Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel spoke Monday. The PFN Miami Dolphins Podcast reacted Wednesday.
Here are the seven biggest bits of news McDaniel made during his half-hour on-the-record at the NFL‘s Annual League Meeting in Orlando, with a deeper dive during our latest podcast offering.
Top Takeaways from Miami Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel News Conference
No Holdout for Tua Tagovailoa?
McDaniel: “I do expect Tua to be in OTAs only because my working relationship with Tua. For two years, I’ve watched Tua gain some unbelievable residuals towards the season in that process. It’s part of the reason Tua is who he is because he’s always learning, never staying the same and always working on his craft.
“I know the one thing that he likes to do now in his life, besides be a kick-ass dad to [children] Ace and Mazey, is play football with his teammates. That’s what I expect.”
The Salary Cap Is Real
McDaniel: “There is this whole thing about the salary cap, and when money goes to one place, it doesn’t go to another. Our job is to facilitate the best team, and unfortunately, this is a process that’s not easy, but you’re looking at it from a reflective standpoint.
“Successful organizations encounter this all the time, where you have homegrown talent, your job is to maximize what they are as a player, and then you have problem-solving situations year in and year out that changes the complexion of your team. … Sometimes we can’t be the kids spending the money; we have to be the parents that have to look at our budget and make sure we can pay the water bill.”
McDaniel Isn’t Giving Up Play-Calling (Duh)
McDaniel: “I’ve thought about it long and hard, and I think one of the things that we’ve done this offseason is really lean into the facilitation of full communication and the development of our staffs in all three phases.
“I think from a play-calling perspective, for now, in the spring, I’m going to call plays. And I plan on doing it in the fall. But we’ll always adjust if necessary.”
Odell Beckham Jr. Probably Wants More Than the Dolphins Are Willing To Offer
McDaniel: “So things went great with him. We did make him an offer, and business takes time, especially with players like Odell, who’s had a phenomenal career and still has really good football in front of him and has options.
“I think those conversations will be ongoing. We’ll see where they go. I don’t live in the world of crystal balling and I do stay in my lane as a coach. I’m definitely ready to coach him if we can come to an agreement, and I think both sides are trying to work towards that. We’ll see what happens.”
Dolphins Put Jaelan Phillips and Bradley Chubb in Timeout
McDaniel: “Both of those two individuals, Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips, are extreme versions of, ‘Hey, we need to make sure they aren’t chasing a timeline because as competitors, they will achieve that timeline and it might be at the worst for their bodies.’
“So relative to timelines, we specifically don’t have those for those two. We’ve had to mandate that they have a week off of rehab just recently, both of them, because they literally live there.”
Miami’s Offense Remains a Work in Progress
McDaniel: “It’s not about magnets or depth charts. It’s about human beings and who’s the best player. So as long as we have very capable football players at every position, you’re trying to position yourself where, ‘Ok, who’s the best player at what they do, and let’s evolve around them.’
“How I talk about skill-position players in general, at this stage, where we’re at with our roster, that’s the kind of approach that we look at for the roster. Who is the best player, and we’ll adjust by position.”
McDaniel Doesn’t See This as a Bridge Year
McDaniel: “There’s been zero time spent thinking anything less bold or less aggressive than the way we approach every season. To trivialize a season or to say — for me, I have a hard time expressing what our team’s going to be like as the head coach without ever being around the team. I think everybody’s individual expectations are extremely high.
“The more people lower their expectations, it’s kind of erroneous or irrelevant, but I know that starting April 15, guys are very, very hungry to deliver on what they know, which is an opportunity to be on a team that has the ability to grow from what we’ve learned last year and what we went through, and have zero thought as to down, rebuilding, whatever those words are.”
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