Mike McDaniel Cut Up SEVEN HUNDRED PLAYS To Help Tua Regain His Confidence And Deserves Coach Of The Year On The Spot
I know I gas up Mike McDaniel more than is probably healthy, but it's not hyperbolic to say the Miami Dolphins rookie head coach and first-time play-caller has taken the NFL by storm with his schematic savvy and unconventional press conferences. Not that I need to reiterate how straight-up real and authentic this guy is. This is merely the latest example of it.
Tua Tagovailoa was sabotaged at every turn before McDaniel arrived in Miami. His first offensive coordinator, Chan Gailey, was an old head who came out of retirement specifically to work with Ryan Fitzpatrick again. That offense wasn't built around Tua's strengths. Then, the Fins had the galaxy-brained idea to have multiple OCs last year, which, when literally zero other teams around the league are doing that shit, you know it's a recipe for success.
You see the report from Aditi Kinkhabwala at the top of this blog. Pretty self-explanatory. What McDaniel spoke about after the Dolphins' latest win — a 30-15 romp over the Texans in which Miami was up 30-0 before pulling Tua — highlighted just how inept the previous coaches were at catering to what Tua does best.
Not only did Tua not deny that particular detail of seven hundred plays being cut up for him to show him that he was actually good at football and did not in fact suck...he emphasized how invaluable McDaniel's belief in him was and is.
Now, Tua has 19 TD passes to only three INTs and an NFL-best 115.7 passer rating. Folks who think that's an antiquated stat, don't worry — Tua basically leads in all the advanced metrics too. If you put his first two seasons in full context, he wasn't exactly failing. It was clear to any objective observer that Tua was getting fucked over in a very real way.
And that detail about how McDaniel showed the Tua highlight reel to the rest of the Fins' key leadership once again underscores how genuine the coach is in his efforts to connect with players and everyone else in the organization. It seems like everyone's on the same page. No power struggle with GM Chris Grier, like McDaniel's predecessor Brian Flores seemed keen to instigate. No bullshit. Just a whole hell of a lot of winning football.
In games that Tua starts and finishes, McDaniel and Miami are 8-0 (er, shoot, I guess you don't count yesterday, but you know what I mean!). For the "HE'S ONLY GOOD BCUZ OF TYREEK HILL AND JAYLEN WADDLE" crowd, I submit the following:
TuAnon deniers are running out of ammo fast. Although I'm super concerned about the pectoral injury to Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead, I feel like McDaniel will do whatever he can to keep putting Tua in the best possible spot to succeed. Lesser coaches would try to shoehorn whatever prototype QB they have in their little minds into their oh-so-perfect system. What an exhausting way to live your life and think about things in general that must be.
Tua Tagovailoa is elite and a legit MVP candidate. Deal with it. Mike McDaniel deserves Coach of the Year. He's atop the best division in football and has coaching counterparts such as the GOAT Bill Belichick and Bills Super Bowl favorite helmer Sean McDermott. Most importantly, he goes well above and beyond the normal job description to help a super-talented, former top-five draft pick realize his potential as a franchise QB. That's as big of a reason as any that the Miami Dolphins are the No. 2 seed in the AFC through Week 12.
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