Miami Dolphins' head coach Mike McDaniel is already having more success than Brian Flores
Mike McDaniel has only been the head coach of the Miami Dolphins for a few weeks, but in that time he has already been better in some areas than former coach, Brian Flores.
With the news coming this weekend that Flores has joined the Pittsburgh Steelers, it has rejuvenated the dialogue that the Dolphins should never have fired Flores. For a moment, let's put all of that to the side.
While we are at it, we will also table Flores' pending lawsuit against the NFL and the allegations that he has made against Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.
Flores, without question, found success in Miami. He won five of his last nine games during his first season with the team and had a combined 19 games over the last two seasons.
While his success in the win column cannot be denied, his inability to put together an offensive staff also cannot be denied. Flores consistently failed to put together a quality offensive staff during his three seasons in Miami.
The Dolphins' offensive coaches struggled mightily under Flores
In year one under Flores, Chad O'Shea was the team's offensive coordinator. O'Shea didn't have much to work with in 2019 and gave way to Chan Gailey in 2020.
Gailey was brought in to work with former Miami quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, given their previous history together. Prior to joining Miami in 2020, Gailey retired, leaving the OC position vacant.
Gailey proved in 2020 that what worked in the league 10 years ago is no longer necessarily efficient.
After the 2020 season, Gailey returned to retirement and there was hope that Flores would bring in someone to help Tua Tagovailoa take the next step. Flores' big hire that offseason was promoting two guys already on staff, making them co-offensive coordinators.
This, of course, led to what eventually became a three-headed OC attack in 2021, with quarterbacks coach Charlie Frye joining in on the action.
Whichever Dolphins OC is in charge of the close-to-their-own-goal-line playcalls ... bro, let’s talk
With Flores' departure, there was hope that the next coach would find more success when it came to putting quality names on the offensive coaching staff.
Insert new head coach Mike McDaniel.
Last week, the Dolphins announced their coaching staff for the 2022 season, a staff highlighted by Frank Smith (offensive coordinator), Matt Applebaum (OL coach), Darrell Bevell (QB coach), Wes Welker (WR coach), and Jon Embree (assistant HC/TE coach).
Dolphins also hiring Wes Welker as their WR coach. Welker played 3 years for Dolphins plus his 6 years with Patriots. Spent the last 3 years as 49ers WR coach. A popular former player coming to work with McDaniel in Miami.
Not only has McDaniel brought in offensive talent with name appeal, but he has lured some of this talent away from quality jobs. The San Francisco 49ers are fresh off an appearance in the NFC Championship game.
The Dolphins, on the other hand, have not made the playoffs since 2016. McDaniel has been able to bring some of these names with him to Miami, proving how much they believe in him and the potential of the team.
Winning the offseason is nice, but McDaniel will need to do more than that in 2022
There are obviously no awards for coaching staff signings, but this is an area where the team has struggled in the last few seasons. Flores' departure also brought with it stories of a rift that existed between himself and Tagovailoa, something that Flores has since denied.
McDaniel has made it clear from the start that his focus is to make Tagovailoa better, an area that some believe was not high on Flores' list of priorities.
That McDaniel to Tua video pretty convincing evidence of what we, NFL Net and ESPN reported last month -- Dolphins are all in on Tua. He's their guy. That was conveyed even before this McDaniel call. Will be interesting to see a better offense, skilled offensive coach around him
Of course, none of this is going to matter come December if Miami is not competing for a playoff spot under McDaniel. Then again, if they are, a lot of that success will likely be contributed to McDaniels' ability to build a competent offensive staff.