ORLANDO — The Miami Dolphins‘ offense will again in 2024 go as far as Mike McDaniel and Tua Tagovailoa can take them.
Despite some questions about whether McDaniel has too much on his plate on game days, the Dolphins’ third-year coach said at the NFL‘s Annual Meeting here Monday that he intends to call plays again in 2024.
Mike McDaniel’s Role With Miami Dolphins Isn’t Changing
Here’s McDaniel’s explanation on how he arrived at that decision:
“I’ve thought about it long and hard. I think one of the things that we have done this offseason is really leaned into the facilitation of full communication and development of our staffs in all three phases.
“I think from the 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 will always adjust if necessary. But as long as you’re OK with me calling plays, I’m going to call plays.”
If McDaniel ever does decide to surrender play-calling, there are two obvious internal candidates to take over those duties: Frank Smith, who officially holds that title but doesn’t call plays, and Darrell Bevell, who has 15 years of OC experience in the NFL.
On the surface, it’s certainly peculiar to think McDaniel should give up that responsibility after finishing first in yards per carry (5.1) and second in scoring (29.2), yards per play (6.5), and yards per pass (8.0).
But the Dolphins’ offense disappeared at the most important time. Miami scored just 62 points in its final four games, including the playoffs.
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“I think you’re always assessing things,” McDaniel said in January. “An important part of right after the season is to make sure that you’re not making your judgments based upon the emotion of the roller-coaster ride that you just went on.
“I think you have to critically assess by slowly evaluating everything,” he added. “The way I look at it is: Nothing is off the table, ever. To just say, ‘Well, that’s the way we’ve done it,’ that that’s not a good enough reason for me.
“And, you know, I think we failed to reach our goals this season. Play-calling wouldn’t live outside that. And we’ll, we’ll see based upon what we do with this season, you know. If we utilize all the lessons learned, we’ll see what it actually means as we press forward.”
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