The matter of potential coaching changes in Miami has been a talking point throughout the 2025 season. Questions about in-season firings will continue over the coming days after the team’s 31-6 loss against the Browns in Week 7. 
For now, at least, Mike McDaniel remains in place as head coach. When speaking after Sunday’s “humbling” defeat, he said consideration will be given to personnel changes. It is unclear which positions could be affected by a shuffling of the depth chart, but this situation could be one to monitor closely.
“If you are negatively impacting the team routinely, I have no choice but to assess a different player,” McDaniel said (via Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald). “I have to coach a lot better as well. We will find out who and what we’re made of… We will change our style of play if we have to. Everything is on the table.”
The comment about playing style is certainly notable, considering the criticism Miami has received during McDaniel’s tenure. The Dolphins have struggled to consistently find success against stronger opponents, and much of that has been attributed to the team’s approach on offense in particular. That unit has struggled in 2025, and the Dolphins sit 25th in the NFL with an average of just 20 points per game.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa‘s day came to an early end with the game out of reach on Sunday. His 24.1 passer rating was the lowest of his career, and it marked another poor outing in a season during which he has struggled with turnovers. Tagovailoa has thrown a league-leading 10 interceptions in 2025, and McDaniel said one or two of his three picks from Sunday were “preventable.”
Leading up to yesterday’s loss, Tagovailoa was the center of attention based on his public criticism of teammates from the previous week. The 27-year-old is already owed $54MM in guarantees for next season, so any parting of ways would not be feasible even if it were to be entertained by the Dolphins. Based on McDaniel’s comments, though, it will be interesting to see how the quarterback depth chart is handled moving forward.
On that note, rookie Quinn Ewers saw his first regular season action in the NFL on Sunday after taking over for Tagovailoa. The seventh-rounder overtook Mike White for the QB2 role in Week 7, something McDaniel said was due to the outcome of practice in the preceding days and something which was specific to the opponent. As further alterations are considered in the near future, the backup quarterback position could soon see more changes along with many others.
Not Mike White – a different Jets reject – Zack Wilson
Zach Wilson was Miami’s QB3 for that 31-6 ass-kicking in Cleveland. Such proves McDaniel is a dead coach walking.
Personnel changes: fire McDaniel (who never should have been given the job in the first place) and bench Tua. Anything that happens after that is an improvement.
Give the job to Ewers!
Just fire the guy already. Making him wriggle on the hook is unnecessarily cruel. The team is broken and he can’t fix it. Move on.
Seems like almost all of the Miami players needed to protect Tua gave him the ‘Kiss of Death” by not doing their job … and that hostile attitude towards him is not going to change !! … Dolphins are doomed !!
Tua looked like he didn’t really want to be on the field for much of his day. You can’t fix that just by firing the coach. Maybe both the coach AND Tua need to be shown the door.
For a hot minute in 2023 the Dolphins looked like the Greatest Show on Turf 2.0. Not only did Tua lead the league in passing yards, they led the league in rushing yards per carry at 5.1. And then the clock struck midnight and they turned back into a pumpkin.
Stephen Ross gives the impression of an owner desperately trying to establish that “popular opinion” is not going to dictate his personnel decisions, but sadly, what he’s actually demonstrating is that he’ll spite his own best interests not to appear reactionary.
Ross can adore Mike McDaniel as a person, and still accept the striking evidence that he’s not going to win big games as the coach of the Dolphins – even though a significant part of the blame can be laid at the feet of Chris Grier, and a long string of unfortunate draft and signing decisions.
That being said, of course, to sit frozen with stubborn pride or indecision, when the franchise is consistently failing is a mark of a poor ownership. We often hear that a professional sports team is “a business”, and Ross is certainly an experienced, and by all appearances, a successful businessman. Why he would continue to allow this business to fail, and bleed “customer” loyalty is curious, and out of character.
Every loss and every non-successful season equates with more fans turning off the TV, buying fewer tickets, buying less overpriced merchandise, and investing their leisure dollars in other activities. In these challenging economic times, customers are cutting back, and taking a good, critical look at their expenses. Ross’ message to his fans sounds a lot like “suck it up, buttercups”, and “no one tells me how to run my football team”.
It’s never a good sign when a team’s on-field performance is getting more laughs than a Pet Detective movie 🙂