Will change my tune on McDaniel

IMO part of the equation on McDaniel being here for next year or not is the Tua contract situation. What caliber or candidate for head coach will take the job if Tua is returning? Or if Tua is cut and that massive cap number clogs you for a year or two.

It's not an impossible situation as the Broncos are showing, but it's also far from ideal. Could just be that a new GM keeps McDaniel for a year to get a personal read on him while navigating the tricky cap situation then reassessing after next year.

By all accounts though, Ross is pretty firmly in his camp.

 

Yeah I totally agree. As to the Bills, there are several reasons why I don't put too much stock into that game. Like you said, I think they took us lightly, also, divisional games are very often games that don't necessarily go to the overall better team, and I also think that most any NFL team can put it together for a one game here and there.

 

We've won four in a row, and I get it wasn't the toughest of schedules, but a win is a win in the NFL. Any win is hard, so saying we have to beat the best teams in the league isn't a realistic goal. Why? We could win by 50 against anyone on a perfect day...or they could beat us by 50 if they had a perfect day. It's not meaningless, but if you played the same team 10 times across 10 days, you'd get 10 very different scores.

So instead of, "We have to beat xxx team to show we're relevant," I look for, "We have to play consistent football across November and December." So far, we've done that, and I'm not going to change my mind if we lose 38-37 in a hard fought game this week. If we lose 38-7 and look horrible in all three phases, okay, that's a completely different story and I'm raising an eyebrow.

On the flip side, if we win 17-13 in an ugly game, I'm going to shrug my shoulders while calling it progress.

Now, I get that Pitt isn't one of the league's top teams at the moment, but they're a division leader and they've been as consistent as anyone in this crazy year. It's on par for us playing Dallas or Baltimore in recent years; a tough test, but it's not like knocking off Buffalo or KC. So we'll see...I just want consistent, aggressive play from a disciplined team.

I really wouldn't be shocked if we win out, but that depends on Achane being healthy.

 

Well, its hardly just McDaniel. The Dolphins have sucked in cold weather on the road for all of franchise history. Even Shula was below .500 in these situations, and there were even times when really good Dolphins teams lost to poor to mediocre ones late in the year in bad weather, and usually couldn't score.

The 1971 team, which went to the SB, lost to 6-8 New England and only scored 3 points against Baltimore late that season. The 1973 champs only scored 3 points in a loss to 4-10 Baltimore that season. The 1975 team only scored 7 @ Baltimore in a December loss that year. The 1977 team only scored 10 in a December loss at New England. The 1980 Dolphins lost to a 2-win Jets team on the final weekend that year.

Then of course once the schedule was pushed back several weeks in the late 80s, late season troubles at Buffalo and New England became an annual issue.

 

I always liked McDaniiel, though I had doubts that his style of coaching is sustainable, but he hasn’t lost the team once. He’s not good on challenges but improving, same goes for his game management. Look what he did with Tua, I don’t think there’s a lot of coaches that could have done that and after he saw that it didn’t really work he changed it and look at that offense now. Like you said if we win prime time against Pittsburgh, I‘m more than on board with McDaniel!

 

Not that a lot of the blame doesn't lay on the Dolphins themselves, but we've also been in a division where almost every year since 2003, one of our rivals is a super team. Its extremely difficult to overcome. The Dolphins never end up as a 9 or 10 win division champ like teams in other divisions do.

 

Well, we can't really change that. Just need to build the best team that we can around whoever we have and play smart.

 

Finish this run and we all support with excitement going into the offseason with our new identity

problem is we have a Qb who doesn’t care anymore

must show that he can beat the Steelers, it’s year four dealing with these narratives that are true.

get your team angry to play for 60 mins and whatever happens happene

 

Haven't watched much but if the Miami Dolphins are for real, they will need to prove it by running and stopping the run in "cold" weather. The stats say they are prepared for this type of game.

Will McDaniel put the offense behind the chains with his silly, at times, play calling? How many times can you run a Malik behind the line play? He needs to stop doing that in games where every possession matters. This to me would be a signal of his growth and maturing as a head coach.

Can Weaver get this young DL to control the line and force old man Rodgers to beat them? Fingers crossed.

 

Su yeah, historically I would have agreed with you. It's just that with this team under these coaches, we've seen plenty of wins against bad teams, and then for the most part consistently get blown out by the good teams.

So yeah, I'm happy with the 4 wins. If it turns out that we can actually consistently compete with the good teams with this team and the new mindset, I'd be ecstatic!! It would mean we don't have to start over.

So, don't think I'm rooting against this team being legit. I'm just not gonna believe until I see it.

 

Amazing how the Buffalo game just gets dismissed lmao. All everyone ever did was cry on here for the last five year that they can never and will never beat the Bills.

Anyway, I'm sure it will be the same if Miami dogwalks Pittsburgh. Something about Pittsburgh not trying or Rodgers being washed up.

 

You guys are unbelievable.

 

Please note we had a good convo going, and some people just had to piss in the pool.

 

After Wanny was fired, we went through the entire Saban, Cameron, Sparano, Philbin and Gase eras, a period of 15 years, and had three winning seasons.

If we go 3-1 the rest of the way, this would be McDaniel's third winning year out of four.

 

There are different levels of success. I'm not a believer in all or nothing. Sadly, we've had one of the most powerful teams in the whole league in our own division for more than 20 years straight, and we have to win the division and earn a home game for a shot at winning a playoff game. Came close in 2023, before Buffalo won not one but four games down the stretch that they should have lost.

 

The Dolphins franchise is almost certain to never win late season/playoff games on the road in cold weather against good teams. 70 years of history tells us that. No matter who the coach is. I've just accepted it. What we need is to build the best team we can and get a few breaks with the division being not so strong, and find a year or two to make it work.

 

Would you have kept any of the coaches you‘ve just mentioned?! If McDaniel goes 3-1 the rest of the way, most people would be fine with him staying. Grier is gone, that was the first step in the right direction.

 

I'm not 100% in McDaniel's corner. In fact, my first preference is to just run it all back for one more year in 2026 and then see what happens and go from there, because I don't think that we'll find a better coach or QB this coming offseason. That said, I do think that he's a step above the others, and likely better than anyone else that we are likely to hire to replace him, and that if and when we move on, we're probably looking at another 10-20 years of 5-7 win seasons.

 

I don't buy in to that.

The dolphins have been a flawed organization for many decades. The opportunity was there after Jimmy Johnson but we ended up with Wannstedt's and Huizenga's incompetence. Followed by a string of poor ownership, GMs, coaches and flawed drafting (not finding a QB).

The Dolphins like any team could win in cold weather. I look back at playing in Buffalo, a game that could have been won if not for critical drops. Just one game but it's one I take heart in (under McDaniel).

This year, Tua's consistent poor play may have finally convinced McDaniel to rely less on him. Personally I would have benched Tua after week one. They may also have found enough OL talent to be able to consistently run the ball effectively. Health has always been an issue here as well. DL may finally be good enough to control the line of scrimmage too. Which in turn leads to more offensive possessions , clock draining and points scored.

Ultimately it's all about drafting. Funny part is Grier's last two drafts may have started the blueprint. Champ Kelly is not who I want leading. Find someone who comes from an organization with strong drafting traditions. Who consistently finds players of certain molds that produce strong defenses and solid offensive lines. And find a damned QB!

 

So your expectation is that the forum can only be Rah Rah posts and blind support for everything the team does?

Like this is a thread, by a guy who is someone you view as glass half full, and the whole point was that he is softening his stance on McDaniel.

Yet you come in and crap all over the place, acting like everyone in here is a bad fan.

Absolutely ridiculous.

 

Well like I said, if even the best teams in Dolphins history, who were build on having some of the best run games and defenses of their time, and featured a HoF QB and WR still couldn't score or win in early to mid December games back then, I think that's telling. Its something that a lot of fans forget or ignore.

 

Yeah bro, but there is a massive difference between those teams, where they were legitimately good teams, and the team we've seen the past couple years. Building an actual good team, and not winning it all is not the same as throwing money at older or oft injured players to build a roster.

 

The Dolphins have been flawed for a long time. I won't let that convince me they are incapable of winning in cold weather. It starts with putting the right people in charge so a team that can win is actually on the field.

 

You didn’t answer my question. I‘m fine with McDaniel returning as I see it as you do when it comes to next season. When it comes to your future outlook of if we move on, I can’t really agree on that. You can turn franchises around quickly in the NFL, if you get the right people, to bad we suck at it for quite some time now.

 

Playoffs?!? We're going to the Super Bowl!

In all honesty, I think we miss the playoffs even if we win out. However, if we do sneak in on an 8-game win streak with this rushing offense and stingy defense, I do believe that we can beat anyone. A power run game controls the tempo and makes it so much easier on the defense and the QB; this is literally the start of a championship football team since we have the parts that actually matter (elite run blocking O line, elite RB).

 

I think that when you try and turn things around quickly, sometimes it works, most of the time it blows up in your face. My extremely strong belief in life, football or otherwise, is slow, steady, careful and do it right.