{"id":645077,"date":"2026-01-01T08:00:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645077\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T08:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T08:00:28","slug":"espn-insiders-say-mike-mcdaniels-job-not-safe-with-dolphins-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/645077\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN insiders say Mike McDaniel’s job not safe with Dolphins for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Dolphins<\/a> shook off back-to-back losses to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> on Sunday, but was it enough to save Mike McDaniel’s job?<\/p>\n

For much of the last month, the Dolphins’ steady climb from a 1-7 start to the year had most insiders saying that McDaniel’s seat in Miami appeared relatively safe<\/a> for the 2026 season. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and Dan Graziano say that may not be the case anymore and he listed a potential landing spot for the coach if he’s jettisoned by the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

Via Graziano<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“I’m hearing conflicting things on Miami; for a while it sounded as if Mike McDaniel was a good bet to stay, but lately the winds seem to have shifted a bit on that, so we’ll see where that lands.”<\/p>\n

Via Fowler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“My sense is that McDaniel would be a candidate in Cleveland, should the Dolphins move on and Cleveland’s job open. He still has some support in Miami. We will see if that’s enough. He has made a case to stay. From what I’ve gathered, the Dolphins’ GM search won’t necessarily be centered around fitting with McDaniel; it’s more so about finding the best team fit in general.”<\/p>\n

The Dolphins fired Chris Grier as general manager on Halloween and appointed Champ Kelly to take over as interim GM. There are several compelling candidates for Miami<\/a> if they decide Kelly won’t be promoted to the role full-time. And a newcomer may not be interested in tailoring a rebuilt Dolphins roster around the very specific offensive style of McDaniel.<\/p>\n

In four seasons as the team’s head coach, McDaniel has led the Dolphins to a 35-32 record in regular season games and two playoff losses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Miami Dolphins shook off back-to-back losses to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, but was it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":618722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[247,265,210,211,217,12,388,7699,7,20842,379,216,251,2087,246,88,6,35196,245,264,9,266,209,250],"class_list":{"0":"post-645077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-dolphins","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-bay","11":"tag-buccaneers","12":"tag-dolphins","13":"tag-espn","14":"tag-espn-inc","15":"tag-fl","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-hub","18":"tag-inc","19":"tag-miami","20":"tag-miami-dolphins","21":"tag-miamidolphins","22":"tag-neutral","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-nfl","25":"tag-nfl-hub","26":"tag-overall","27":"tag-overall-neutral","28":"tag-sports","29":"tag-sports-news","30":"tag-tampa","31":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115818793219086597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/618722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}