Miami Dolphins: Breaking Down The Mike McDaniel Hire

After breaking down the Mike McDaniel hire from an organizational standpoint, there’s still more to dig into this hire from a coaching standpoint. McDaniel has a history of being well respected around the league. Everyone that has been asked about him has nothing but five-star reviews. He’s described as one of the better minds in football which the Miami Dolphins need to fix their offensive struggles. Wile it might have been the safest move, for a struggling team it might be their wisest choice.

The Dolphins need an offensive guy to fix their struggles. A strong defense has kept them in games over the years and their offense has done enough to win games. The current state of the Miami Dolphins offense can’t keep up with the powerhouse teams. When they go up against the middle of the pack or the other struggling teams, they can walk away with a win. However, the lack of run game and inconsistent passing game can’t keep up with teams that score at will. McDaniel’s first task will be balancing the offense back out. Miami was running pass play at almost 70% of their snaps last year. Coming over from the 49ers, looking at their offense it had a well-rounded approach.

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Then of course, there’s the elephant in the room and how he fixes Tua Tagovailoa’s struggles. In 2021, most people saw just how little the Dolphins were setting Tagovailoa for success. The offensive line struggled, yet again. Despite having a series of big plays, the Miami Dolphins offense seemed so generic. If Mike McDaniel wants to help out Tua, he needs to open up his potential and the playbook. Tua has an arm but has been extremely limited. Does he have the best arm in the NFL? No, but that’s not going to be an issue with the right scheme fit. The fact that he can throw downfield deep enough to keep defenses honest will be key. Miami can’t use the short passing game to chew up clock if they want to win against stronger offenses. They’ll need to expose the mid-range throws and lean more on the run game.

If they can run the football well enough, there’s still the element of clock control. The best thing about a strong passing game will always be a balanced run game. By luring defenders up to the line of scrimmage to plug the running lanes, allows offenses to open up the longer routes. Not every pass needs to be a 60-yard bomb to be a big play. Tua has proven he can make accurate throws in the 20 to 25 yard range. Add in the Jaylen Waddle wrinkle and now the offense has multiple ways to expose the defense.

If the run game forces the defensive front up and the passing game forces DBs deep, there’s a lot of space for a speedy WR like Waddle to make people miss. Combine that with solid tight end play as a bail out on broken plays and the Dolphins offense might be on to something.

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Mike McDaniel seems to have something the other coaches didn’t an actual personality. From Flores to Philbin and everyone in prior, they all had the no nonsense approach. A coach who is smart, relatable, and driven is inheriting a young team who has a ton of potential. Brian Flores is an old school coach who took a lot of cues from his time in New England, unfortunately it didn’t mesh in Miami. McDaniel seems like the opposite approach, between the jokes and laid back approach. The hardest part will be taking that knowledge and finding the balance on this team.

The Miami Dolphins need Mike McDaniel to balance the offensive attack out. They need him to pivot from being strictly a defensively strong team. He’ll also need to find the balance between tough and fair. The Dolphins have proved they can struggle and still win. Now they’ll need the coach that can eliminate those struggles and make this team more than winners in the regular season. If what everyone’s saying about McDaniel is true, maybe that missing playoff win might finally find it’s way to Miami.