Again-to-back Dolphins playoff berths will produce the primary extension for a 2022 HC rent. The crew has agreed to a brand new take care of Mike McDaniel, according to ESPN.com’s Jeff Darlington.
The third-year HC agreed to a deal to tie him to the Dolphins by way of the 2028 season. This comes after the Dolphins booked consecutive postseason appearances for the primary time in over 20 years. McDaniel, 41, has rejuvenated Miami’s offense. The crew led the league in whole offense for the primary time since Dan Marino‘s age-33 season (1994), and Tua Tagovailoa has proven substantial progress because the Dolphins employed the Kyle Shanahan disciple.
This offseason brought a Tagovailoa megadeal and new agreements with Tyreek Hill — a transforming that introduced extra ensures the longer term Corridor of Famer’s manner — and Jaylen Waddle. As different golf equipment who employed new HCs in 2022 nonetheless decide the right way to proceed regarding long-term plans, Dolphins possession is assured within the crew’s path underneath McDaniel.
Recognized maybe as a lot for his eccentricities, which have produced quite a few interview soundbites, McDaniel displayed an instantaneous skill to educate Miami’s offense. Whereas the 2022 Hill commerce considerably impacted Tagovailoa’s trajectory, the league’s lone southpaw quarterback starter turned a nook as soon as Stephen Ross employed McDaniel.
Amid a regarding concussion-marred 2022, Tua nonetheless completed third in QBR whereas main the league in passer score and yards per try. The 2020 first-rounder paced the NFL in passing yards in 2023, staying wholesome and guiding the crew again to the postseason. The Dolphins had not beforehand secured consecutive playoff berths since they strung collectively 5 in a row through the Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannstedt years (1997-2001).
Employed within the aftermath of a controversial Brian Flores firing — a transfer that prompted the previous Dolphins HC to file a racial discrimination lawsuit — McDaniel has additionally gone by way of three defensive coordinators and seen his crew limp to the regular-season end line in each the 2022 and ’23 seasons. Miami went 9-8 in 2022, a season overshadowed by Tagovailoa’s accidents, and 11-6 final season. The Dolphins wrapped the ’23 marketing campaign with a wild-card no-show on a frigid Kansas Metropolis night time. This generated extra questions in regards to the Tremendous Bowl viability of the nucleus McDaniel and GM Chris Grier have assembled.
That mentioned, the Dolphins practically upset the No. 2-seeded Payments regardless of third-string rookie Skylar Thompson beginning within the 2022 wild-card spherical. In keeping with Darlington, Grier and McDaniel additionally cast a robust relationship; that was definitely not the case with the veteran GM and Flores. Forward of Grier’s sixth season with roster management, the Dolphins will proceed to pair him together with his 2022 HC rent. The 2022 HC additions — Kevin O’Connell, Matt Eberflus, Brian Daboll, Doug Pederson, Dennis Allen and Todd Bowles — are nonetheless on their preliminary offers. One different 2022 HC rent, Josh McDaniels, didn’t make it out of his second season.
