Sean McVay on Dolphins offense: ‘It’s going to be scary.’ And McDaniel’s ex-boss ‘jealous’
A six-pack of Miami Dolphins nuggets from the NFL owners meetings in Palm Beach:
▪ The coach of the defending Super Bowl champions has an idea about how this Dolphins offense will look after the injection of elite speed this offseason.
“It’s going to be scary,” Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay said when I asked him what this Dolphins group can become with speedy pieces Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, Chase Edmonds and Raheem Mostert.
“Mike [McDaniel] and I go way back working together in Washington. He’s obviously been around one of the best in Kyle Shanahan for a handful of years.
“He’s going to do a great job putting players in position to succeed. They’re going to be explosive. It’s going to be a lot of fireworks. They’re going to be fun to watch.”
Of what the Dolphins have assembled, McVay said this type of speed on the same team “is rare. Mike has a very clear-cut vision of what he wants to do and how he wants to surround Tua [Tagovailoa] with the right kind of pieces and you can tell there’s a real commitment to it. I look forward to seeing him do his thing.”
▪ Meanwhile, 49ers coach Shanahan — who had McDaniel as his run game coordinator from 2018 to 2020 and offensive coordinator last season — joked in a hallway of The Breakers that “I’m jealous” about the speed that the Dolphins have assembled.
“Everybody wants that speed to add Raheem and get a player like Tyreek with what they already have,” Shanahan said in reference to Mostert, who left the 49ers to sign with Miami. “It’s a hell of a deal for those guys.”
Can Shanahan envision McDaniel finding new ways to incorporate Hill?
“Yeah,” Shanahan said. “Any time you get guys who are faster than everyone else on the field you can do things a little different. He’s got a couple of those guys. I know he’s excited for it.”
Has Shanahan kidded McDaniel about getting Hill?
“I’m always messing with Mike,” he said. “That really never stops.”
▪ Shanahan, on the quality that makes McDaniel most prepared to be a head coach:
“That he’s been through it a long time. He’s been battled tested, been in a number of different buildings, seen it a number of different ways, understands how the big picture works. And most important, he knows football.”
▪ Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin explained why he hired Brian Flores as a senior defensive assistant in the wake of Flores filing a lawsuit against the NFL and the Dolphins, Giants and Broncos.
“I wanted to stay close to Brian when his legal issues started,” Tomlin told ESPN on Sunday. “I just didn’t want him to feel like he was on an island. From a coaching fraternity standpoint, I owed him that. … I was in position to provide that.”
On Monday, in a session with multiple reporters, Tomlin said of Flores’ hiring: “Without question, it’s going to be a benefit to us. I feel that already in a short period. His resume and what he’s experienced, he brings a wealth of knowledge and I’m excited about drawing from that.”
▪ In a chat with several New York reporters, Giants owner John Mara said: “I’m not settling” with Flores out of court “because the allegations are false and we’re very comfortable with our hiring process [with Brian Daboll named the new coach after Flores interviewed]. It was a fair process and we ended up making the decision we made based on a lot of factors, none of which had anything to do with race.”
The Dolphins have vehemently denied the allegations against them, so I would not expect the Dolphins to attempt to settle, either.
The sense here, from speaking to multiple parties, is that Flores faces an uphill climb to prove his claim that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered him $100,000 to lose games, an allegation that Ross has adamantly denied.
There’s no paper trail, at least nothing that has surfaced. Even if Flores can somehow prove that Ross said it, the comment easily could be explained away as a joke. So Flores’ attorneys face an immense challenge with the Dolphins angle of the lawsuit.
▪ Per a league source, the Dolphins were interested in UM and former Jets receiver Braxton Berrios early in free agency and talked about financial terms before Berrios signed a two-year, $12 million deal.
The Dolphins liked Berrios but ultimately were obviously happy with how free agency turned out, landing receivers Cedrick Wilson Jr. and Hill...
Jesse Davis, cut by the Dolphins on Thursday, is visiting with the Vikings. [Update: He’s reportedly signing with Minnesota.]
Here’s everything notable that McDaniel said in his Monday morning news conference.
This story was originally published March 28, 2022 at 1:17 PM.
