After starting his coaching career as an intern with the Denver Broncos, head coach Mike McDaniel gained recognition last season with the Miami Dolphins, thanks to his outstanding achievements. While a coach typically directs the team, the Dolphins’ coach established himself as the perfect friend and mentor off the field.
Even when Tua Tagovailoa faced constant criticism during the Dolphins’ successful season, the coach never wavered in his support for the player. Tua Tagovailoa even recently broke down in tears when reflecting on those moments.
NFL analyst discloses heart-touching story about Mike McDaniel
Since starting with the Dolphins, Tagovailoa has faced criticism regarding his durability and his failure to showcase prowess. There were speculations about whether the Dolphins should move on from him.
Before the Dolphins’ game against Frankfurt SNF in Germany, Mike McDaniel had a conversation with Rich Eisen. They discussed several team difficulties, and McDaniel openly supported his quarterback.
Eisen made it clear that, despite the criticism, McDaniel genuinely believes that Tagovailoa’s commitment to improving his play, his strong work ethic, and his path to progress are noteworthy.
“He went on a soliloquy about how he watched all the film on Tua, and he saw somebody throw 20 different out routes against significant coverage, and these are the types of throws that he said make your heart go like this, and he pounded his chest.”
Though many people think of the Dolphin’s winning streak as a result of their player Tyreek Hill, McDaniel consistently rooted for his quarterback, disputing Tua as the support system for the whole offense.
Nevertheless, coach-quarterback bonding is common on the NFL field, but McDaniel somehow crossed all the boundaries after he was spotted with teary eyes while backing Tagovailoa from all sorts of criticism.
“McDaniel was wiping tears from his eyes and causing all of us in the room to get choked up also,” the analyst said.
While many coaches used to criticize and blame their quarterback for their failure, as Bill Belichick did with Mac Jones, the Dolphin’s coach certainly keeps his appearance on a different boat, backing his quarterback from the aggravated media and fans. The Dolphin’s quarterback is also vying to uphold the face of his coach, scoring 2,416 and 18 touchdowns so far this season and already being mentioned in the preferred quarterback list of Shannon Shrape.
Dolphins performance this season under Mike McDaniel
Concluding the last season with 9-8 records while placing themselves in the No. 2 seed of the AFC West, the Dolphins kicked the season off with a convincing win over the Los Angeles Chargers. With a 6-2 record and the division lead, the team is consistently demonstrating more value and being more capable of winning than it did the year before under Mike McDaniel’s direction.
After eight weeks of the season, the offensive lineup has totaled 3626 yards, demonstrating the level of improvement that McDaniel has made since joining the Dolphins from the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite starting the season among the NFL’s bottom teams in almost every defensive statistical category, the Dolphins’ defensive lineup also saw a major improvement. Mike’s team improved to 17th in rushing yards allowed (1079.9) per game, 11th in third-down conversion rate (37.5), and 15th in total yards allowed (329.4) per game, according to SI.com.
In Week 9, the Dolphins will square off against the Kansas City Chiefs. Do you think Mike McDaniels’s team will be able to live on their playoff aspirations by outrunning the Chiefs?
