HOUSTON — Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel decided to fly his team to Houston on Monday for joint practices with the Texans that didn’t begin until Wednesday morning for a handful of reasons.
Tuesday was the players’ off day, so traveling Monday, they still got that personal time. These long road trips, particularly in this part of the season, are great team-building moments.
Plus, a large percentage of the team’s roster is from this area, so it allowed them to see friends and family in a no-stress way.
But there might have been another reason McDaniel wanted to get here early: It’s one of his favorite NFL cities and a place that played a formative role in his professional development.
Miami Dolphins Coach Mike McDaniel Returns to Houston
The year was 2006, and McDaniel was a recent Yale graduate looking to break into the NFL on a full-time basis.
He was first a ballboy and then an intern with Mike Shanahan and the Denver Broncos. That’s where he met Mike’s son, Kyle, and Gary Kubiak, a longtime Shanahan lieutenant who took over as head coach of the Houston Texans in 2006.
Kubiak gave a very young — and, as McDaniel acknowledges, a not-totally-mature — Ivy Leaguer a shot as an offensive assistant.
And while McDaniel lasted just three years in Houston, the time he spent here has stayed with him for a lifetime.
“It’s a huge part of the journey,” McDaniel said prior to practice Wednesday. “There’s invaluable lessons of every step that you take in the National Football League, but to be a part of Gary Kubiak’s staff and watch how it was to come to a place and make a culture — really a reflection of what you want the team to be and who you are.
“To get my first taste of working in a position group, the receiver room, to have Andre Johnson as a 25-year-old — I had to quickly learn something to offer him as far as value of coaching,” he continued. “I had to know what I was talking about really quick because you choose your words wisely, and if you don’t have anything to offer Andre Johnson, stop wasting his time.
“So that got my start real fast, and it will always have a place in my heart. It’s the first place that I lived right after college. And that journey has highs and lows, but it’s always rooted in the place where you started, which is where this place is, and this field with a new scoreboard.”
Someone else was new to the Houston Texans (and the NFL) in 2006: A player by the name of DeMeco Ryans.
The Texans took Ryan with the 33rd overall pick that year, and it was a decision they never regretted. Beyond winning Defensive Rookie of the Year that fall, he went on to make two Pro Bowls and was a first-team All-Pro in 2007.
After Ryans’ playing career ended, he became a coach, joining McDaniel and the younger Shanahan in San Francisco.
Six years later, he’s come full circle. He’s the coach of the Texans.
Mike McDaniel, DeMeco Ryans and Chris Grier getting reacquainted early in practice pic.twitter.com/8SCoBuoVNy
— Adam Beasley (@AdamHBeasley) August 16, 2023
“Playing Peyton Manning as a rookie is hard,” McDaniel said. “But I think his rookie year, the last game that Peyton Manning and the Colts lost, was here. I remember that being an incredible moment.
“I remember him. It was funny, as a rookie, as a young rookie, he’s such an impressive dude. But you’re a rookie. Not to mention, you’re the quarterback of the defense. So his internal combustion when he would mess something up, followed by a quick reset to the next play, was — I’m not sure if it’s funny.”
McDaniel continued, “It was always unique and stood out to me just in who he was because he would literally implode. Then on to the next and go compete. No news is good news, and he’s one of those guys that was a veteran the second he walked into the locker room and has really held himself to a high standard.
“He’s held himself to a head coach-type scrutiny and role really his whole career. I can’t say enough good things about him. Fired up for him to exhibit his head-coaching skills against the Miami Dolphins.”