All eyes on Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel as he makes NFL debut
A deject of smoke hung in the air.
In a dimly lit cigar lounge in Houston in 2018, 49ers administration Jon Embree and Mike McDaniel took a pause from preseason piece of work with the Texans. Embree, at that point an NFL assistant for a decade, sensed McDaniel was feeling down, so he offered some encouragement.
He told the young coach he was really smart. Creative, as well. He listened well and had an incredible retention. He was naturally honest and self-effacing, didn't take himself too seriously and didn't care what anybody else thought about him. He embraced adventure.
And then, after a puff, Embree told McDaniel, "You have the qualities to not only be a head omnibus in the National Football game League but to exist a successful one."
Four years later, the fume comes from orange-blossom h2o poured over dry out ice on a plate of Australian Wagyu beefiness. The shimmering Atlantic Ocean reflects off the lenses of McDaniel's designer glasses. He is a head charabanc, as Embree envisioned he would be.
Some coaches are similar Army generals; some like general contractors. There are those who arroyo their jobs like motivational speakers and others who recollect of themselves as plumbers. McDaniel, the 39-year-erstwhile new passenger vehicle of the Miami Dolphins, is a estimator engineer of a football game coach.
"I'm not like any other caput coach I've worked with," he says.
At about 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds, he is non imposing. He's got sneaker game — he was upset he missed "Yeezy 24-hour interval" during grooming military camp. McDaniel is more likely to try to motivate with logic and bear witness than volume and emotion. For any it's worth, he is biracial, the son of an African-American begetter and White mother.
He cracks jokes — the reporters in the Bay Area used to call his weekly news conferences the Mike McDaniel One-act 60 minutes. But when he's not on a stage, the punchlines sometimes don't land, considering his sense of humour is Sauvignon blanc-dry out.
Dolphins receivers coach Wes Welker tin can exist similarly droll, which is i reason they click. "He and I volition be the just ones laughing at times," says Welker, who likewise worked with McDaniel in San Francisco.
There is not a head double-decker in the league more fascinating. Some run into him equally the adjacent large thing, an unconventional genius. And others wonder if McDaniel's Dolphins will get a raging blaze.
No one knows where this is going. But we can understand where McDaniel wants it to go by looking through the prism of those who worked with him then and now.
McDaniel wants a squad that maximizes its potential.
He believes that in today's world more e'er, a competitive reward can be gained just by existence present. He has preached to his players nigh it ofttimes, but observing him is more powerful than anything he could say. When he's with yous, you get 100 percent of him. McDaniel's green-bluish eyes lock on yours. Don't bother texting him — your SMS and emojis may never meet those optics. He goes for 12 hours without a glance at his phone.
While he is where he is, McDaniel trusts others to do their function to maximize the team'south potential.
McDaniel often speaks nigh trust falls, in which someone falls astern intentionally, trusting others to catch them. Ask him most it, and his mind races. In an answer that wanders to near 5 minutes, he talks almost the inverse correlation between his ascent in the profession and how dependent he at present is on others, the nuts and bolts of human relationships, creating an aura that enables each individual to have the best solar day-to-day experience, thinking more macro as a caput coach, maximizing variables he tin can command, seizing the opportunity to brand 2022 memorable and the power of a group of people working for a common goal.
A lot is going on below that dark, wavy, swept-dorsum hair.
It's not difficult to sympathise why one of his chore interviews with the Dolphins lasted 10 hours.
Information technology's too not difficult to understand why he wanted to bring Embree with him from the 49ers. Long considered one of the preeminent tight terminate teachers in the sport, Embree had a manus in the successes of Cameron Brate, Jordan Cameron, Chris Cooley, Daniel Graham, Tony Gonzalez, George Kittle and Marcedes Lewis, among others. Says McDaniel, "He's gotten the about out of them, and they give him the greatest compliment you tin requite — 'He's the best I've had.'"
Embree doesn't do it past emphasizing technique as much equally he does by creating a culture. That's why he was 1 of McDaniel's first hires as assistant head autobus in charge of tight ends. Embree's value isn't just in bringing out the best in Mike Gesicki. It'south in maintaining a level of excellence in his job and establishing expectations for the players he touches that raise the bar for everyone on the team.
In the offseason, McDaniel told a story to his new squad. When McDaniel was an offensive assistant with the Falcons in the leap of 2016, broad receiver Aldrick Robinson was dropping passes. Just McDaniel didn't meet anything wrong with his easily. He asked Robinson if he thought he was seeing the ball well. Robinson said he was, but he decided to have his vision checked anyway. Robinson discovered he needed prescription lenses, then he got contacts. That season, he didn't drop a laissez passer.
Robinson played for McDaniel in Washington, Atlanta and San Francisco, and now he's a first-twelvemonth offensive assistant. He'south as well an case of someone willing to do whatever was necessary to exist the best he could be.
Trent Sherfield's signing with the Dolphins in March didn't create many waves equally he has started just v games in his four-year career. Just the wide receiver's presence has a value that can't be measured by analytics. In 2018, Sherfield joined the Cardinals afterward being bypassed in the draft. With Larry Fitzgerald as a teammate, Sherfield had more opportunity to learn than play, and he took full advantage.
"To see how he worked and how he sustained his success for 18 years in this league, I had the answers to the test," he says. "I know what information technology takes to be in this league, and I know what it takes to stay in this league."
Fitzgerald connected Sherfield with James Smith, his motorcoach for psychological training. Smith, Sherfield, says, helped him govern his emotions and focus on what he calls his "3-foot world" — that which he tin can control. No matter how many catches or special teams tackles Sherfield makes, he is likely to be a model for what tin can happen when hunger meets professionalism.
You tin see Sherfield in McDaniel, who was given a coaching internship past Mike Shanahan in Denver because he was impressed with McDaniel'due south hustle and industriousness equally a Broncos brawl boy during McDaniel's high school days.
McDaniel went to Yale on an academic scholarship and walked on to the football team as a broad receiver. He never defenseless a pass, but he probably led the team in commitment. After he did 39 straight pull-ups, he was voted the pound-for-pound strongest actor on the team.
If his team maximizes its potential the mode he did, and the way some of those he has brought with him did, Dolphins fans volition exist pleased with the results.
McDaniel wants a squad that can trounce yours to the end zone.
When the Dolphins walk from their locker room to the do field, they pass a sign that reads, "Fast, Physical, Elite Technique."
The first word on the sign is offset for a reason.
When free agency began, McDaniel was quick to sign running back Raheem Mostert, whom he had coached in San Francisco. At New Smyrna Beach Loftier School, Mostert won the 100 meters in the Florida 3A state finals with a time of ten.68 seconds. He won the 60 and 200 meters at the Big Ten indoor track-and-field championships when he was at Purdue, and NFL.com chosen him the fastest player in higher football. He ran a 4.38 in the twoscore-yard dash at his pro twenty-four hours.
A few days after acquiring Mostert, the Dolphins traded for wide receiver Tyreek Hill. According to NextGen Stats, the fastest runs in the NFL since 2016 were past Hill, who hit 23.24 mph in 2016, and Mostert, who ran 23.09 mph in 2020.
And the Dolphins already had Jaylen Waddle, who had the fastest GPS time in the country every bit a college player in 2020, co-ordinate to NFL Network typhoon analyst Daniel Jeremiah.
Sherfield says this is the fastest offense he has been a office of "by far."
Why does McDaniel value speed? Sherfield says he wants to force defenders to play off coverage. Welker says the route concepts McDaniel prefers are beneficial to burners.
"If you lot look at how our criminal offence is designed, our run game, our bootlegs and and then having play action with it, that speed will brand defensive coordinators nervous," Welker says.
"Speed is not something you have to accept," McDaniel says. "Simply information technology's very, very desirable."
Former 49ers center Ben Garland called McDaniels "the run-game 'Rain Human.'" (Michael Zagaris / San Francisco 49ers / Getty Images)
McDaniel wants a team that is built around the interior offensive line.
Given the coaching tree from which he grew, the position he played and his advent, this is hard for some to fathom.
In 2015, Mike Person signed with the Falcons to play baby-sit. When he was introduced to McDaniel, an offensive assistant, he was told McDaniel was an O-line guy.
"I was thinking to myself, 'In that location'southward no way he is. He'southward probably a wide receiver guy,'" Person says. "But then when you talk to him, you lot get it."
When McDaniel was an offensive banana for Washington under Mike Shanahan from 2011 to 2013, the more experienced upwards-and-coming offensive administration — Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur — took ownership of the passing game. McDaniel had to find another area to contribute, so he became a run game specialist.
Before becoming San Francisco's offensive coordinator last season, his title for four years was run game coordinator. Ben Garland, then the 49ers' centre, called him "the run-game 'Rain Man.'"
McDaniel often is referred to every bit a "run-first" coach. Only he doesn't see himself that fashion.
"I recall you lot emphasize football game within out, so I'm more of an interior line play-first guy," he says. "I gauge that is the run, just information technology'due south also the pass. To earn yards, commencement within out and then make defenses defend the unabridged field."
That's why Person, who played for McDaniel in Atlanta and San Francisco, is on his staff now as an offensive assistant. As well equally anyone, Person understands why McDaniel emphasizes interior offensive line play, and he knows how he wants his blockers coached.
"He's going to take care of the offensive linemen, put them in the correct positions as ofttimes as he can," Person says. "He has a very unique style of playing to guys' strengths and he knows them inside and out. That gives you confidence to go out and do your task to know you volition exist in the all-time possible position for your skill ready."
McDaniel wants a team that operates with humility.
He knows that a grouping of players that values humility will comprehend sacrifice, accept responsibility for mistakes, recognize the truth the mirror shows them and enhance the value of others.
Humility is 1 of the reasons Welker is in Miami. As a player, he led the NFL in receptions three times, set the Patriots' franchise record for receiving yards in a flavor and was a 4-time All-Pro. Some consider him a Hall of Fame candidate. He made more than $twoscore one thousand thousand as a thespian, co-ordinate to Spotrac.
When he took his beginning coaching task as an offensive assistant with the Texans in 2017, Welker found himself collating papers in notebooks. He could take been watching his immature children build castles on a white sand beach, but Welker embraced the opportunity to piece of work like an intern.
"What's cool about Wes is he'south achieved such greatness as a thespian, but I got to run across him equally a motorbus wanting to do things the correct way," says McDaniel, who helped guide Welker when he became the 49ers wide receivers coach afterward ii years with the Texans. "He didn't feel entitled at all. He doesn't give a shit about his player accolades. He's humble. It'southward the exact fashion I want people to approach coaching a position. He tin can be a flag bearer for the coaching staff."
McDaniel says he isn't sure he could have handled himself so humbly if he had achieved what Welker did on the field.
There is bear witness to the contrary.
Understand this nigh McDaniel: when he looks at video of a play, he sees things others don't — missed opportunities, possibilities, yesterdays and tomorrows. He has a knack for coming up with the cleanest dirtiest play imaginable. Mostert calls him a mastermind. Kyle Shanahan says he is one of the smartest coaches he has been effectually. Former wide receiver Andrew Hawkins, who played for him on the Browns, referred to him as a savant.
Nonetheless McDaniel doesn't deed like he's smarter than anyone. He doesn't demand attending when he walks into a room. Sometimes, you accept to crane your neck to hear his words.
"He'due south around a lot, only he doesn't say a lot," Embree says. "He just soaks it all in and you didn't even realize he was in that location. I love that he doesn't take himself so seriously."
Self-doubt isn't the reason McDaniel is pocket-size. His confidence is evident in the fearlessness and audacity in his coaching decisions.
"The No. 1 quality with him for me is he's willing to put it all out there," Embree says. "He volition try things, come up with things, similar (49ers offensive tackle) Trent Williams on a jet-sweep movement. He'southward not afraid to fail, to have egg all over his face. I love that virtually him."
Mike McDaniel doesn't take himself besides seriously and isn't afraid to neglect, co-ordinate to Dolphins tight ends coach Jon Embree. (Jasen Vinlove / United states Today)
McDaniel wants a squad that is resilient.
Teams worth jubilant, he has learned, have to overcome. Moreover, McDaniel has a deep, personal appreciation for resolve borne of the fall.
If the steps of his life are retraced, empty vodka bottles will be plant where empty vodka bottles do not belong. In his get-go decade of coaching, McDaniel was followed by the demon of alcohol dependency. And then, in 2016, he spent three weeks in a rehab center. Turned out depression was fueling his dependency. It's now been six years on the street's sunny side.
I of his mantras is, "Adversity is opportunity." On the Dolphins, McDaniel has surrounded himself with others who understand resolve and survival.
A seventh-round pick out of Montana State who changed teams 7 times over nine years, Person knew he was about the cease in 2019. He started the beginning fourteen games of the season for the 49ers, playing through five or more stingers a game and dealing with a left arm he couldn't elevator to a higher place his shoulder. Person persevered.
"Information technology was 1 of those deals where yous were going to have to tell me I couldn't play anymore," he says. "I'grand not going to come up out even if it's to my detriment simply considering my neck hurts and I'm getting some stingers. You lot have a job. If y'all are able to practice it, y'all're going to do information technology."
His performance declined though, and Person was forced to sit down for the last two regular-season games. After some residuum, he won his job back for the playoffs. In postseason wins against the Vikings and Packers and the Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs, Person played as well equally he ever played in his career.
"He was his best version of himself when his torso was shutting downwards," McDaniel says with admiration. "He was as good or better than he was when he was in the best shape of his life."
Mostert is trying to return from a knee joint injury that ended his 2021 season afterward two carries. He idea he was going to run for two,500 yards terminal season. If his history is a guide, his comeback will be grand. He once shot himself in the human foot — literally. At some indicate between diapers and kindergarten, Mostert got his hands on his begetter's gun and accidentally fired it at his toe.
In the NFL, Mostert has been cut 6 times. McDaniel is sure of one matter — Mostert will requite all he has.
"I always tin count on his render from any hardship, in a better version," the coach says.
Mostert has a similar belief about his coach.
"Yous are going to see that resilience come up out of him, too," he says. "He's been tried in his career."
If the residuum of the Dolphins are as resilient, they will surprise people.
And if the Dolphins are everything McDaniel wants them to exist, they could exist a squad unlike any other.
(Top photograph: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Source: https://theathletic.com/3450161/2022/08/08/mike-mcdaniel-miami-dolphins-coach/
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