Dolphins’ McDaniel sizes up the state of his team after an 0-3 start
After his team dropped to 0-3 on Thursday night, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel made clear he’s not looking for moral victories and called on the young players to grow up quickly.
“It feels like a loss,” he said of a 31-21 loss in Buffalo. “Not good enough. We’ve got to improve to get this in the right direction. I’m never proud of a loss. We came here to win. I refuse to take moral victories as the head coach of the Miami Dolphins. It wasn’t good enough. We need to get better across the board. I’m not going to say anything is good. We haven’t won a game yet.”
The Dolphins are giving a lot of playing time to several young players: running back Ollie Gordon II and receiver Malik Washington (who were both very good), offensive linemen Patrick Paul and Jonah Savaiinaea (who had a costly illegal man downfield penalty), safety Dante Trader Jr., cornerback Jason Marshall Jr. (who left with a hamstring injury), rookie defensive tackles Kenneth Grant and Jordan Phillips; second-year player Chop Robinson, who is rated by PFF as the second-worst edge player in the league this season.
McDaniel said “Ollie did a really good job” but said, speaking in general about the young players: “You have a lot of young people you’re counting on; you need them to not be young for very much longer and continue to grow. At some point, you have to stop that if you are trying to win football games.”
Asked about Savaiinaea’s penalty, which negated a first-down gain by Julian Hill, McDaniel said: “I’m frustrated in the moment with an illegal man downfield with Jonah” but added that the rookie guard wants to get it right.
What about Zach Sieler’s costly roughing-the-punter penalty in the fourth quarter, which retained possession for Buffalo in a tied game late?
“I’m very critical of myself,” McDaniel said. “I hold coaches accountable for putting players in particular situations. The intent of the play was to not get Sieler to block the punt. He was trying to speed up [the punter’s process with a bull rush]...
“He was a little too successful with that. I don’t need to say anything in the moment to make it worse; it’s not like you’re worried about him doing it again. You are going to have to teach off of that when we watch film together as a team.”
On Terrel Bernard’s late-game interception of Tagovailoa with Miami trying to tie the score, McDaniel said: “The quarterback has to be responsible for it. I wish I could put it on him, but it’s a tough job to do when someone’s in your face. Everyone needs to do better. You’ve got to ditch the ball to the flat in moments like that. That’s what we have to learn from.”
McDaniel had no update on Marshall’s “soft tissue injury.”
He said Daniel Brunskill replaced Kion Smith at right guard during the game because “in this game, we thought he gave us a better shot. We expect Kion to rebound from that. He knows he can play better.”
One thing that pleased McDaniel: “You have to have consistent growth and have to be able to go through tough times and not splinter. The team has shown me that and we will need that to get the results that we want.”
Here are 10 things bothering me after this loss.
This story was originally published September 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM.
