Boyer, other retained Dolphins assistants dish on McDaniel meeting, surviving post-Flores
Brian Flores not only burned bridges on his way out the Dolphins door; he torched them.
But a bunch of coaches on his 2021 Miami Dolphins staff did not, and that -- obviously combined with their coaching skills -- contributed to Mike McDaniel retaining 12 of them, including five in the same positions.
Was Eric Studesville - the team’s co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach in 2021 - surprised McDaniel kept him for the latter of those two jobs?
“Yeah, I was surprised, but grateful for the opportunity to be part of this,” Studesville admitted Wednesday. “I hope I prove my worth to him going forward every day that he’s glad he gave me that opportunity and I reward him with production in that room…. You are going to find out he’s a smart guy.”
Of the five most prominent position coaches retained by McDaniel, Studesville was the only one who expressed surprise. “I was fortunate it worked out but I wasn’t surprised,” special teams coordinator Danny Crossman said of being kept on staff.
All expressed appreciation, including defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, who made clear on Wednesday that he called plays in every game during his two seasons as defensive coordinator, amid a published report asserting that he didn’t.
“I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to be here,” Boyer said. “I’m very excited to work with Mike. Him and I have had many conversations. Very excited about the staff we’ve put together here.”
Boyer declined to give a specific reason for Gerald Alexander’s dismissal as defensive backs coach but said the reshaped defensive backfield staff of Steve Gregory, Sam Madison and defensive assistant Patrick Surtain fit what he and McDaniel were looking for.
Madison replaced Cincinnati Bengals-bound cornerbacks coach Charles Burks, who was given the option to remain with the Dolphins.
Asked if he simply disagreed philosophically with Alexander, Boyer said: “You would have to ask him that…. The most important thing on the staff was cohesion and once we make decisions [in meetings or during games], we are going to live with it. And to make sure once we make those decisions we’re all on the same page….
“Steve played for us in New England; he quarterbacked this system as a player on the field. He has some coaching experience. We had him here this year.
“Sam, I admired him from afar, with the work he’s done in Kansas City and some of the things we can do with our secondary. I thought he would be a good teacher. I thought that was an easy fit.”
How will Boyer’s defense change without Flores around?
“We spent 13 years together in New England coming up through the same system,” Flores said. “Flo worked on special teams, offense. We had a little bit of different perspective. He played linebacker, coached linebackers. I’ve always been on the back end. I see things from the back end down. I see the game a little bit different than what he was doing for 13 years.”
Boyer said this defense - while continuing to be aggressive and give teams a variety of different looks - is “going to be different in 2022 than it was in 2021. There will definitely be some carryover and we are expecting some guys to take big jumps. Especially guys going from year 1 to year 2.”
Asked what led to the rapid improvement beginning with the Thursday night Baltimore game, Boyer cited a “little bit of scheme change, little bit of different approach, little bit different execution.”
Regarding the play-calling issue, Boyer gave a lengthy explanation, while making clear that Flores contributed to the game plan but that Boyer was making the defensive calls before plays.
“This was the same in New England and Miami,” Boyer said. “What you do as a staff, and this is why you have staffs, you come together with a game plan. A lot of guys have input on that. It’s not like there’s one mastermind sitting behind the curtain saying we’re going to do this. That’s why you have position coaches. They know their guys better than anyone on the field.
“As a staff, you come up with a game plan. When it comes to Saturday, you spend all day going through game plan situations and stuff and you talk about that with the staff. We had a defensive head coach last year so he would have been involved in that game planning. When I was at New England, we had a defensive head coach [Bill Belichick] and he was involved in that game planning.”
Boyer said “we try to pre call before every series.... On the first 3rd and 2, it’s going to be this…. But sometimes you don’t even get to the situation you told them you were pre-calling, and then as a coordinator you have to make a decision you’re going to play this. When you come to the sideline, we’re all going to look, this was good, this was not good, this is a problem play we need to fix this. And we try to pre-call the next series as well. Coaches will give suggestions, this will be good or you come back to that.”
In at least one case, a Flores staffer didn’t need to wait for a phone call to be told that he was retained. Linebackers coach Anthony Campanile said he emerged from his initial meeting with McDaniel with the impression he would be kept.
“I had pretty good feeling,” he said. “I had some friends who worked with him in the past that gave me insight into what he’s like as a coach or person. I enjoyed the conversation. Down to earth guy. Easy to talk to.”
Did Campanile have to sell his resume?
“He had a pretty good feel for what we had done,” Campanile said. “He was filled in all that information. There wasn’t a ton of that. We were talking philosophy, your relationships with players. His take on football is similar to mine.”
Defensive line coach Austin Clark said McDaniel “had a plan for what he wants to do, and I was lucky to be a part of that. I really believe in Mike.”
Thought outside linebackers coach Rob Leonard left for the same job with the Ravens, Campanile said the continuity in front seven coaching “to me is a big deal. There’s comfortability there and you’re speaking the same language. For players, there’s continuity. That’s important also. They know what the standard is.”
Retained members of Flores’ staff delicately answered a few questions about his lawsuit against the team and league.
Asked if he felt any pressure from ownership to lose games in 2019 - a Flores allegation in his lawsuit - Boyer said: “No. I never felt that. That never came up.”
And Studesville, who is Black, wasn’t comfortable discussing the merits of Flores’ lawsuits alleging racial discrimination in NFL hiring practices.
Studesville said the lack of minority coaches in football is a topic “that needs to be addressed”
but “I’ve got a lot to focus on to make sure for a new head coach I’m supporting him and getting what I need to get done going forward.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2022 at 6:10 PM.
