coach of the Miami Dolphins is coming to an end. Sky Sports NFL Jeff Reinbold.
The struggling Dolphins fell to 1-6 on Sunday and hit a new low with a 31-6 loss to the Cleveland Browns.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa threw for 100 yards and three interceptions before being benched for seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers.
Miami’s collapse has raised question marks over the future of McDaniel, who is in his fourth season with the team but has yet to win a playoff game.
“How deep does the hurt go? I’m a big believer in body language, and I was watching the game yesterday (Sunday) and McDaniel looked like a drowned rat on the sideline,” Reinebold said. inside the huddle. “He has a hood over his head. It’s cold. Everything about his body language said, ‘I don’t even want to be here.’
“And the further indictment is that the rookie quarterback he brought into the game to replace Tua was so bad. He went over to the sideline and McDaniel didn’t even respond to him. The kid walked right past him and I didn’t know who he was. And I’m thinking to myself: ‘Are you going to coach this kid?’
“He looked like he wanted to get out of there. When you know it’s coming, you know it’s coming and he knows it’s coming.
McDaniel announced himself as one of the NFL’s most sought-after offensive greats upon his arrival in 2022 from his position as the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator.
He pulled the strings on an explosive offense that led a team led by Tagovailoa and Tyreek-Hill to the playoffs, and delivered his own unique take on the system Shanahan developed, reigniting Miami’s long-awaited return to the championship.
Miami went 8-9 last season and missed the postseason after losing to the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs in back-to-back wild-card exits. Questions were raised about the futures of McDaniel and Tagovailoa at the time, but alarm bells have never been louder than they are now.
“McDaniel has to deal with all of this,” Reinebold said. “It’s been a bad ending for guys. The managerial opportunity is not his career, because if he chooses a football career, he’ll have a football career.
“He looked completely lost when he got to the podium after the game. It was clear he had lost his football team, he had lost his quarterback. Of all the relationships you have to build to be a successful head coach, head coach and quarterback, this is probably the most basic and most important relationship.
“I thought Tua had quit, but he just gave in. And it was an ugly experience. Change needs to happen and it needs to change fast.”
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Highlights from Week 7 between the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers.
Tagovailoa admitted after Sunday’s loss that he is “not proud” to be the Dolphins’ quarterback, who has thrown 11 touchdowns to 10 interceptions with an 82.8 passer rating so far this season.
Of the two, it is the quarterback whose job security feels safer than McDaniel’s after he signed a four-year, $212.4 million contract extension that expires in 2024.
I said, “Mike McDaniel is gone.” Sky Sports NFL Neil Reynolds. “It’s going to happen. There’s no turning back now. The bigger question is how they move forward at quarterback. Tua Tagovailoa threw three interceptions out of his own end zone, which were the most careless picks you’ll ever see.
“And this isn’t the first time this season. But he’s one of those quarterbacks who gets paid $50 million a year and is guaranteed no matter what happens. He’s officially guaranteed $54 million next year by the free-falling Dolphins.”
“Sometimes I often wonder, and we all wonder, what is the point? Why do we have interim directors? Why do we do it now in October, or why do we do it at the end of September?
“The end is near and it’s just dragging on. Things are getting worse for the franchise and the spiral is getting worse. They need to rip the Band-Aid off right now.”
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