Kelly: Mike McDaniel’s equally at fault for floundering Dolphins | Opinion
Chris Grier was the sacrificial lamb for the Miami Dolphins’ failures as a franchise this past decade, but coach Mike McDaniel’s hands are far from clean.
The foundation of this 2025 team is flawed, and McDaniel should shoulder just as much blame for this team’s issues, which pop up week to week, especially during the losses.
The Dolphins built the foundation of this roster outside-in, placing an emphasis on receivers and cornerbacks throughout Grier’s tenure as the team’s top decision-maker.
The problem with that is that good teams — the winning franchises — build their teams inside-out by fortifying the offensive and defensive lines, which just happen to be the areas of weakness this season.
Oddly, the Dolphins are weak in all four areas — offensive line, defensive line, cornerback and receiver — in 2025, especially after losing Tyreek Hill to a season-ending knee injury and tight end Darren Waller to a pectoral injury.
Lackluster protection, paired with limited weaponry (Jaylen Waddle and De’Von Achane are the best of what’s left), with a side of issues stopping the run (ranked 30th), and Miami’s inability to create turnovers (ranked 31st in turnover differential) explain how South Florida’s NFL franchise finds itself 2-7 heading into Sunday’s critical game against the Buffalo Bills.
But some of these issues have been multiple-year issues, so blaming it on this year’s roster would be misguided.
The offensive line has been an issue for all but one of McDaniel’s seasons.
McDaniel’s teams are minus-18 in turnover margin in three-and-a-half seasons, and McDaniel stresses that turnovers are the best indicators of who wins football games.
This season the Dolphins are minus-8, one more than the team’s loss total.
“They’ve got a suspect roster, and a team that’s mentally soft. It’s a bad mix,” one NFL executive said evaluating the roster after this week’s trade deadline. “Once they face some adversity they usually fold. This whole season has been about responding to adversity, and you see how they’ve performed.”
They haven’t, losing four fourth-quarter games.
“I think the idea of perfectionism you’re chasing, but if you feel like you have to be perfect, that one mistake snowballs,” McDaniel said, addressing this team’s small margin for error. “I think we’ve experienced a lot of non-complementary football snowballing where, OK, this phase has a failure and then the next phase does, too, and understanding as those stack up you want to do perfect that much more. But the game is not about being perfect. It’s about establishing exactly your non-negotiables that you have to focus on and relenting on the perfection.”
I’m told that one of owner Steve Ross’ biggest issues with Grier, who last week was removed as the Dolphins’ general manager after 10 seasons at the helm, was that he lacked conviction, and typically catered to his coaches instead of standing on his own beliefs and evaluations.
How the Dolphins had been built during the McDaniel era, with an emphasis placed on speed, was driven by McDaniel.
Miami traded draft picks for players — Hill, pass rusher Bradley Chubb and cornerback Jalen Ramsey — believing that those players could become the leaders who would help the Dolphins dethrone the Bills, who have won the AFC East division five straight years.
Therefore, McDaniel has to take some responsibility for this roster’s poor construction, and most importantly, slow talent development, which didn’t just start in 2025 with the struggles of this year’s rookies.
McDaniel’s offense is notoriously complicated, which makes it difficult for young players to learn. This was evident during Tyler “Snoop” Huntley’s stint as Miami’s starting quarterback, which was a period where the Dolphins had to dumb down the offense during Tua Tagovailoa’s absence.
The problem with that is sometimes schemes, concepts, playcalls are too much for players to master within a season, much less a week.
And if they don’t know it they won’t play fast.
A couple of players pointed out Miami installed completely new plays for the Thursday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens without having the opportunity to practice them since the team only held walkthroughs leading up to that game.
Despite this season’s struggles, and issues, the Dolphins haven’t simplified the offense or defense much, if at all.
“The reputation he has as an offensive mind is well-deserved,” former NFL executive Joe Banner, who last worked in the NFL in 2015, said on the Dan Patrick Show.
Banner, who currently works for the 33rd team, which is a football-centric media outlet, worked with McDaniel in Cleveland in 2014, and believes McDaniel belongs in the upper echelon of today’s offensive minds.
“However, the description for a coordinator and head coach is totally different,” Banner said. “If you can’t differentiate the good coordinators from the good coaches you’re going to be disappointed.”
And that might be the exact issue the Dolphins have been plagued with.
It explains why McDaniel has a 30-30 record heading into Sunday’s game.
A .500 coach shouldn’t be good enough to survive this franchise’s collapse, which leaves McDaniel and his coaches the second half of the season to prove he’s better than that.
