Miami’s leadership appeared to be on the hot seat entering the 2025 campaign, and those seats are only getting warmer. Sources told Tony Pauline of Sportskeeda that head coach Mike McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier may not survive the current season if the organization fails to turn things around.
McDaniel’s spot on the hot seat isn’t anything new. For starters, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross released a statement following the 2024 campaign that the head coach (along with the GM) would be sticking around for the 2025 season. While that statement served as a vote of confidence, it was also a clear acknowledgement that a firing was at least under consideration.
We also heard rumblings in August that McDaniel was a candidate to be the first canned coach of the 2025 campaign. An anonymous GM described the situation as a “ticking time bomb,” citing the coach’s willingness to let the likes of Jalen Ramsey and Tyreek Hill “walk all over” him.
The head coach is still attached to an extension that runs through the 2028 season. McDaniel earned that contract after guiding the Dolphins to the postseason in each of his first two seasons at the helm, including a 2023 campaign where the offense finished first in yards and second in points. Tua Tagovailoa‘s concussion issues contributed to the team’s demise in 2024, but the locker room turmoil was enough to put the offensive mastermind on the hot seat. An embarrassing loss to the Colts in Week 1 has naturally led to more whispers about the head coach’s potential ouster.
While Grier was included in Ross’s statement following the 2024 season, the GM hasn’t felt the heat as much as his head coach. This is Grier’s 10th season in his role as GM, although he didn’t get full control of the roster until 2019. The executive saw the Dolphins make the playoffs during his first season at the helm, but the team failed to return to the postseason over the next five years. After shuffling through the likes of Adam Gase and Brian Flores, the McDaniel hiring seemed to revitalize the organization. In addition to his initial HC hit, Grier got credit for some big-swing acquisitions, including Ramsey and Hill.
It didn’t take long for the executive to lose some of that goodwill. After signing Ramsey to a lucrative extension ahead of the 2024 campaign, the cornerback was traded less than a year later, and there’s still a chance Hill follows suit. The issues in the locker room can’t necessarily be attributed to the front office leader, but some other ill-advised moves (including a Tagovailoa extension that commits more than $50MM annually to the QB) have also led to Miami’s current situation. With the Dolphins failing to win a playoff game since the 2000 campaign, there’s a chance that ownership may also look to shake up their front office sooner than later.
McDaniel is a good coach. Concussions are not his fault. No other sport’s success or failure relies so much on one position as the NFL relies on the QB. $50 million per year, however, for Tua was a terrible investment.
You must mean a Good COORDINATOR, Not a Good Head Coach. He can’t lead Men, but he can Teach them. There is a difference & it’s getting More obvious by the season.
Come back to SF Mike
I hate to sound harsh but McDaniel is a fraud as a head coach. His career record against teams that have finished the season above .500 (ie, 9-8 or better) is 5-15. 5-17 if you include the playoffs. His record against losing teams (8-9 or worse) is 23-8. He has no playoff wins.
Even in his best season in 2023, when he went 11-6, it was because he had one of the easiest schedules in the league and went 10-1 against losing teams and 1-5 against winning teams. And then they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs.
Good for him for beating up on bad teams but at some point, you need to win some big games and he hasn’t done that. The Dolphins also appear to be going backwards. At this point in his career, I just don’t think he’s HC material. He’d be a solid OC, though.
What a well researched post. Interesting information about his record against winning teams. There are a long list of great coordinators that just don’t do well as head coaches and McDaniel might be one of those guys.
You’re gonna have to break down those games with Tua and without Tua
If you’re counting games Skylar Thompson started that’s not exactly fair to judge McDaniels
Last year Huntley and Thompson played in 7 games for instance
While it’s true that there’s a HUGE drop off between Tua and QB2 neither Grier nor McDaniel have put enough emphasis on getting a quality backup in spite of Tua’s fragility. In fact McDaniel prioritized NutZack Wilson this past offseason. To me, that was the last nail in the coffin. Anybody with eyes could tell you that Wilson stinks out loud.
I wouldn’t say he’s a fraud as a Head Coach. There have been plenty of coaches that couldn’t even coach their teams to victories over the teams they’re supposed to beat. Your excellent research has shown McDaniel capable of at least doing that much.
Ultimately a coach does have to eventually learn how to rise to the challenge of preparing his team to win those tougher match ups, though. So, I can’t really argue your point that he’s probably more of an OC than a HC; which plenty of guys have made good careers out of.
Yes, the team has problems with injuries. Yes, they seem like a soft team. Yes, McDaniel has problems with better teams, but bad outing or not against Indy, this team still has 16 more games to go. Lets see how it plays out?
When asked for a quote Mr McDaniel replied,” Well, I’m not a REAL head coach, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.” In my opinion a player is not going to respect someone who has not played the game outside of being a third stringer in high school. He attended Yale, a noted football powerhouse, and recorded NO stats on the football field. He’s noticably lax on discipline and can’t really be intimidating because he’s five foot three and 130 lbs. These players are not men, they are giant toddlers who will do whatever they can get away with. The Les Nessman experiment has failed. Get someone who knows football because they played the game, not because they studied statistics in college.