{"id":824541,"date":"2026-03-21T04:49:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824541\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T04:49:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T04:49:30","slug":"ex-dolphins-star-puts-locker-room-on-blast-after-raheem-mosterts-public-criticism-of-mike-mcdaniel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824541\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Dolphins Star Puts Locker Room on Blast After Raheem Mostert’s Public Criticism of Mike McDaniel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raheem Mostert\u2019s criticism of Mike McDaniel raised eyebrows, but former Dolphins star Jarvis Landry insists the real issue lies elsewhere. It could be a reason why the Dolphins<\/a> took steps to carry a record-setting dead cap into 2026, as they HAD TO clean house.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on a comment that Raheem gave, I think it answers the question of what was the problem with the Miami Dolphins throughout this little era, where people couldn\u2019t figure out how they had the talent.\u201d Appearing on the 4th and South podcast<\/a>, Jarvis Landry redirected the conversation entirely to the locker room.<\/p>\n

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Landry, a 5x Pro Bowl WR, led the NFL in receptions (112) during his final season with the Dolphins, understands that more than the lack of leadership, it\u2019s also a culture problem within the locker room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes to show you that the problem is also a culture problem. This tells me they didn\u2019t have enough leaders in the locker room. If we\u2019re dependent on a coach to lay the hammer down and be this tough presence around the team, it tells me that they didn\u2019t have enough leaders inside of the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wide receiver Tyreek Hill<\/a> arrived each offseason with the expectation that his voice and his production would anchor something. But in 2025, he was done by Week 4, a dislocated knee with torn ligaments, including his ACL, ended his season right when it started gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

But considering Hill\u2019s legal history and a very public request to be traded following Miami\u2019s 2024 loss, Mike McDaniel\u2019s tenure as an HC definitely saw more lows than highs.<\/p>\n

\"Buffalo<\/p>\n

Buffalo at Miami Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jarvis Landry 14 is taken down by Buffalo Bills middle linebacker Preston Brown 52 in the second quarter at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Sunday, Dec. 31, 2017. The Bills won, 22-16. Al Diaz\/Miami Herald\/TNS Miami Gardens FL USA EDITORIAL USE ONLY Copyright: xx 1219892 ALxDIAZx krtphotoslive813916<\/p>\n

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, already managing years of concussion history, turned in his worst season under McDaniel: 2,660 yards, 12 interceptions (2nd most in the league). He was benched in Week 16 with the team at 6-8.<\/p>\n

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Miami finished 7-10 and parted ways with Tagovailoa, who had publicly called out his teammates earlier in Week 6 for not attending the players-only meetings and later apologized.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins didn\u2019t just lack a tough coach; they lacked anyone left standing to hold the room together. And seeing this, Jarvis Landry doubled down with what the team needs the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think great teams and great players, they put that on themselves,\u201d Landry continued. \u201cThey lean into being an extension of the coach. The coach is really there to create an environment for people to feel comfortable under pressure. I\u2019m not saying the coach is not going to hold you accountable, but the coach shouldn\u2019t have to yell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Landry\u2019s comments take us back to what Raheem highlighted; it was Mike McDaniel\u2019s nonchalance that led to the cultural offset in Miami.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with a coach that\u2019s so nonchalant, laid back, wants to be, you know, the catalyst behind being a player\u2019s coach, it kind of shifts that organization and the pivot within that system,\u201d Mostert said on The Herd with Colin Cowherd. <\/p>\n

\"NFL,<\/p>\n

NFL, American Football Herren, USA Chicago Bears Training Camp Aug 8, 2025 Lake Forest, IL, USA Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel speaks before joint training camp practice with the Chicago Bears ahead of Sunday s preseason opener. Lake Forest Halas Hall IL USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xKamilxKrzaczynskix 20250808_KSK_kb1_009<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re dealing with something like that, as a player, you\u2019re like, no, I need somebody, you know, tough that\u2019s going to lay the hammer down when it needs to be down, and tell other players to get in line. When you don\u2019t have that, that impact can definitely be detrimental.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether the new Dolphins locker room functions better under new head coach Jeff Hafley, we\u2019ll have to wait and see. And while Raheem Mostert\u2019s words did raise legitimate questions<\/a> about Miami\u2019s leadership, Landry wonders if Mostert\u2019s take would have been the same had he been part of another system.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf you look at some of our great coaches that we all love and respect, I wonder if Raheem Mostert would say this if he was playing for Andy Reid,\u201d Landry concluded. \u201cAndy Reid doesn\u2019t seem like he\u2019s a coach that\u2019s yelling. He holds you accountable, gets the job done as next man up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kansas City Chiefs<\/a> have won three Super Bowls under head coach Andy Reid and made four appearances. But Reid doesn\u2019t demand volume from his roster. Franchise quarterback Patrick Mahomes<\/a> and star tight end Travis Kelce<\/a> enforce the standard before Reid walks in the room. That\u2019s the player-led locker room that Miami could never build for itself. The veterans who hold teams accountable on their own never took root in South Beach.<\/p>\n

Raheem Mostert and Jarvis Landry were some of those veterans. So was Cedric Thompson, and his story makes the same point, a decade earlier, without meaning to.<\/p>\n

When no one was watching in Miami<\/p>\n

Former Dolphins safety Cedric Thompson recently detailed, in a candid Instagram reel, exactly what Miami\u2019s locker room looked like under Joe Philbin. The problem he revealed predated the entire conversation around Mike McDaniel and the current Dolphins.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI blew my opportunity in the NFL, even though I was drafted, and here\u2019s what happened,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cThis is my coach, Joe Philbin. Me and him did not get along. One time, I got into an argument with him at practice in front of everybody, and I tarnished our relationship really early in the preseason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe Philbin was notably fired mid-season after a 1-3 start in 2015, and Dan Campbell took over with a mission to revamp Miami. But Thompson only made it worse with a shoving match with fellow rookie Jarvis Landry at the practice after the coaching change.<\/p>\n

Thompson\u2019s preseason PFF grade ranked 12th-lowest among 159 safeties. When Louis Delmas suffered a season-ending knee injury, Thompson still couldn\u2019t claim the stop. He never played a regular-season game for Miami and retired in 2018 at just 25. Thompson traced it all back to one structural failure: the absence of anyone guiding him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe if I had somebody guiding me, I\u2019d be playing to this day right now, but I had no mentors,\u201d Cedric admitted. \u201cI had nobody telling me what to do, and this caused me to be a journeyman in the NFL and have a really hard couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Different coaches, different rosters, the same structural hole. Nobody inside the building was doing the daily leadership work that a coaching staff cannot provide. If the players needed the head coach to supply toughness that the locker room should have already owned, the problem was never just the coach. Cedric Thompson and Jarvis Landry<\/a>, a decade apart, are saying the same thing. The room has failed itself again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raheem Mostert\u2019s criticism of Mike McDaniel raised eyebrows, but former Dolphins star Jarvis Landry insists the real issue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2049],"tags":[117,53,114283,391,217,7,6678,110,114284,216,251,2087,4836,6,499,7039,3235,500,3452,1089],"class_list":["post-824541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami-dolphins","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-cedric-thompson","tag-chicago-bears","tag-dolphins","tag-football","tag-jarvis-landry","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-louis-delmas","tag-miami","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-miamidolphins","tag-mike-mcdaniel","tag-nfl","tag-patrick-mahomes","tag-raheem-mostert","tag-the-dolphins","tag-travis-kelce","tag-tua-tagovailoa","tag-tyreek-hill"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116265367017087118","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824541","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=824541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}