Dolphins’ McDaniel explains why he’s ‘furious’ and assesses Ewers’ first start
On Sunday morning, the league-owned television network reported that Mike McDaniel is expected to be retained as Dolphins coach next season.
Four hours later, he stood at a podium, explaining a 45-21 debacle of a loss to a 5-10 Cincinnati team, a defeat that dropped Miami to 6-9.
“I’m very frustrated and angry about this continued third quarter thing,” McDaniel said of his team being outscored 21-0 in the third quarter Sunday and 113-27 for the season.
“We allow the circumstances outside of our control [to affect us],” McDaniel said. “The damn breaks and all of a sudden we play a different style of football. I’m furious because I’m allowing it to happen. It starts with me. I need to get it fixed.
“We’ve got two games to play that are incredibly important and look in the mirror and see who’s part of the solution. We have to be able to come out of halftime and adjust, and we aren’t executing that at all. Back to the drawing board and all things are on the table.”
Asked about an NFL Network report that he’s expected back as head coach next season, McDaniel declined to say whether that has been conveyed to him by the team.
McDaniel was encouraged what he saw from rookie quarterback Quinn Ewers, who completed 20 of 30 passes for 260 yards in his first NFL start. He threw no touchdowns and two interceptions (one off a deflection), which explains his poor 66 passer rating.
“It’s a little difficult,” McDaniel said of evaluating Ewers’ play. “There’s a lot of venom and anger toward the third, fourth quarter. When I take step back, I feel there was some positive stuff going on with this being his first start. It wasn’t too big for him. He had us operating; no penalties in the first half.
“Second half, it’s tough to evaluate. There were a couple third downs I was hoping he could make. It was a good starting point for him specifically.”
McDaniel stopped short of naming Ewers the starter for next Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay, but strongly suggested he would start.
He said Ewers “earned some opportunities to continue to develop. I was happy how he handled the position. It would be [more understandable to process] if [the collapse] was on the rookie quarterback, and I don’t think it was.”
▪ McDaniel suggested the run blocking wasn’t good enough: “Guys [were] knocking us out of gaps, which is not the brand of football we expect from our guys.”
De’Von Achane had one carry for 48 yards (on a TD run) but 33 yards on 14 other attempts.
▪ McDaniel, on what seemed like a bad pass interference call against Theo Wease that negated a long gain by Achane:
“You guys could tell what I thought of it live,” McDaniel said of his irate reaction. “The response mechanism from our team when something doesn’t go our way is what I’m critically examining for our next two games. That shouldn’t derail the team and it felt like ultimately it did. I was disappointed in the third quarter tackling.”
▪ With his team 6-9, how would McDaniel define the state of his program amid a second consecutive season out of the playoffs?
“I thought up until the third quarter of this game, you could make arguments that the momentum of the program was being carried in the right direction.
“Momentum changes swiftly. You get the opportunity to see who people really are in situations like this. You are trying to establish who are your core people and where you are trying to get better when the offseason is like 45 percent roster turnover.”
▪ McDaniel said rookie receiver Wease played for the first time because “he had earned the opportunity. He’s one of the guys our team was excited to have an opportunity. It was a plus that [he and Ewers] had experience together [in training camp and preseason]. It was a deserved opportunity.”
FYI: Bradley Chubb told CBS 4 that “we’ve got to find ways to hold everybody accountable... You want to see who’s part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 4:37 PM.
