The Miami Dolphins have their next head coach.
It’s San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel. McDaniel will become Miami the Dolphins’ 14th head coach — 11th not counting interim coaches — after the team announced it agreed to terms with him on Sunday evening. Earlier Sunday, a team source told the South Florida Sun Sentinel the two sides were working on a deal.
McDaniel, 38, appeared to be the favorite for the role once former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll took the New York Giants’ job on Jan. 28. It became more apparent it would be him after his interview with the Dolphins on Friday reportedly lasted 10 hours followed by news that the 49ers were hiring Anthony Lynn, a former head coach with the Los Angels Chargers, to be an assistant head coach and coordinate the run game, something McDaniel previously did in San Francisco before his promotion to offensive coordinator for the 2021 season.
After seven candidates were included in a first round of interviews, McDaniel was originally one of three finalists, with Daboll and Dallas Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Daboll then accepted the role with the Giants, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones publicly said he believes Moore will be back with his organization. Some in the Dolphins’ organization also liked Arizona Cardinals defensive coordinator Vance Joseph, who has previous head coaching experience with the Denver Broncos and had a previous stint in Miami as defensive coordinator in 2016.
McDaniel interviewed for the second time on Friday and Moore on Saturday. The second round of interviews were initially slated to occur earlier in the past week, but the Dolphins’ brass focused on during practices that took place Tuesday through Thursday in Mobile, Alabama.
McDaniel is a Yale grad who has long ties to San Francisco coach Kyle Shanahan. Their 49ers made a deep playoff run to the NFC Championship Game as a No. 6 seed this season, ultimately falling to the Los Angeles Rams a round ahead of the Super Bowl.
The Dolphins’ coaching search has been marred by alleging widespread racism across the NFL in its hiring and retention of Black head coaches.
In the lawsuit, Flores alleges his relationship with owner Steve Ross began deteriorating during his first season at the helm for the Dolphins in 2019 when he refused to tank for a higher draft pick and was offered $100,000 per loss. Flores also claims Ross pressured Flores to tamper with a quarterback, who is unnamed in the suit but reports say was Tom Brady, before his 2020 free agency.
After Flores made the interview rounds, explaining his alleged experiences, Ross released a statement later that night, .
McDaniel, who is biracial with his father Black and mother white, just completed his first season coordinating the 49ers’ offense — although Shanahan called plays — after serving as the team’s run-game coordinator since 2017, when Shanahan first got the job in San Francisco. The 49ers’ run game has long been the strength of their offense, including when they made a run to the Super Bowl in the 2019 postseason and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs at Hard Rock Stadium.
It’s the second straight offseason the Dolphins pursued McDaniel. He was interviewed for Miami’s opening at offensive coordinator last January, which eventually went to co-coordinators George Godsey and Eric Studesville after Chan Gailey’s departure.
The Dolphins will visit San Francisco to face McDaniel’s former team this upcoming season on a date to be determined.
McDaniel was an offensive assistant in 2015 and 2016 with the Atlanta Falcons when Shanahan was offensive coordinator there, also reaching a Super Bowl that was lost to the New England Patriots. McDaniel was also under Shanahan during Shanahan’s stints as offensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns and Washington, holding wide receivers coach and offensive assistant roles. The two were on the same offensive staff for the Houston Texans from 2006 to 2008, and McDaniel also got his start as an intern for the Denver Broncos in 2005 under Mike Shanahan.
In his time with Washington, he was the position coach of wide receiver Pierre Garcon, a former Palm Beach County standout, when he led the NFL in catches in 2013.
McDaniel has had to through the early stops in his coaching career, something he began to get over in 2016 before the Falcons’ run to the Super Bowl that season.
Hiring a coach with an offensive background is a shift back to that side of the ball after the Dolphins went with Flores, who had a mostly defensive background over 15 seasons in the Patriots’ organization, in 2019. Adam Gase (2016-18), Joe Philbin (2012-15), Tony Sparano (2008-11) and Cam Cameron (2007) all became Dolphins head coaches after tenures as offensive assistants. All of the above were also first-time NFL head coaches when they arrived in Miami.
Flores was fired after three seasons at the helm in which he went 24-25. His firing on Jan. 10 came as somewhat of a surprise in NFL circles after the Dolphins completed back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since 2003. Dolphins owner Steve Ross, while retaining general manager Chris Grier, cited Flores’ methods of communication and lack of collaboration as reasons for the decision. Flores since claimed, in the lawsuit and through media interviews, that the relationship deteriorated because of his unwillingness to tank and tamper early in his tenure.
The Dolphins’ hiring leaves two head coach openings in the NFL — the Houston Texans and New Orleans Saints. Flores is a candidate for each of those. The Minnesota Vikings came to an agreement with Rams offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell, and will officially hire him as their new coach after the Super Bowl.
