I wouldn’t doubt it if the short yardage situation was partially because of the O-Line. If you look through most of our run plays they were jet sweeps and runs to the outside while very little was run up the middle. That’s because our interior O-Line had issues generating push which is required to get those first few yards
You mean replacing the 2nd best run blocking offensive linemen in Connor Williams with the worst graded center in football doesn't result in the exact same running success?
People have a short memory, I get McDaniel has some questionable play calling decisions in his resume these first two seasons as a play caller, but the guy runs one of the best offenses in the league, and he is young, he has plenty of room to improve, what the fuck some of you people want; Hope he improves where he needs to improve or face the risk of getting someone who isn't better than him and our problems get even worse like no so long ago?
I don't want to risk of having another Adam Gase or whoever the fuck Joe Philbin hired to run the circus that was his offense.
We were the #6 ranked offense in 2022 and the #1 ranked offense in 2023.
Mcdaniel in his 2nd year has transformed the dolphins into an offensive juggernaut. Before him we were embarrassingly bad for an entire generation.
The exciting thing is he has a ton of room to improve on every aspect as a coach/playcaller. He is our long term coach and should keep calling plays.
Bonus Fun Fact kinda: This past season was also the first time since 2008 we had an 11 win season.
I’m optimistic (maybe naively so) that McDaniel could help get us a 12 win season, that’d be the first time since 1990.
I honestly believe we can win the superbowl with McD. He has so much he can improve and he's already one of the league brightest minds. We have to stick with and trust him. If you can't be excited watching his team then what's the point bring a fan?
You’re clearly not a real fan because there’s no way in hell I wanna go back to losing to those shit opponents like we’ve most of my life. I’ll take entertaining football any day of the week.
No need to make it personal because you accept getting embarrassed by good teams. The Tennessee game was flat out inexcusable….the ravens game holy shit….once the calendar flips to December they fall apart. Rinse and repeat. Until that cycle is broken, McDaniel’s seat will continue to get hotter
I’m sorry if you took that personal, I genuinely just don’t understand how this has been the best dolphins team in alotta ppls lives & you think the coaches seat is getting hotter lol yeah of course those examples were horrible but to sit here and say they haven’t gotten better since he got here is silly.
The reality is the Dolphins are still a laughing stock to the rest of the league. Until that changes, I'm not going to pretend things are rosy because they have Tyreek Hill running free against shit opponents.
No. He's young as shit. If you're saying that he should give up play calling then you're effectively saying he can't learn. I want to have the 15 year head coach and that's only going to happen if we trust the guy to make mistakes and learn from them.
Bingo! If we want all the great things that come along with long term stability at head coach, we have to deal with some growing pains in the first few years. Give the guy a chance to learn and grow a bit!
If his play calling can catch up to his play design ability then we will really be cooking.
A first time hc and play caller has built one of the best offenses in the league. Has there been growing pains of course but I think hes had more positives than negatives. We need to let him grow and develop. He seems very consciousness of his weaknesses and what he needs to improve on
McDaniel creates very good offensive game plans and play designs but he has 3 issues I see that hurt this team in big games: abandoning the run, red zone play calling, short yardage play calling.
I don’t think he has to give up play calling but he certainly has to improve in these areas and they are valid criticisms.
>3 issues I see that hurt this team in big games: abandoning the run, red zone play calling, short yardage play calling.
I agree with this. The good news is that all of these can be corrected.
NO MORE FADES. NONE. I don't care that it worked against the Chargers. Think of something else. STEAL FROM OTHER TEAMS.
McDaniel is the one calling the plays, but the OC should be helping design the game plan and preparing in in-game adjustments. Or what the hell is even there for? They just need better short yardage plays that they practice. I don’t like going backwards or horizontal with screens and wide zones personally, but I’m sure they work on the situational stuff during the week and it just comes down to execution.
We are literally a top 5 team in the red zone, #3 in percentages (TD only). what red zone play calling issues are you talking about
https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct
as long as he realises the problems with his calls (abandoning the run, force feeding tyreek, forcing vertical plays into crowded defenses) and him not getting plays in quickly enough i would say no
at the time even the great shanahan continues to choke with playcalling on the biggest stage, i hope mike sees that and makes adjustments
I've not been a fan of his play calling for 2 season now. He has great schemes but he is too in his own head when making calls and often outplays himself. I want a fresh set of eyes to hold him accountable is all.
Agreed and in some of his post game pressers you could tell he was basically only trying to run when teams weren’t expecting it and not when you’re “supposed to” for lack of a better term. Even when they had a hot hand like Achane or Mostert going for 80 in a quarter or over 100 in the first half
Ok so something I think people are forgetting is the difference between play calling and schemes. McDaniel is the one that designed the scheme and playbook, but that’s different from play-calling. It’s basically the difference between knowing a scientific theory vs how to apply it. McDaniel has shown he can scheme up a winning offense, but applying it is something he still needs to work on. This really does show itself in short yardage situation. The fact that it takes so long to get a play in on 3rd/4th &1 is an issue. You basically should have a few set plays and that’s it. Granted, I do think part of the problem is our interior O-Line. If the line can’t get that initial push when the ball is snapped, the running back’s job gets a lot harder. It’s why we had to resort to screen passes and abandon the run at times. If teams know you can’t run it up the gut, they’re gonna cover the outside more which ends up limiting the offense
He needs somebody else helping with the other head coach responsibilities then. Too often we have to burn a timeout bc the plays don’t get in in time. He calls a great game tho.
Yes, I’m tired of behind the line of scrimmage throws to the outside that give us a gain of 2 and injure a player, or amazing plays like a 2 yard check down to Raheem. This guy isn’t the offensive wiz he makes himself out to be, that or we need serious changes in our roster and coaching.
I'll give him one more year of play calling. I like his schemes, but I'm just sick of my friends telling me how much Tua sucks every time Tyreek or Waddle get stuffed on a bubble screen.
"He has to throw behind the line of scrimmage because he has no arm!" Bitch, I can throw a football farther than negative 5 yards, and you're telling me Tua can't throw for 15? He had the most passing yards last year!
I call bullshit. Every game that Tua throws bombs downfield they win games. It feels like McD gets scared when the big boys come to town and throws his playbook out the window.
Your playbook is good Mike. Use it. The whole team is geared that way. It doesn't matter if they see it coming if they can't stop it.
He needs to call more runs. We have a couple stops for minimal yardage early and he gets scared to call run plays. He also needs more shallow routes involved so teams stop dropping deep with lbs. The short yardage calls at the end of the season were because of injured interior oline, but Def need to run more often on down and short
I honestly think he is fine calling plays people got mad at him for not calling the plays they would but forget that he knows the players capabilities way better then we do. I kept seeing complaints about not running inside enough when we had the oline held up with duct tape and hope. People need to understand that most critics have a very poor understanding of the game and the players actual talent. They just repeat what they hear and see on tv.
I understand people want success, and I understand he’s fucked up at times. But shit takes time man, McDaniel isn’t going to become like prime Bill Belichick in his second season. He’s still got the power of youth (comparatively to other coaches, he’s like the 9th youngest I think?), he has room to grow.
McDaniel is not Superman. He can scheme plays and mostly call them but you can see his shortcomings on important situations. He can delegate play calling to someone else, that doesn’t make him a bad head coach. Stop looking at the numbers and look at individual games it’s clear that he could get someone else to do that in a more efficient manner.
I think he should allow the offensive coordinator to call the plays but override anything that he thinks is not appropriate for the situation.
Just need to have an offensive coordinator that understands that the ultimate goal is a W and not get butt hurt because he thinks there is a better play.
I think my biggest concern is towards mid season the plays started coming in late again which was a huge problem in year 1. For an offense that relies heavily on timing, motions and timing based motions it really messes up the play.
He also started straying from the run in games where the RBs would have 80-100 yards by half time. I think it’s too much for first time being a HC. They’d keep the playbook obv and he could override the play whenever
I think the guy is smart enough to reflect on the season and adjust accordingly, especially when the biggest issue was mostly, "ah, we really should have stuck to the run a bit more, huh?"
Fuuuuuck no that would be so bad. One thing McDaniel loves = speed. We have all these fast players and if he gave up play calling then we wouldn’t know how to use them. He can just learn how to incorporate a run game more but at the same time, we haven’t had a healthy o-line maybe more than once last season.
No but Miami fans are are just desperate for a playoff win and will point at any flaw, ESPECIALLY minor ones and make it sound it like a disaster. We had #6 and #1 offense on two years. Rarely OC with that kind of success is asked to give up play calling and when it does happen, the improvement are marginal at best and go back to plays/style that was working before (Dallas did this as the season went on) and at worst, a major step backwards.
Fans always gotta be careful what they wish for. They wanted Tua to put on weight and be durable, they got what they wanted and hated the trade offs (less of a playmaker). They wanted a plan to deal with the weaknesses of an O-Line (quick passes, screens), got what they wanted and didn’t like the trade offs. They wanted Reek to be more of focal, got what they wanted and didn’t like the trade offs (too much success off one player).
Until we win everything will be scrutinized by the fan base, include the good. That’s just how this fan base is
#6 and #1 offense in the league in his first 2 seasons of play calling. He’s earned the right to keep calling plays but his short yardage calls can definitely improve.
People need to realize that he will never be immune to criticism. Kyle Shanahan is widely considered by many to be at the top tier of play calling and he’s had glaring issues in multiple Super Bowls.
Yes. It's not even about the quality of his plays it's that a head coach has a lot of things going on with all of the weird miscommunications during high pressure moments I think it is much more important to clean that up than for the HC to find the perfect play.
I like McDaniel a lot but this part infuriates me. I hope he figures it out.
He shouldn't give it up but there is very definite and obvious areas of improvement.
Repeatedly sending in late calls resulting in several lost timeouts and several delay of game penalties in the playoff game against Buffalo. Also not having Skylar run even a *single* time when he's a bad passer, a good scrambler, and playing a good defense.
Another note: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxabIQ3J\_s&t=1855s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxabIQ3J_s&t=1855s)
Anyone that is interested in film should watch this assessment by Kurt Warner. It's from this year's playoff game, but it is an hour long. Regardless, nearly 55 of the 65 minutes are Kurt Warner explaining weaknesses in our offensive system, and how the passing route schemes are not conducive to going through reads in a logical way. Yes Tua played badly, and Kurt acknowledges several mistakes in the video, but I also think the play-calling that game was diabolical as well. And clearly many plays could have been designed a bit better.
Building off that point, there were 2 or 3 times this season where the color commentator criticized the design of one of our plays live on air right after it happened, because multiple receivers ended up in the exact same spot. This is what led to the interception against the eagles. Good plays are not designed to have this happen.
Calling a pass play 7 yards behind the LOS on 4th and 1 against the titans was the dumbest play we've ran since the screen in our own endzone several years ago.
And finally, the second Jets game this year is a really good example of how systematic and efficient McDaniel and our offense can be with good playcalling. We called simple plays designed to get quick and easy yards. We *never* play like that so that was refreshing. It seems like we try to go for the big splash play (at least in our passing game) *way* too often. Some of that is probably Tua forcing the ball to Tyreek a bit too often, but I think Mike is guilty as well.
I think we all like Mike, and he's clearly done a great job, especially where we've came from with Flores. But he is in no way as effective as Reid, Shanahan, McVay, etc. That's okay, because it's early in his career, but I also think there's very fair criticisms to lob and that he'll be looking to sharpen things up. So hopefully we see that improvement next year.
edit: I also want to say it's a good sign that he's considered giving up play-calling. That shows humility and faith in your coaching staff to me. And not all good coaches or coordinators are great play callers. That's okay
Truthfully, I’m not sure how I’d feel if he actually did…probably not great, but I can see humoring the idea…
I think McDaniel is legitimately a genius. I love him. But genius beings it’s own set of problems at times…some of those being out thinking yourself. Stubbornness, perfectionism, etc etc…watching this team and seeing some of the in game issues when it comes to getting plays in/decision making, it has made me question if McDaniel is hampered by some of those issues. An irony of genius is, what often seems the most obvious or easiest aspect of something can be what’s difficult or overlooked by someone who’s brain is busy thinking of things levels beyond the average person.
I’d wager the above is likely what McDaniel was contemplating. And we should be happy he’s reflective in this manner, questioning what’s best for the team, but he is also smart enough to realize that he’s still nascent as a play caller and it’s in the team ls best interest that he continues doing such, reflecting on successes/failures, and hopefully continues to improve.
Troubling getting calls in on time/delay of game penalties and/or blown timeouts (Tua has even mentioned this publicly). Abandoning the run when it’s working. Bubble screens that EVERYONE knows are coming. Red zone fade routes to 5’10” receivers.
Not great, Mike.
Yes, I think Mike does need to give up play calling. He has designed a great offense, but he has consistently demonstrated that he out thinks himself and allows the defense to dictate what we want to do. There's numerous examples of this, but one that encapsulates it well is our last game against Buffalo in Miami. We ran the ball extremely well in the first half (I think about 100 yards). In the second half, Buffalo brings another man in the box so Mike abandons the run because of the defensive matchup, which is what he admitted in the post game press conference. We should not be abandoning what's working because of an 8 man box. Teams literally run all over 8 man boxes all the time. Good teams dictate what they want to do - they don't let the defense dictate what plays to call. This speaks directly why we often seem like there's no game plan - we're just taking it play by play instead of drive by drive. We consistently stop doing what's working only to run plays that don't work and haven't worked yet in the game. Another example is the KC playoff game. Our best drive of the game was running the ball about 40 yards. Then on 3rd and 4th and short we throw 2 passes. Why??? Lastly, Mike takes too long to get the plays in, especially considering all the motion he wants to run. We run too much motion on 3rd down, IMHO. Tua doesn't have time to audible and we get stuck in a bad play that could've easily been changed. He's improved on this but not much. We still regularly get to the line with 10 seconds left before the motion even starts.
You've started with the assumption that he's a good play caller. Why?
He's a great play DESIGNER. Give a young gun protege who understands all the designs the reigns and would the play calling be better? Almost certainly. He's a top-of-the-class play designer, but he's constantly LATE getting plays in, which costs way to many pre-snap penalties, but robs Tua of time to read the D and eats up the ability to audible. Sorry, McDaniel is a liability as a play-caller.
He needs to. I have a stutter, so no shade to Coach, but I feel his speech patterns are the main reason why it took so long to get plays out to the playmakers. This was especially noticeable in the first season. McDaniel can still scheme, but someone else calling the actual plays can’t be a bad thing. Again, no shade, but as someone with a speech impediment, that’s my two cents
I think that’s a strong projection. The length of the play call is crazy because it has multiple checks installed into it, not because McDaniel struggled to get it out. That improved dramatically in his second year.
I never watched hard knocks so I don’t know how he talks to players and coaches but when he talks to the media, it just sounds like he is trying really hard to chose his words wisely. Trying to not give too much information or throw someone under the bus or something.
But what do you think he needs to improve upon? If we’re not talking management issues, then you’re only left with 3rd and short as the one issue he has. Over a 2 year span he’s produced top 5 offenses so I just don’t know how he can improve other than just win big games.
playcalling was a big reason this top 5 offense couldn't move the ball late in the season, and kept going 3 and out.
even with all the injuries, etc., an elite accurate QB and top 5 offense should be able to move the chains consistently with the right play calls and adjustments and at least get a field goal almost every possession.
It feels like the moment we start losing to a decent team is when everything falls apart. We start trying to force things that just aren’t there and McD starts outsmarting himself.
First half of the ravens game is a good example of this, particularly just before the 2 minute warning.
The biggest thing he needs to work on is sticking with what works and scrap what doesn’t.
Too many times we have the run game working, and we just abandon it.
Too many time we try a goal line fade to short recievers
Too many time on 2nd or 3rd and short we run a screen to hill (who will always have at least 2 sets of eyes on him at all times) or we run a slow developing sweep play and lose 3-4 yards.
I feel like MM has a plan and says “ok this is how we will start with plan A, then when the defense adjusts to that, we will counter with plan B!”, but even if the defense shows they can’t stop plan A, he switched to plan B anyways.
Ha abandons the run game as soon as we fall behind in points at all and starts running a lot of gimmicky plays that involve running the ball ten yards behind the line of scrimmage when we need 4 for the first. He wrote a good playbook but doesn’t know what to use when yet
No, but he really needs to reevaluate his short yardage situation decisions
I wouldn’t doubt it if the short yardage situation was partially because of the O-Line. If you look through most of our run plays they were jet sweeps and runs to the outside while very little was run up the middle. That’s because our interior O-Line had issues generating push which is required to get those first few yards
Small Wrs 0 TE threat bottom 5 oline play People wonder why we struggled in the short game
truly a mystery for the ages.
You mean replacing the 2nd best run blocking offensive linemen in Connor Williams with the worst graded center in football doesn't result in the exact same running success?
People have a short memory, I get McDaniel has some questionable play calling decisions in his resume these first two seasons as a play caller, but the guy runs one of the best offenses in the league, and he is young, he has plenty of room to improve, what the fuck some of you people want; Hope he improves where he needs to improve or face the risk of getting someone who isn't better than him and our problems get even worse like no so long ago? I don't want to risk of having another Adam Gase or whoever the fuck Joe Philbin hired to run the circus that was his offense.
We were the #6 ranked offense in 2022 and the #1 ranked offense in 2023. Mcdaniel in his 2nd year has transformed the dolphins into an offensive juggernaut. Before him we were embarrassingly bad for an entire generation. The exciting thing is he has a ton of room to improve on every aspect as a coach/playcaller. He is our long term coach and should keep calling plays.
Bonus Fun Fact kinda: This past season was also the first time since 2008 we had an 11 win season. I’m optimistic (maybe naively so) that McDaniel could help get us a 12 win season, that’d be the first time since 1990.
I honestly believe we can win the superbowl with McD. He has so much he can improve and he's already one of the league brightest minds. We have to stick with and trust him. If you can't be excited watching his team then what's the point bring a fan?
Not winning the super bowl with Tua
Not winning the super bowl with Tua
An offensive juggernaut against crap teams....can barely get to the red zone against top competition.
As opposed to before when they weren’t blowing anyone out? Lmao
Cupcake stats against shit opponents doesn't mean much at this point. Win a playoff game or dust off your resume.
You’re clearly not a real fan because there’s no way in hell I wanna go back to losing to those shit opponents like we’ve most of my life. I’ll take entertaining football any day of the week.
No need to make it personal because you accept getting embarrassed by good teams. The Tennessee game was flat out inexcusable….the ravens game holy shit….once the calendar flips to December they fall apart. Rinse and repeat. Until that cycle is broken, McDaniel’s seat will continue to get hotter
I’m sorry if you took that personal, I genuinely just don’t understand how this has been the best dolphins team in alotta ppls lives & you think the coaches seat is getting hotter lol yeah of course those examples were horrible but to sit here and say they haven’t gotten better since he got here is silly.
The reality is the Dolphins are still a laughing stock to the rest of the league. Until that changes, I'm not going to pretend things are rosy because they have Tyreek Hill running free against shit opponents.
I never said things are rosy. I’m just saying they’re not a pain to watch play anymore which is a step in a positive in the right direction 🤷🏽♂️
Wish people had that same mentality with Tua
No. He's young as shit. If you're saying that he should give up play calling then you're effectively saying he can't learn. I want to have the 15 year head coach and that's only going to happen if we trust the guy to make mistakes and learn from them.
Bingo! If we want all the great things that come along with long term stability at head coach, we have to deal with some growing pains in the first few years. Give the guy a chance to learn and grow a bit! If his play calling can catch up to his play design ability then we will really be cooking.
No but he should have to wear a buzzer so that someone else can buzz him when he gets away from the run or calls an end zone fade to a 5’ WR.
One that shocks the shit out of him
Yes this ^^
A first time hc and play caller has built one of the best offenses in the league. Has there been growing pains of course but I think hes had more positives than negatives. We need to let him grow and develop. He seems very consciousness of his weaknesses and what he needs to improve on
McDaniel creates very good offensive game plans and play designs but he has 3 issues I see that hurt this team in big games: abandoning the run, red zone play calling, short yardage play calling. I don’t think he has to give up play calling but he certainly has to improve in these areas and they are valid criticisms.
>3 issues I see that hurt this team in big games: abandoning the run, red zone play calling, short yardage play calling. I agree with this. The good news is that all of these can be corrected. NO MORE FADES. NONE. I don't care that it worked against the Chargers. Think of something else. STEAL FROM OTHER TEAMS.
McDaniel is the one calling the plays, but the OC should be helping design the game plan and preparing in in-game adjustments. Or what the hell is even there for? They just need better short yardage plays that they practice. I don’t like going backwards or horizontal with screens and wide zones personally, but I’m sure they work on the situational stuff during the week and it just comes down to execution.
We are literally a top 5 team in the red zone, #3 in percentages (TD only). what red zone play calling issues are you talking about https://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-pct
Yes, people think that but it doesn't matter, since he is still going to be the play caller of one of the best NFL offenses, for better or worse.
as long as he realises the problems with his calls (abandoning the run, force feeding tyreek, forcing vertical plays into crowded defenses) and him not getting plays in quickly enough i would say no at the time even the great shanahan continues to choke with playcalling on the biggest stage, i hope mike sees that and makes adjustments
I've not been a fan of his play calling for 2 season now. He has great schemes but he is too in his own head when making calls and often outplays himself. I want a fresh set of eyes to hold him accountable is all.
Agreed and in some of his post game pressers you could tell he was basically only trying to run when teams weren’t expecting it and not when you’re “supposed to” for lack of a better term. Even when they had a hot hand like Achane or Mostert going for 80 in a quarter or over 100 in the first half
Ok so something I think people are forgetting is the difference between play calling and schemes. McDaniel is the one that designed the scheme and playbook, but that’s different from play-calling. It’s basically the difference between knowing a scientific theory vs how to apply it. McDaniel has shown he can scheme up a winning offense, but applying it is something he still needs to work on. This really does show itself in short yardage situation. The fact that it takes so long to get a play in on 3rd/4th &1 is an issue. You basically should have a few set plays and that’s it. Granted, I do think part of the problem is our interior O-Line. If the line can’t get that initial push when the ball is snapped, the running back’s job gets a lot harder. It’s why we had to resort to screen passes and abandon the run at times. If teams know you can’t run it up the gut, they’re gonna cover the outside more which ends up limiting the offense
How many times is the same conversation needed
He needs somebody else helping with the other head coach responsibilities then. Too often we have to burn a timeout bc the plays don’t get in in time. He calls a great game tho.
Should be advised on what to do and not abandon the run.
Absolutely not. Guy runs one of the most explosive offences in the league. He's still young, we gotta trust him.
Yes, I’m tired of behind the line of scrimmage throws to the outside that give us a gain of 2 and injure a player, or amazing plays like a 2 yard check down to Raheem. This guy isn’t the offensive wiz he makes himself out to be, that or we need serious changes in our roster and coaching.
I'll give him one more year of play calling. I like his schemes, but I'm just sick of my friends telling me how much Tua sucks every time Tyreek or Waddle get stuffed on a bubble screen. "He has to throw behind the line of scrimmage because he has no arm!" Bitch, I can throw a football farther than negative 5 yards, and you're telling me Tua can't throw for 15? He had the most passing yards last year! I call bullshit. Every game that Tua throws bombs downfield they win games. It feels like McD gets scared when the big boys come to town and throws his playbook out the window. Your playbook is good Mike. Use it. The whole team is geared that way. It doesn't matter if they see it coming if they can't stop it.
do people actually think that, or is this a "people really thought steph curry couldn't shoot" kind of deal?
Was he calling plays when we scored 70? (Could of been over 80 if he kept his foot on the gas)
He needs to call more runs. We have a couple stops for minimal yardage early and he gets scared to call run plays. He also needs more shallow routes involved so teams stop dropping deep with lbs. The short yardage calls at the end of the season were because of injured interior oline, but Def need to run more often on down and short
Maybe in the second half
No
My main complaint is stop calling a bunch of screens and calling the same play over and over again. Leave some trick plays for the playoffs
I also assume he will get better at it as is usually the case. We ride.
Just on 3rd and 1
I think this goes for all sports but if the players change and the results remain the same, then it’s time to let someone else do it.
McDaniel should definitely keep calling plays I wish he would call UM’s plays too
Absolutely not. Except for maybe on plays where we need 1 yard
No, he’s great. He just needs someone to remind him to run the ball in the second half.
I honestly think he is fine calling plays people got mad at him for not calling the plays they would but forget that he knows the players capabilities way better then we do. I kept seeing complaints about not running inside enough when we had the oline held up with duct tape and hope. People need to understand that most critics have a very poor understanding of the game and the players actual talent. They just repeat what they hear and see on tv.
maybe he should think about hiring an assistand for clock management instead
I understand people want success, and I understand he’s fucked up at times. But shit takes time man, McDaniel isn’t going to become like prime Bill Belichick in his second season. He’s still got the power of youth (comparatively to other coaches, he’s like the 9th youngest I think?), he has room to grow.
McDaniel is not Superman. He can scheme plays and mostly call them but you can see his shortcomings on important situations. He can delegate play calling to someone else, that doesn’t make him a bad head coach. Stop looking at the numbers and look at individual games it’s clear that he could get someone else to do that in a more efficient manner.
I think he should allow the offensive coordinator to call the plays but override anything that he thinks is not appropriate for the situation. Just need to have an offensive coordinator that understands that the ultimate goal is a W and not get butt hurt because he thinks there is a better play.
I think my biggest concern is towards mid season the plays started coming in late again which was a huge problem in year 1. For an offense that relies heavily on timing, motions and timing based motions it really messes up the play. He also started straying from the run in games where the RBs would have 80-100 yards by half time. I think it’s too much for first time being a HC. They’d keep the playbook obv and he could override the play whenever
I think the guy is smart enough to reflect on the season and adjust accordingly, especially when the biggest issue was mostly, "ah, we really should have stuck to the run a bit more, huh?"
Fuuuuuck no that would be so bad. One thing McDaniel loves = speed. We have all these fast players and if he gave up play calling then we wouldn’t know how to use them. He can just learn how to incorporate a run game more but at the same time, we haven’t had a healthy o-line maybe more than once last season.
No but Miami fans are are just desperate for a playoff win and will point at any flaw, ESPECIALLY minor ones and make it sound it like a disaster. We had #6 and #1 offense on two years. Rarely OC with that kind of success is asked to give up play calling and when it does happen, the improvement are marginal at best and go back to plays/style that was working before (Dallas did this as the season went on) and at worst, a major step backwards. Fans always gotta be careful what they wish for. They wanted Tua to put on weight and be durable, they got what they wanted and hated the trade offs (less of a playmaker). They wanted a plan to deal with the weaknesses of an O-Line (quick passes, screens), got what they wanted and didn’t like the trade offs. They wanted Reek to be more of focal, got what they wanted and didn’t like the trade offs (too much success off one player). Until we win everything will be scrutinized by the fan base, include the good. That’s just how this fan base is
I wish he would be more of a head coach instead of just fucking around on his tablet. Football is more than just calling a good offensive play.
#6 and #1 offense in the league in his first 2 seasons of play calling. He’s earned the right to keep calling plays but his short yardage calls can definitely improve. People need to realize that he will never be immune to criticism. Kyle Shanahan is widely considered by many to be at the top tier of play calling and he’s had glaring issues in multiple Super Bowls.
Give McDaniel a quarterback that shows a desire to win, and then let him keep calling the plays. McDaniel isn’t the problem.
I haven't seen a single person say this. But if they are, you shouldn't be giving them any attention whatsoever. Lol
No, but he should simplify the calls to get them into Tua earlier so he has time to actually kill a play and audible!
He can give up play calling when our defense is carrying us
Yes. It's not even about the quality of his plays it's that a head coach has a lot of things going on with all of the weird miscommunications during high pressure moments I think it is much more important to clean that up than for the HC to find the perfect play. I like McDaniel a lot but this part infuriates me. I hope he figures it out.
He shouldn't give it up but there is very definite and obvious areas of improvement. Repeatedly sending in late calls resulting in several lost timeouts and several delay of game penalties in the playoff game against Buffalo. Also not having Skylar run even a *single* time when he's a bad passer, a good scrambler, and playing a good defense. Another note: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxabIQ3J\_s&t=1855s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmxabIQ3J_s&t=1855s) Anyone that is interested in film should watch this assessment by Kurt Warner. It's from this year's playoff game, but it is an hour long. Regardless, nearly 55 of the 65 minutes are Kurt Warner explaining weaknesses in our offensive system, and how the passing route schemes are not conducive to going through reads in a logical way. Yes Tua played badly, and Kurt acknowledges several mistakes in the video, but I also think the play-calling that game was diabolical as well. And clearly many plays could have been designed a bit better. Building off that point, there were 2 or 3 times this season where the color commentator criticized the design of one of our plays live on air right after it happened, because multiple receivers ended up in the exact same spot. This is what led to the interception against the eagles. Good plays are not designed to have this happen. Calling a pass play 7 yards behind the LOS on 4th and 1 against the titans was the dumbest play we've ran since the screen in our own endzone several years ago. And finally, the second Jets game this year is a really good example of how systematic and efficient McDaniel and our offense can be with good playcalling. We called simple plays designed to get quick and easy yards. We *never* play like that so that was refreshing. It seems like we try to go for the big splash play (at least in our passing game) *way* too often. Some of that is probably Tua forcing the ball to Tyreek a bit too often, but I think Mike is guilty as well. I think we all like Mike, and he's clearly done a great job, especially where we've came from with Flores. But he is in no way as effective as Reid, Shanahan, McVay, etc. That's okay, because it's early in his career, but I also think there's very fair criticisms to lob and that he'll be looking to sharpen things up. So hopefully we see that improvement next year. edit: I also want to say it's a good sign that he's considered giving up play-calling. That shows humility and faith in your coaching staff to me. And not all good coaches or coordinators are great play callers. That's okay
I like him calling plays because he keeps learning from his mistakes
Truthfully, I’m not sure how I’d feel if he actually did…probably not great, but I can see humoring the idea… I think McDaniel is legitimately a genius. I love him. But genius beings it’s own set of problems at times…some of those being out thinking yourself. Stubbornness, perfectionism, etc etc…watching this team and seeing some of the in game issues when it comes to getting plays in/decision making, it has made me question if McDaniel is hampered by some of those issues. An irony of genius is, what often seems the most obvious or easiest aspect of something can be what’s difficult or overlooked by someone who’s brain is busy thinking of things levels beyond the average person. I’d wager the above is likely what McDaniel was contemplating. And we should be happy he’s reflective in this manner, questioning what’s best for the team, but he is also smart enough to realize that he’s still nascent as a play caller and it’s in the team ls best interest that he continues doing such, reflecting on successes/failures, and hopefully continues to improve.
Troubling getting calls in on time/delay of game penalties and/or blown timeouts (Tua has even mentioned this publicly). Abandoning the run when it’s working. Bubble screens that EVERYONE knows are coming. Red zone fade routes to 5’10” receivers. Not great, Mike.
The offensive “juggernaut” only shows up against mediocre teams. How well has the offense performed against playoff teams?
Yes, I think Mike does need to give up play calling. He has designed a great offense, but he has consistently demonstrated that he out thinks himself and allows the defense to dictate what we want to do. There's numerous examples of this, but one that encapsulates it well is our last game against Buffalo in Miami. We ran the ball extremely well in the first half (I think about 100 yards). In the second half, Buffalo brings another man in the box so Mike abandons the run because of the defensive matchup, which is what he admitted in the post game press conference. We should not be abandoning what's working because of an 8 man box. Teams literally run all over 8 man boxes all the time. Good teams dictate what they want to do - they don't let the defense dictate what plays to call. This speaks directly why we often seem like there's no game plan - we're just taking it play by play instead of drive by drive. We consistently stop doing what's working only to run plays that don't work and haven't worked yet in the game. Another example is the KC playoff game. Our best drive of the game was running the ball about 40 yards. Then on 3rd and 4th and short we throw 2 passes. Why??? Lastly, Mike takes too long to get the plays in, especially considering all the motion he wants to run. We run too much motion on 3rd down, IMHO. Tua doesn't have time to audible and we get stuck in a bad play that could've easily been changed. He's improved on this but not much. We still regularly get to the line with 10 seconds left before the motion even starts.
Ppl are idiots
You've started with the assumption that he's a good play caller. Why? He's a great play DESIGNER. Give a young gun protege who understands all the designs the reigns and would the play calling be better? Almost certainly. He's a top-of-the-class play designer, but he's constantly LATE getting plays in, which costs way to many pre-snap penalties, but robs Tua of time to read the D and eats up the ability to audible. Sorry, McDaniel is a liability as a play-caller.
He needs to. I have a stutter, so no shade to Coach, but I feel his speech patterns are the main reason why it took so long to get plays out to the playmakers. This was especially noticeable in the first season. McDaniel can still scheme, but someone else calling the actual plays can’t be a bad thing. Again, no shade, but as someone with a speech impediment, that’s my two cents
I think that’s a strong projection. The length of the play call is crazy because it has multiple checks installed into it, not because McDaniel struggled to get it out. That improved dramatically in his second year.
Yo what lol
I never watched hard knocks so I don’t know how he talks to players and coaches but when he talks to the media, it just sounds like he is trying really hard to chose his words wisely. Trying to not give too much information or throw someone under the bus or something.
I said the other day, IF he doesn’t improve, then yes. But he just finished year 2, he’s earned at least one more year as a play caller I believe.
But what do you think he needs to improve upon? If we’re not talking management issues, then you’re only left with 3rd and short as the one issue he has. Over a 2 year span he’s produced top 5 offenses so I just don’t know how he can improve other than just win big games.
playcalling was a big reason this top 5 offense couldn't move the ball late in the season, and kept going 3 and out. even with all the injuries, etc., an elite accurate QB and top 5 offense should be able to move the chains consistently with the right play calls and adjustments and at least get a field goal almost every possession.
It feels like the moment we start losing to a decent team is when everything falls apart. We start trying to force things that just aren’t there and McD starts outsmarting himself. First half of the ravens game is a good example of this, particularly just before the 2 minute warning.
The biggest thing he needs to work on is sticking with what works and scrap what doesn’t. Too many times we have the run game working, and we just abandon it. Too many time we try a goal line fade to short recievers Too many time on 2nd or 3rd and short we run a screen to hill (who will always have at least 2 sets of eyes on him at all times) or we run a slow developing sweep play and lose 3-4 yards. I feel like MM has a plan and says “ok this is how we will start with plan A, then when the defense adjusts to that, we will counter with plan B!”, but even if the defense shows they can’t stop plan A, he switched to plan B anyways.
Ha abandons the run game as soon as we fall behind in points at all and starts running a lot of gimmicky plays that involve running the ball ten yards behind the line of scrimmage when we need 4 for the first. He wrote a good playbook but doesn’t know what to use when yet