Dolphins Coaching Search: Strong Endorsements for McDaniel

Two NFL head coaches had glowing reviews of potential new Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel

While their former head coach made big news this week with his lawsuit against the NFL and them, among others, the Miami Dolphins are moving along with their search for a new head coach.

Based on multiple reports, they are scheduled for second interviews this week with two offensive coordinators, Mike McDaniel of the San Francisco 49ers and Kellen Moore of the Dallas Cowboys.

While Moore has more experience as an offensive coordinator (three years to one), McDaniel has been an NFL assistant coach for much longer (11 years to four).

McDaniel is scheduled to interview with the Dolphins this week, fresh off receiving two glowing public referrals from a pair of NFL head coaches.

New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh, who was the 49ers defensive coordinator from 2017-20, was asked about McDaniel on Wednesday during a Senior Bowl press conference.

"He is phenomenal," Saleh said. "His mindset, the way he creates things, his creativity, his outside-the-box thinking, his ability to communicate with people, he's as good as they get. He's been with Kyle for longer than any of us have. He's been there since he and I were QCs sitting across from each other for the Houston Texans back in '06. He's brilliant. He's every bit as deserving to be a head coach and would not like him to come to the division. But if it happens, so be it."

On Tuesday, 49ers GM John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan conducted their end-of-season press conference, two days after their loss against the Rams in the NFC Championship Game, and the topic of McDaniel and his future came up.

"Obviously, I don't want to lose Mike," Shanahan said. "Mike, I think people made a bigger deal out of Mike this year because he had the (offensive coordinator) title all by himself. But Mike did the same thing this year he has been doing the last five years. So Mike's always been such a big part of what we do here. Yeah, he always focuses on the run game. That's his area of expertise, but Mike helps me in all aspects of offense. We brought Bobby Slowik, who kind of took a little bit of (New York Jets offensive coordinator Mike) LaFleur's role. But that didn't change what we do with Mike and he was just as big in 2019 and as he is this year. So Mike's always been good at what he does. He always will be and he deserves to get some of these opportunities people are talking about."

University of Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh always lurked as a potential candidate because of his long-standing ties to Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, but ESPN's Adam Schefter reported Wednesday night that Harbaugh had informed the school he would be back at U-M for the 2022 season.

Jim Harbaugh called Michigan to inform the school that, despite interviewing with the Vikings today, he will be returning to school for the 2022 season, sources tell ESPN. Michigan was, in the words of one source, “elated” to get Harbaugh’s decision.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 3, 2022

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