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Mike McDaniel and the ‘rehabilitation’ of the Miami Dolphins

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theathletic.com

Mike McDaniel and the 'rehabilitation' of the Miami Dolphins

Mike McDaniel's demeanor is radiating through Tua Tagovailoa, the entire Dolphins roster and maybe all the way to the AFC playoffs.
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MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Before he met Mike McDaniel, Tua Tagovailoa had only known tough coaching, the kind built on hard criticism. He knew it from his dad, from Nick Saban, from Brian Flores and even from himself.

In June during OTAs, Tagovailoa said McDaniel’s more encouraging coaching seemed “backwards” to him. “I’m getting hard on myself and he’s trying to tell me, ‘Hey, it’s going to be OK. We’re only in May. We’re only in June.’ There’s a lot more time to grow,’” Tagovailoa told reporters.

In October, he told NBC’s Maria Taylor that he wasn’t sure McDaniel’s supportive style would last. “I was kind of giving him some leeway as to, oh you know, this is how he is right now, but let’s see how this plays out,” he said.

To Tagovailoa’s surprise, it’s Week 10, and McDaniel is still aggressively the same cheery guy.

“Mike is overly positive, and sometimes it gets to the point where I’ve got to kind of step away from overly positive,” Tagovailoa said last week. “Or if that’s the case, then I just listen to what he says, nod my head yes and then I go away and then kind of … ”

Even if the constant encouragement can be too much for Tagovailoa at times, McDaniel is the exact coach that he — and the Dolphins — needed for this particular moment. It takes a special personality to pull the attention away from a scandal, and the Dolphins organization has been embroiled in not one, not two, but three crises since McDaniel was hired as the team’s 14th head coach in February.

The racial discrimination lawsuit brought forth by former head coach Brian Flores, the league’s investigation into tampering and tanking, the subsequent suspension of owner Stephen Ross, and the quarterback’s concussion controversy might still be the biggest stories here if it weren’t for the quirky and loquacious head coach who has overseen Tagovailoa’s transformation in one of the NFL’s most explosive offenses.

“His style, really just him as a person, it’s very unique, specifically in this game,” says tight end Durham Smythe. “He understands how people of this age react to specific coaching styles. … He just sympathizes so well with people our age that he really does get the best out of people.”

When McDaniel stands on the sideline during games rocking a gray track suit and Aviators, he looks much younger than his 39 years, almost like a teenager dressed up as an NFL head coach. He jokingly heckles opposing players when they near his side of the field, such as on Sunday when he asked Bears quarterback Justin Fields to please stop scrambling. He’s dwarfed in his size by most of his players, and though there aren’t official stats on this, his press conferences surely last longer than any other head coach. That’s not because he faces more questions but because he tends to launch into a several-minute explanation for any type of question, even a simple transactional or injury-related ask.

His engagement level with his team is no different. Dolphins offensive meetings start at 7.a.m., and tight end Mike Gesicki says McDaniel always has a Red Bull in hand. “He is screaming and yelling in a positive way, and he’s the only guy in the room that feels like he is awake at that time,” Gesicki says.

Quarterbacks coach Darrell Bevell says, “If something bad were to happen in practice or a game, and you bring it up, he’ll be like, ‘What are you talking about? I don’t know what you are talking about, that’s already gone.’

“He has a good way of shaking it off.”

McDaniel reorganized the Dolphins locker room to put random players next to each other, instead of position groups, to help with team chemistry. He wore a hooded sweatshirt to practices in June in Miami humidity so he could get a better sense of how the players were feeling working outside so he wouldn’t work them too hard.

He’s created a culture that the players say is driven by them. After most practices, Dolphins captains lead players-only meetings where different position groups or units get together and watch practice film for about a half hour. In most contexts, the term players-only meeting is code for someone is about to get fired, but in Miami, the players have been doing this every week all season long.

“Mike gave us an enormous amount of confidence that started in the offseason,” cornerback Keion Crossen says. “When we did mess up, it wasn’t that we was discouraged. It was ah, I let my teammates down. So, it got to a point where it became, how can I not let my teammates down, than like, I am getting coached. So it is a lot more player-driven.”

Through three consecutive losses in which the quarterback who started the game was not the one who finished the game, and now three consecutive close game wins, McDaniel has kept the energy of this turnaround going.

“It’s a complete 180 (now),” says linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel, who has played in Miami for his entire NFL career, since 2019.

Van Ginkel and backup center Michael Deiter were both rookies in 2019, the “tank for Tua” season. That year was Flores’ first year in Miami, when the team started 0-7 before finishing 5-11.

“There was a lot of tough coaching that year,” Deiter says, hesitant to describe the experience with any more detail than that.

“At times, it just felt like you couldn’t do anything right because they were nitpicking every little piece of your game,” Van Ginkel says.

Deiter says he doesn’t respond well to that type of coaching, where players are singled out regularly in meetings for mistakes. “There are some guys who, that type of coaching, it makes them go into a cocoon and quiet and keep to themselves, and some guys will totally change when they know they can be themselves and they don’t have to act a certain way because they are afraid of this and that.”

“You don’t have to be negative on me, you don’t have to tell me everything I am doing wrong,” Crossen says. “As a player, I am smart enough to know when I messed up. … A lot of players in systems of that disciplinarian (type), you tend to ease your way around and tread lightly because you don’t know what or how somebody will perceive it because it is all about perception. Here you have the freedom to be yourself.”

Deiter says a lot of his teammates seem different this season with McDaniel’s positivity radiating on the entire locker room.

“When you come out of a meeting where you’ve watched a few guys get totally ripped, it’s hard to come in here (the locker room) and be totally buddy-buddy,” he says. “If you come from a meeting where you were told, ‘You guys are doing good stuff, we are headed in the right direction,’ it’s easier to come in here and be a more cohesive team.”

“That’s what has been huge about this staff, is everyone is like, you’re good, don’t worry about it, cut it loose, there is going to be some good and there is going to be some bad, but there will be way more good if that’s what you focus on, playing fast and with confidence. It’s been quite the difference.”

Rookie third-string quarterback Skylar Thompson unexpectedly became the Dolphins’ QB1 in Week 5 after Teddy Bridgewater was removed after the first play of the game when he took a hit and the team of concussion spotters noticed him stumble and grasp his head. With Tagovailoa still in the concussion protocol from his scary hit that prompted the league to change the concussion protocol, Thompson prepared as the starter for Week 6. He says the first teammate he heard from was Tagovailoa.

“Which I think says a lot about him, considering what he was going through at the time,” Thompson says. “He texted me and said a lot of encouraging things.”

“(McDaniel’s) coaching style, it reflects first off on the entire staff and trickles down onto us and teammates,” he says. “When my time came, I felt very supported by the guys in the locker room. Everybody here had my back and wanted to see me do well and was rooting for me. There were a handful of guys that came up to me and said that I’ve earned it and earned their respect and that they believe in me.”

Crossen didn’t play for Flores, but he had spent his four seasons in the NFL playing for Bill Belichick and other coaches from his tree, Bill O’Brien and Joe Judge.

“Ummm I’m trying to say this correctly,” he says when asked how McDaniel’s style is different from what he’s known before. “To boil it down, I think he has his own style of coaching. Typically coaches that come from the Belichick tree, they try to imitate Bill, which is very, very, very hard to do because he has his own style of coaching as well. What you see here is you have a guy who has his own ingredient and formula to make sure his team is successful, and his way of getting on a player is not to belittle you or to make you feel like you are the worst player in the NFL, it’s more so to help you understand how you can do it better and then help you understand what exactly it is you are doing wrong and how not to make the same mistake again.”

Says fullback Alec Ingold, who joined the Dolphins this season after three seasons with the Raiders: “One thing early on that Coach McDaniel said was, I have watched all your tape, I have seen your 10-20 best plays. It’s my job to make sure I coach you up to that all the time.”

That’s the approach McDaniel has taken with Tagovailoa, who is now the NFL’s most efficient quarterback. He leads the league in passer rating (115.9) and yards per completion (9.2), is third in completion percentage (69.9 percent) and has won all six games he’s started and finished this season. His third-down passer rating (147.0) is the best in the NFL since the league started tracking stats by down in 1991.

McDaniel emphasizes what Tagovailoa does well, and when Tagovailoa has had just about enough of that positivity, he turns to his quarterbacks coach, Bevell, who comes in as the realist taskmaster.

“He has been very hard on himself, and he has had people that have been very hard on him as well,” Bevell says. “At times that can hurt you because you can’t let things go. And you continue to dwell on those. And a lot of times if you do that, then we compound the problem. So it’s been our mission a little bit to try to help get him out of that. Because he is so hard on himself, so it’s like, we don’t need to double down on it.

“Mike does a great job with that, and then I kind of try to play right in the middle, where there are times where it’s like, yeah, you know that already, so how do we overcome it and how do we fix it? Just reinforcing the good and then, when things are not good, say all right, we don’t need to beat ourselves up about it, what can we learn from that situation to get better at it?”

Bevell points to Tagovailoa’s second of just three interceptions this season as an example of this coaching in action. It was Tagovailoa’s second pick in the game at Baltimore in Week 2, a second-quarter throw down the left sideline for Jaylen Waddle when Waddle had his back to the ball and never got his head turned around.

“It was a really bad play, a bad interception, and he’s beating himself up on it, “Bevell says. “So, just to be able to get back, get by that, talk about the situation, understand the situation, and we haven’t done it again.”

The Dolphins trailed 28-7 at halftime of that game, but Gesicki remembers McDaniel’s message to the team being still, “super positive.” It was, “‘Guys we are going to go out and do our thing, and if it works out, great. If it doesn’t, we’re just going to get back to work next week.’”

It was another example, Ingold says, of McDaniel’s mantra that he repeats to the team: to be mindful, intentional and deliberate. “In the moment, you decide what you are going to do and you accomplish it and you make up your mind,” Ingold says. “And I feel like if you get 53 guys to do that, regardless (of) if you miss a play or not, eventually we are going to get there.”

Tagovailoa went on to pass for four touchdowns in the fourth quarter, and 469 yards in the game, and led the Dolphins back from a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Their 42-38 victory made them the first team in 12 years and 711 games to win after being down that much that late in a game.

“There’s been some rehabilitation,” Bevell says of Tagovailoa. “You know, processing there, just to get our mindset and our psyche where we can have some positive experiences to get our confidence back to where it needs to be.”

Has Tagovailoa felt like he’s made any progress on being less hard on himself in the five months since he told reporters about that habit?

“It’s mostly internally now,” he said. “I don’t show it as much when I am around Mike, but I do show it when I am around guys that I know won’t tell me what I feel like I want to hear at times. Because of how overly positive Mike is, and so, it’s like a give-and-take kind of deal.”

It used to be all take-and-take with Tagovailoa, and McDaniel’s give has added some much-needed balance.

“Tua has always been hard on himself ever since he got into this building, and I’m sure before,” says Smythe, who has been in Miami for Tagovailoa’s whole career. “And Mike has done a great job of finding a way to complete him by, if he already has someone being tough on himself, as he is, he needs someone on the other side who is encouraging.”

Just like their quarterback, many of Miami’s players were used to tough coaching, and each week as they weathered a losing streak and drama surrounding the organization, they learned more about their new coach’s uncommon way of doing things.

“(McDaniel) is himself,” Ingold says. “Good, bad or indifferent, he is going to be real all the time. And that consistency when you show up, it kind of hits you in the face. Like, he’s different, and the more you get used to it, you think, this might be how it should be.”
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McDaniel is somewhat like our first coach George Wilson. Somehow McDaniel is handling the young team. As where Robbie thought he needed a more strict coach (Shula) to handle his young team and Wilson is an afterthought.
 
cuban_refugee said:
McDaniel is somewhat like our first coach George Wilson. Somehow McDaniel is handling the young team. As where Robbie thought he needed a more strict coach (Shula) to handle his young team and Wilson is an afterthought.
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The difference is Wilson was the first coach of an expansion team that really didn’t have a lot of talent the first couple of years. Once they started to get more talent on the roster, it was then that Robbie decided to go after Shula.

With McDaniel, he came to the Dolphins with a team with some talent and a lot more talent was added in free agency and in the trade for Hill.

Shula was a great head coach in his era but his demanding style and no nonsense attitude would likely not work as well with the players today. Of course I think Shula was smart enough that he would have adjusted his coaching methods to get the best out of his players even today.
 
Great article!! I’ve been a McDaniel supporter from day one…felt that positive vibe in comparison to wannabe Belichick Brian Flores. McDaniel seemed like a coach who was going to play to his players strong points and it has worked out tremendously so far. That old school disciplinary stuff doesn’t work today. Go Phins!!
 
Disciplinarian coaches are a thing of the past. Tua got a $30 million guaranteed contract before he met his first NFL head coach. He’s going to get a $200+ million contract before he turns 26.

Top players are moguls now. What the hell can any coach say that’s going to make them do something they don’t want to do?

The best you can do as a coach now is to inspire your guys to want to do what it takes to win, and give them the blueprint to do it. McDaniel seems to be doing that thus far.
 
...McD underscores, emphasizes and amplifies TEAM at the Zen level.

Coaches are still evaluating and making "critical decisions" in the background, just not the foreground.

The results are obvious in terms of who plays and how much.

It's very precise yet not so obvious.
 
It's just Year #1, so I'll wait to see what happens for next season. The biggest positive has been the increased excitement in the passing game. I was expecting an improved running game since McDaniel was touted as being a running game guru, but it never materialized. I was also expecting them to do a better job upgrading the o-line. The addition of Armstead and Williams has helped (although Armstead has a history of missing games), but IMO they should not have stopped there. Jones at LG and Shell at RT are better than Eichenberg and Jackson, but they're still just back-ups. The line appears to be doing well only because of play design, Tua's quick release, and the speed of the WRs. But, they suck in the running game and are even worse when Armstead doesn't play. For next year I'm hoping to see a new starting LG and RT, and a decent back-up at LT for when Armstead can't play. This would really help the offense become more balanced, especially if they add a power back who can get those tough yards. They're close now, but finish fixing the o-line and the offense will be even better!

That said, it's the other side of the ball that is more troublesome. I understand that McDaniel came in, kept Boyer, and was hands-off with the defense. However, I'm hoping that McDaniel can recognize that the defense has some areas that need help. Besides too many injuries, I hope he can see that there are way too many missed tackles, they struggle putting pressure on the QB with just their front four, and he's going to need replacements for Howard and Byron Jones sooner rather than later, along with depth players. Also, they have this terrible problem stopping mobile QBs, but I think he figured that one out when Fields ran for 178 yards! I really hope that McDaniel isn't as clueless when it comes to the defense as Flores was with the offense. Yes, they have a winning record, but it sure doesn't look like the stats of a contender when you see how bad they are at creating turnovers and getting sacks. And, it makes no sense that they have a negative point differential (-11) even though Tua, Hill, and Waddle are some of the top performing offensive players in the League. (I know that Tua missed 3 games, but the defense still shouldn't be allowing so many points.) I think that getting a successful veteran DC would help a lot, especially if they had Head Coaching experience and could assist McDaniel with things about the position that he's learning as he goes.
 
Marino2.0 said:
Disciplinarian coaches are a thing of the past. Tua got a $30 million guaranteed contract before he met his first NFL head coach. He’s going to get a $200+ million contract before he turns 26.

Top players are moguls now. What the hell can any coach say that’s going to make them do something they don’t want to do?

The best you can do as a coach now is to inspire your guys to want to do what it takes to win, and give them the blueprint to do it. McDaniel seems to be doing that thus far.
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It’s that way in the workplace in general - at least in certain industries anyway. The kids coming in today may not be financially secure but you have to encourage vs tear down w tough love if you want them to respond, be themselves and grow. I think the trend of mostly young HCs reflects this understanding by owners and GMs. Belichik is looking a bit like a dinosaur now. Peter Carroll i believe has always been a players coach who focuses on positivity if I’m not mistaken
 
Marino2.0 said:
Disciplinarian coaches are a thing of the past. Tua got a $30 million guaranteed contract before he met his first NFL head coach. He’s going to get a $200+ million contract before he turns 26.

Top players are moguls now. What the hell can any coach say that’s going to make them do something they don’t want to do?

The best you can do as a coach now is to inspire your guys to want to do what it takes to win, and give them the blueprint to do it. McDaniel seems to be doing that thus far.
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I don't think it has anything to do with players not wanting to do something. It's about treating players with respect as human beings.

You are right about the big $ making it a different dynamic, though. Motivating through fear is definitely a thing of the past.
 
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