For years, Mike McDaniel sat and learned from San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan in meeting rooms, on practice fields and up and down sidelines.
McDaniel followed Shanahan from Houston to Washington to Cleveland to Atlanta and finally to San Francisco where the former eventually rose to offensive coordinator and Shanahan’s right-hand man.
Buy Dolphins TicketsIn 2022, McDaniel took a leap and left for the Miami Dolphins where he took over and became the head coach in a situation that was a bit dicey. Yes, the team was coming off of back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the early 2000s, but there was a mess to clean up following the departure of Brian Flores.
McDaniel, in his first season, turned quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from a quarterback who may not see a second contract with the team that drafted him into an MVP candidate before he suffered multiple concussions, ending his season prematurely.
He brought the Dolphins to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and while they were promptly defeated by the Buffalo Bills, it was a hurdle that Miami had to make it over.
Now, three games into his second season, McDaniel was the mastermind of a game plan that saw his team become the fourth team in the history of the game to score 70 points.
Shanahan’s 49ers, who are one of three undefeated teams remaining in the NFL after three weeks, played on Thursday night, giving him a chance to watch his protege paint his masterpiece, and he couldn’t help but smile.
“I mean, you’re always happy for people that you know and also people you’ve been with,” Shanahan said. “I think it’s a lot more fun to watch guys in the AFC then you can truly cheer for them… But it’s always cool, especially guys who’ve been with you for a long time because you get to see more formations, you get to see stuff that you do and you get a lot more looks at it…. The Miami game was crazy. They played so good and they really had it done, it seemed like about eight minutes to go. So, it could have been a lot worse, but it was fun to watch.”
McDaniel’s offensive plan is a variation of Shanahan’s, as it seems many teams are trending to in today’s NFL. Between the use of motions with Tyreek Hill and the use of wide receiver Erik Ezukanma as a runner like Deebo Samuel, the offenses seem to mirror each other.
“Tyreek is such a unique dude,” Shanahan said. “He’s the one dude with those motions who is fast enough to run any route known to man off of him. And not many people are like that, so they get to try a lot of stuff with that, which Mike’s as good as anyone at trying stuff and being creative. They did that in Week 1 with a little cheat motion. We did it in Week 2 after we saw it. The Rams did it about three times versus us in Week 2. I’ve also seen every team probably do it since Week 1. So it is a cool motion. And they’ve got a real cool guy to do it with.”
However, Shanahan said this use of motion is essentially cheating.
“It looks hard to stop people like Tyreek and Deebo and stuff with a running start,” he said. “That’s usually only in the CFL. So it’s cool to get them running sideways and still find a way to hit it vertically.”
Miami has been able to master these motions in such a short time that it will certainly take defenses a while to get caught up and design a way to lessen its impact. Until then, coaches like McDaniel and Shanahan will continue to exploit it.
