Why McDaniel Kept Crossman as Special Teams Coordinator

The Miami Dolphins ranked in the bottom third in the overall special teams rankings the past three seasons

INDIANAPOLIS — The Miami Dolphins made several coaching moves this offseason, but it was one move they didn't make that attracted the attention of a lot of fans.

That non-move involved retaining special teams coordinator Danny Crossman, who has been in many fans' crosshairs since Mike McDaniel became head coach in 2022, particularly after the team ranked 31st this past season in Rick Gosselin's annual special teams rankings.

While kicker Jason Sanders rebounded in the second half of the season, the Dolphins had no long returns all year and gave up a long kickoff return to start the second half at Baltimore and a game-changing punt return for a touchdown in the Week 18 game against the Buffalo Bills that determined the AFC East title.

The Dolphins did make a change with the assistant special teams position, with Ronnie Bradford being hired to replace Brendan Farrell, but Crossman will be back for a sixth season with the team.

Crossman remains the second-longest-tenured position coach on the staff behind only associate head coach/running backs Eric Studesville, who arrived in 2018.

McDANIEL EXPLAINS HIS BACKING OF CROSSMAN

The Dolphins reporter with the Expos hat asked McDaniel at the scouting combine Tuesday what made him comfortable retaining his special teams coordinator despite the team's struggles in that area.

"It's a good question," McDaniel said. "I think so many of the decisions that I have to make are very layered and although results are very, very important — and I think coach Crossman would agree with the statement that the results aren't where we want them to be — so much of my job is determining the compounding variables and the whys of things. And ultimately, I think that the bottom line is picturing us moving forward and how to get that phase of the football team to find the improvement necessary for us to take steps in our game as a team, I determined that he was the appropriate guy to lead us to fix the things that haven't been up to the standard.

"I don't think it's appropriate for you to just point blank, say, 'OK, the results aren't there. You shouldn't be either.' You have to assess the whys and come up with a game plan of how we're going to improve that phase, which is very important to us moving forward. And which is why Danny is part of it."

The follow-up question dealt with what qualities Crossman possesses to make McDaniel believe he could help find an answer to the special teams issues.

“Yeah, so you have a window into the true depth of someone's coaching ability when you're working alongside them every single day," McDaniel said. "And part of the process of factoring those things is how, ultimately, is a coach able to communicate to a player to get him better? And although the results haven't been there, what I've seen is players responding in the appropriate way to things that Danny has to offer. Now, does that mean we're not taking a hard look at everything with regard to scheme to players? Absolutely not. Everything's on the table. What has been established is the communicator, the leader and the guy devoted to getting it right, Danny Crossman, felt like held the most merit to coach this unit moving forward. I think if players didn't respond to him, it'd be a different conversation. But I think we'll collectively work together to right something that we know that we can improve on. That's very tangible and excited to do that.”