Flores won five more games than we thought he would his first year. McDaniel was handed a win now roster.
Yeah, can't fault Flores for that first year at all....that was built to be a 0-16 team. That was probably the best 0-16 team ever!
Dude…c’mon! If McDaniel is no better than Flores, explain to me like I’m a 6 year old how Tua, playing the same number of games as last season had over 1000 yards more passing, 9 more touchdowns and 2 less interceptions…3 of those interceptions coming during the Green Bay game? Flores had absolutely ZERO interest or desire in developing Tua, let alone even working with him. McDaniel did and tailored an offense to fit his skills set. With McDaniel, at least he knew last year’s teams issues didn’t lie with the defense, hence him not wanting to change that. Hindsight being 20/20 Boyer had little to do with Miami’s defensive success…but the foresight at the time…if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. The defense is what lost us games this season. Four of the Dolphins losses this season were by 1 score or less. The defense is what let this team down this season. Had the defense stepped up and stopped those teams in those games, Miami would be 13-4 and everyone would be singing a completely different tune about McDaniel and Tagovailoa
The problem is you seem to be evaluating Mcdaniel completely on how much better Tua is doing. Mcdaniel is the head coach, not the offensive coordinator or QB coach. He is responsible for runing the whole team including defense and special teams. The issue is we exchanged a defensive wizard who had little knowledge of how to manage offenses, for an offensive wizard with little knowledge of how to manage defenses. Overall we ended up with the same results.
To be fair, Flores and McDaniel are very different coaches with very different skill-sets. Flores greatly over achieved on defense with a bunch of nobodies. McDaniel brought a flashy offense that maximizes what Tua does well. If they were somehow co-HC's this season, maybe we would have been undefeated. Also, Tua was not the QB then that he is today. And I agree with you, much of that can be pinned on the HC. Yet people here are trashing Skylar for the same thing people trashed Tua for in years 1-2; he's not seeing "NFL open" yet and carving up the field. Now, maybe Skylar doesn't have Tua's accuracy to deliver those types of passes, but they were there over the middle on crossing routes all day long against the Jets. Tua didn't attempt those throws a few years ago either and that's the difference in his game today. Why doesn't McDaniel have Skylar playing like Tua? That's a really unfair question and I think that extends somewhat to Tua/Flores as well. The same goes for the other side of the ball- Flores had an elite defense that McDaniel inherited, but we all know that elite D doesn't work without Jones and X on the field. Then Needham goes down. Then X plays hurt for the majority of the season. I think we place too much weight on records and not enough on situations within the organization. Flores has done well in Miami. McDaniel has done well in Miami. Both have some glaring problems, but I can't see why people would be critical of either one. For me, the big thing about Flores is that he was working against the front office in year one by trying to actually win, and in some ways that was my favorite season of the past decade because such a horrible team was playing without fear. I probably can't name 15 of the 22 starters from that season; there were too many nobodies. I guess my point is that neither Flores or McDaniel are black and white, all 'great' or 'horrible'. Both were good coaches. Both tried to be good people in their own way and both tried to do the right thing.
How many times have we discussed basing anything on wins?? Yet people insist on using wins to judge individuals.
Burrow was who I was hoping for. I was not excited about the TUA pick as I am not a fan of picking injured players in the draft. Something the Dolphins seem to love doing.
Comparing McDaniel and Flores is an almost perfect example of the apples and oranges saying. From personality to coaching style to focus (offense vs defense), they are vastly different. Where their circles overlap on a Venn diagram is that each needs a strong coordinator on the opposite side of the ball to get to the next level. McD needs someone like Shanahan has in Ryans to turn the D into a top tier unit, freeing him to do what he does best.
Team won the turnover battle by an massive 5-0 margin that created multiple starting field position inside the red zone. Once the turnovers dried up, Herbert turned into a pumpkin…. Again
