Mike McDaniel is still living out of a suitcase and residing in a hotel (he’s moved to a second one) when he’s not hunkered down at the team’s facility in Miami Gardens.
The Miami Dolphins’ newest head coach is still getting his bearings in South Florida — he’s been to two restaurants and a Miami Heat game — and doesn’t plan to venture out more until he finds his footing with the franchise he’s now responsible for leading.
McDaniel openly admits his knowledge of the AFC East, one of the two divisions he’s never coached in before now, is lacking, and that his understanding of the Dolphins’ illustrious history and knowledge of the team’s 20-year ride on the mediocrity merry-go-around, isn’t strong.
But McDaniel does know one thing about the Dolphins: He’s certain he’s inherited a disciplined, well-coached team.
Even though his exposure to the players has been limited, his admiration for what he knows they endured — or better yet, survived after starting out the 2021 season with a disastrous 1-7 record before rebounding to win 8 of the final 9 games — is grand.
“People don’t really understand how hard it is to be a player in the middle of the season and people are talking about next year,” McDaniel said Tuesday during an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel at the NFL scouting combine. “To be able to ignore the noise and move forward [is impressive].
“I’m excited about a lot of the guys I get to meet because there’s that core [understanding] among the players, and they understand the value of working through adversity, and they have a bond to each other because of it. I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it, and do whatever it takes to possibly get us to the next step.”
The decision-makers who hired McDaniel hope the 38-year-old will bring his run-game expertise and background helping coach respectable offenses to help stabilize that side of the ball.
Pair an improved offense with the type of defense Miami looks to replicate by keeping Josh Boyer as defensive coordinator, and the hope is that a franchise that produced back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2002-03, will continue to take steps forward.
Especially if they add the right pieces in free agency and the draft, getting players who can complement what is already on the roster and those who can address some of the team’s voids.
Every coach wants tough, smart, disciplined leaders, players who love football. That’s one of the biggest clichés in professional sports. So it was refreshing that McDaniel didn’t regurgitate some tired, rehearsed speech about his desired makeup for players and need for them to “love football.”
According to McDaniel, he’s looking for football players who are “passionate and ambitious.”
McDaniel doesn’t want the Dolphins to shy away from ambitious players because throughout his career, the teams he’s been part of have been carried by those individuals. And he points out that as a coach, his biggest task is to help them improve their skills, get them prepared for each opponent, and maximize their opportunity.
That’s how you thrive in the NFL. Putting a player in position to win is how you gain respect in the locker room.
“A head coach serves,” he said. “They have to feel the investment. That’s the player’s bottom line.”
McDaniel wants players that “truly value all of the experiences that a team may provide,” he continued. “A guy that likes work brothers, people that appreciates family that isn’t blood.”
Those are the bonds teams create and good teams can overachieve and rise beyond the squad’s talent level.
“Important in that whole mold of a human being is there has to be a component of acceptance, and almost embracing adversity because that’s the game’s strongest parallel to life,” McDaniel continued. “That’s what football provides. There always will be adversity and acknowledging that could allow us to thrive in that because it happens in each quarter, each game, each season.”
“There isn’t a season where people don’t fail, so you have to find the people where going through stuff isn’t [frowned upon],” he continued. “Sometimes adversity is the greatest gift someone can ever get if they have the wisdom to understand it’s going to be alright. That’s directly what I look for in terms of people, and those are the people that you want alongside you.”
