Kelly: McDaniel Gets Second Chance to Prove Genius Rep Is Valid

The Dolphins never fixed the issues that led to the five-game December losing streak. Sunday's game against the Chargers gives Mike McDaniel a do-over against team that contained Miami's offense

Mike McDaniel is too busy trying to be the funniest person in the room to worry about being the smartest one in it, and I personally find that approach refreshing.

I’ve dealt with too many football coaches who unnecessarily labored to prove just how smart they are, and that act gets old.

So the fact that the Miami Dolphins’ Yale-educated head coach refuses to play the “I’m smarter than you” game is encouraging, and deserving of recognition, even when his punchlines fizzle.

But a little intellectual smugness might be beneficial as we approach the season opener against the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday because McDaniel hasn’t proven he’s worthy of the genius label so many fans, NFL insiders and journalists attach to his name based on the performance of the 2022 Dolphins.

December struggles still linger

Remember, the 2022 team limped into the playoffs after being TKO’ed in December, losing five straight games.

Over the years I’ve learned to not judge a head coach until you see how he handles himself during a crisis period.

How quickly can his coaching, leadership, game-planning, innovation, strategy, connection with his locker room end a tailspin that might unravel a season.

I’d argue that the Dolphins, which began last season 8-3, never exactly stopped the bleeding during the five-game losing skid that surfaced in December, a period where Miami lost games to three playoff-bound teams.

The San Francisco 49ers, who are coached by the son (Kyle Shanahan) of McDaniel’s coaching mentor (Mike Shanahan), roughed up the Dolphins in a 33-17 victory, which was a physical mismatch of football teams.

Then the Los Angeles Chargers doubled down on the blueprint the 49ers created to contain Miami’s offense, pressing the receivers at the line and clogging up the middle of the field with zone coverage, and pulled off a 23-17 win the following week.

NFL a copycat league

“A defense will run a certain coverage or a certain blitz until you can execute against it,” McDaniel said. “They will continue to do it until you can give them reason not to."

After the game the Chargers defenders bragged about the effective game plan, which forced Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to either work outside the numbers or beat them deep.

Tagovailoa, who was 10-of-28 for 145 yards with one touchdown in that loss, couldn’t solve the riddle fast enough.

“They had a great game plan for us last year. It was tough to get things started in basically the first half and then trying to move on from that into the game, trying to get a rhythm going offensively. You’ve got to tip your hat to their coaches,” Tagovailoa said of the Chargers defense, which at that time was led by Renaldo Hill, who voluntarily left his defensive coordinator role in Los Angeles to join the Dolphins as Miami’s secondary coach. “They took a lot of things away that we would normally run, and things that we felt comfortable doing so hats off to them.”

Because the NFL’s a copycat league, every team that followed the 49ers and Chargers worked off a similar blueprint, and whether that contributed to Miami’s five straight losses can be debated for a lifetime.

Dolphins have a big opportunity

A concussion Tagovailoa suffered in a 26-20 loss to the Green Bay Packers during the fourth game of that five-game losing skid, obviously didn’t help.

But the fact Miami earned a playoff berth by beating a Joe Flacco-led Jets team 11-6, with Skylar Thompson as the starter because of injuries that sidelined Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater, then lost to Buffalo 34-31 in the playoffs didn’t prove that the crisis had been resolved.

The game Sunday, the season opener for both of these playoff teams, provides McDaniel and his Dolphins that opportunity.

McDaniel needs to prove that he’s got the answers to the quiz he failed nine months ago.

“It wasn’t cool to experience it first-hand, but from a coach's perspective, I told Brandon (Staley) after the game, it was so impressive,” McDaniel said, recalling that Chargers loss. “It just tells a lot about that team that they didn’t blink and they came out to challenge us and they did.”

We’ll soon learn if the Dolphins have a witty comeback.