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Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel doesn’t want 49ers week to be about him, but it inevitably will be
Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel watches the team before the game against the Houston Texans on Sunday in Miami Gardens.
Lynne Sladky/AP Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel watches the team before the game against the Houston Texans on Sunday in Miami Gard
Mike McDaniel wanted a day before the narrative shifted from the Miami Dolphins’ win over the Houston Texans to the week ahead and facing his former team, the San Francisco 49e
Looking ahead, McDaniel will face his longtime mentor, 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, and the team in San Francisco, where McDaniel spent the past five seasons as an offensive assistant, rising to the offensive coordinator role in 2021 before landing Miami’s head coaching gig.
“I promise you that next week will not be about me,” McDaniel said after the 30-15 win Sunday. “I refuse for that to happen. This is about the Miami Dolphins and trying to string another win together.”
He added Monday evening: “I will do everything in my power to make it another game because I think that should be the objective of any head coach.”
Rest assured, the media will make it about McDaniel.
Sure, the Dolphins (8-3) seeking a sixth consecutive win and facing another division leader in the 49ers (7-4), who sit atop the NFC West, brings enough juice on its own merit. However, the major storyline for the week ahead will still surround McDaniel.
In his first year as a head coach, he looks to defeat his former team — along with Niners-turned-Dolphins running backs Jeff Wilson Jr. and Raheem Mostert. That is, if Mostert can play, considering he sat out the Texans game with a knee injury.
McDaniel’s coaching stock rose quickly in recent years in San Francisco. He only needed one year as offensive coordinator to become a head coach. From 2018-20, he was run-game coordinator for the 49ers, and in 2017, Shanahan’s first leading the 49ers, McDaniel held the title of run-game specialist. McDaniel’s run games ranked No. 2 in the NFL in 2019, when the 49ers reached the Super Bowl and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, and seventh in 2021, as San Francisco reached an NFC Championship Game.
“It will be odd, for a second, for sure, to be in a different locker room or pulling up on the bus in a weird area, or being on a different sideline,” McDaniel said Monday. “But after that, my obligation is to serve each and every player and coach and try to get the best out of them, and nowhere in that equation has anything to do with my past history and travels.”
McDaniel and Shanahan were on the same coaching staff for 14 seasons total.
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