Mike McDaniel has burst onto the NFL scene hoping to lead the Miami Dolphins to the postseason for the second time in as many seasons as their head coach.
I’ll be honest with you, I love his training. I do. I admire Mike McDaniel. For my money, I don’t know if it got any better than when he cracked a good press conference joke or called a stage shot to Tyreek Hill (a little Office Space reference for you cool cats out there).
I’m going to get serious now that I’ve found a way to incorporate that into my article. I have been a huge supporter of McDaniel since the day he hired him. He’s smart and highly motivated to succeed… In my experience, these are the people you’d bet on. His style is unique and the way he interacts with the players and the media is different from what we have come to expect from head coaches.
His belief in Tua Tagovailoa helped validate much of what you saw in his film from years one and two. Identify your Tua’s strengths (accuracy in all parts of the field, lightning-quick release) and pay attention to those strengths. That catapulted Tua into the conversation as a top 10 quarterback in the NFL and helped lead Miami to its first playoff entry since 2016.
Tua Tagovailoa on fairways traveling more than 20 air yards:
On target: 69.6% (per SIS data center)
Adjusted corporate ratio: 55.2% (per PFF)Both numbers led all NFL passers. #finsup
(part 1 of the video) pic.twitter.com/qxAbcuYpPh
– George Forder (@GeorgeForder3) January 24, 2022
What needs to be fixed in the second year
Like anything in life, being a great NFL coach means continually making incremental progress – if you’re in a slump, that means you’re falling behind on the competition. With that in mind, we need to ask what positive changes Mike McDaniel can make to lead the Miami Dolphins to a more successful 2023 campaign.
Rely on the running game
Before anyone wakes up analytically, I’m not advocating the Miami Dolphins becoming a heavyweight team. In fact, they must continue to pass the ball for at least 60% of their offensive strikes. When you have two of the best receivers and one of the most accurate players in the NFL, it’s not a hard decision to make.
However, problems start to arise when your insult is one-dimensional. There was a host of contests where Tua Tagovailoa never missed throws. From Week 8 (Detroit) to Week 12 (Houston), Tagovailoa completed 72% of his passes with 13 touchdowns and no interceptions (134.17 QB rating). For a large part of that time (outside the Brown game), the running game was an afterthought – Tagovailoa was the offense.
When faced with more capable defenses, the dolphins’ one-dimensional nature became an issue. Over the next two games, Miami averaged 13.5 rushing attempts per game and dropped back-to-back touchdowns against Los Angeles. chargers And San Francisco 49ers. Tagovailoa wasn’t as sharp as he used to be and the offense had nothing bad for him.
No one should hope that they will turn out to be Baltimore Crows Overnight, however, his 22.8 rushing attempts per game (second fewest in the NFL) is unbalanced and puts a lot on the young quarterback still in the process of perfecting the offense.
The Dolphins dominated the Browns in the running game. Raheem Mostert (8.1) and Jeff Wilson Jr. (7.0) gained the second and third highest yards per carry for Week 10 (minimum of 7 carries). This crime with fruitful running game will be unstoppable in match time.#finsup pic.twitter.com/82RSZrmEKP
– George Forder (@GeorgeForder3) November 15, 2022
Get plays faster
This is something every Miami Dolphins fan has every right to be frustrated with. The constant movement and adjustments that McDaniel’s offense (pre-snap) will always result in fewer seconds on the playing clock at snapshot time – understandably so. Breaking messaging with less than ten seconds on a play hour, though, is on caller play.
The Dolphins tied for the third-largest game delay penalties in the NFL in 2022, and more often than not the offense rushed to the line of scrimmage and stopped the football. It cost them dearly in the Wildcard contest against the Bills. What would have been IV&1 (65.5% conversion rate) with 2:34 on the game clock turned into 4 and 6 (43.1% conversion rate). With Miami down by only a field goal, they had the chance to take the lead and win the game on that drive. Instead, they failed to convert and lost by three points to the Buffalo Bills (total).
Take less Homerun shots
We all know the narrative that was going on around Tua Tagovailoa in the 2022 season…that he “can’t throw the deep ball.” Mike McDaniel did his best to send this thing into orbit and shoot it. Tua Tagovailoa led the NFL in average depth of goal (ADOT) and deep pass completion percentage (20+ yards). He had the fourth-deepest passing yards in the NFL (while missing several games) and was the fourth-highest passer in the PFF on deep throws (before Patrick Mahomes).
While it’s clear that the narrative is completely pointless (even if clueless showrunners hold onto it), there have been times when McDaniel has gone over the well a bit too much. Tua Tagovailoa is one of those tempo passes and it can be difficult to get into a tempo when you’re constantly chasing the long ball. This was most evident in the game for the Chargers, where he posted his highest ADOT number in a complete game all season.
Instead of using Tagovailoa’s quick release and elite shortstop accuracy (or running game) to pace the offense, they took deep shot after deep shot. It led to one of Tua’s worst days as a pro and McDaniel offensive performer this season. Unfortunately, we only got to see Tua play two more games (with mixed results) in the season before concussion problems shut him down this year.
The second year can be special
It’s hard to have a better rookie year as an NFL head coach than McDaniel. He led the Miami Dolphins to a playoff birth and earned the respect and admiration of people across the league (including the media). If McDaniel can pull off some of the first-year struggles, we could see a well-balanced, efficient, and completely unstoppable offense in the second year. Combine that with a defense led by Vic Fangio, and the Dolphins might finally be back in title contention.