The Miami Dolphins are wrapping up a third consecutive underwhelming season and are expected to finish at or below their eight-win total from 2024, which was three wins worse than their 2023 record. They fired their general manager in October, do not seem to have a quarterback they trust and are firmly third in their division, with one team ahead of them having rebuilt itself overnight. In 99 out of 100 situations, the coaching staff would be out the door as soon as the offseason hits. But on this week’s episode of “The Athletic Football Show,” Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen argue that this might be that one case in 100 where the head coach should get another shot.
“I cannot believe I’m landing in this place, but I think the more I think about it, the more I’m talking myself into it,” Mays says. “In almost any other situation, if a franchise ran it back with the staff again, I’d be like, ‘Are you insane? How can you possibly justify this?’ But with the Dolphins specifically, there’s a little part of me that would like to see this group with a different quarterback and a different team-building approach.”
Miami is 5-7 and, though not officially eliminated from the playoffs, will almost certainly end the season watching the wild-card round from home. But given the Dolphins started 2-7, the present moment is actually a lot more feel-good than you might imagine.
“I feel like they are consistently getting better as a football team. And I know that’s only amounted to 5-7, but I do think it’s a good coaching staff. And I think if you can get one or two more pieces on the defense, you fix the quarterback situation, it’s like, this is probably a playoff team again,” Klassen says. “They don’t feel stale. The end of the Seahawks era with Pete Carroll kind of felt stale. The end of Mike Tomlin kind of (feels) stale. This doesn’t feel stale. They just feel like they don’t have enough players, and the quarterback is worse now than he was two or three years ago. That’s kind of all it is to me.”
The Dolphins are 4-1 over their last five games, including a 30-13 trouncing of the Buffalo Bills. In that stretch, De’Von Achane has surged, running for 120 or more yards in three straight games after hitting that mark just once in the nine games prior. Jaylen Waddle has become a true WR1 in Tyreek Hill’s absence, and most importantly, the team has shown no signs of quitting under McDaniel.
“I think we’re at the point in the season where a lot of other teams, or maybe not from the team perspective, but a lot of other fan bases are going to look at the Dolphins on their schedule and be like, ‘Free win,’” Klassen says. “I don’t know, man. They’re going to make it hard. You might still beat them, but they’re going to make it hard.”
Of course, retaining McDaniel and his staff makes the GM hiring process a bit more complicated, since most candidates prefer to avoid arranged marriages. But given the landscape of coaching candidates, replacing McDaniel might be the harder task at this point.
“I’m sure there are Dolphins fans who are listening to this and just losing their minds at the thought of that, and I totally get it. But I just think about the pool of available coaches here, and what are the chances that you’re gonna get a staff that is better than the Mike McDaniel-Anthony Weaver combination, given the talent on this roster?” Mays says. “I’m just not sure it’s a guarantee that you’re gonna be better off. And sometimes change is good. Sometimes change is necessary. And sometimes change for change’s sake is worth it. But in this specific case, I actually kind of want to see what this would look like.”