After just one season as offensive coordinator, McDaniel, who spent the previous 11 seasons working under 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan, is given his first opportunity as head coach.
In addition to other nuances, McDaniel was recognized for his contribution to the development of San Francisco’s inventive rushing scheme, which occasionally used receiver Deebo Samuel as a running back.
Jimmy Garoppolo, the quarterback for the 49ers, stated last month, “Mike is awesome.” “He is, in fact. He’s sort of the guy in the background who doesn’t say much to a lot of people but whose mind is constantly working—I don’t want to say the brain behind everything. It’s great to have someone like him on the team because of how innovative and creative his ideas are.
He is far wiser than the majority of us. Thus, he simplifies things for us and helps us all acquire the same idea.”
In order to showcase playmaking receiver Jaylen Waddle in even more inventive ways, McDaniel might introduce some of those creases to Miami.
Despite ending 9-8 after a wild season that included a seven-game losing streak followed by a seven-game winning streak, the Dolphins had offensive difficulties this season.
Miami’s second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa had occasional struggles, and the team finished the season with the 22nd-most points in the league.
Despite having a quarterback with limitations in Garoppolo as well, the 49ers’ offense was far more productive.
McDaniel, who attended Yale, began his coaching career in Denver in 2005 as a member of Mike Shanahan’s staff. During Kyle Shanahan’s tenure in Houston in 2006–08, he served as an offensive assistant. After working under Mike Shanahan as coach and Kyle Shanahan as offensive coordinator for three years in Washington, McDaniel went on to work with Kyle Shanahan as coordinator in Cleveland and Atlanta.
After that, in 2017 McDaniel moved to San Francisco to work with Shanahan as a run game coordinator. This past season, he assumed the position of offensive coordinator.
McDaniel’s hire by the Dolphins followed a few previous courses taken by the franchise, most notably the fact that he is another first-time NFL head coach.
McDaniel joins Jim Bates, Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano, Todd Bowles, Joe Philbin, Dan Campbell, Adam Gase, and Flores as the tenth consecutive Dolphins hiring with exactly zero prior games as the team’s sideline manager. Campbell, Bowles, and Bates were all temporary employees.
Six of those, including McDaniel, have occurred while Ross was the owner.
And every single one of those changes has occurred in the previous eighteen years, beginning with Dave Wannstedt’s dismissal and Bates’s appointment nine games into the 2004 campaign.
The Dolphins hold the second-longest ongoing winning streak in the NFL, trailing only the Detroit Lions, having not won a postseason game since 2000.
With McDaniel’s hire, the NFL now has four head coaches of color, with positions still open in Houston and New Orleans. The others are Ron Rivera of Washington, Mike Tomlin of Pittsburgh, and Robert Saleh of the Jets.
In exchange for producing a head coach who is a minority, the 49ers will be awarded two more third-round picks over the next two years.
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