How Mike McDaniel believes the Dolphins will respond to the bye week is now his newest proving ground for whether he still has the pulse of this Miami roster
If Mike McDaniel is right, it will be a big feather in his cap.
The Miami Dolphins have enjoyed a good month of football. Miami has won three of their last four games, including blowout wins over Atlanta and Buffalo before securing an international win against the Washington Commanders on Sunday morning. The Dolphins are back and home and the team is ready for some recovery — they’re on their bye week this week before playing at home in Week 13 against the New Orleans Saints.
Head coach Mike McDaniel, with hot seat discourse swirling around his job, expressed confidence in his team’s ability to sustain their momentum out of the bye on Monday afternoon. That’s not necessarily a surprise. But his reasoning as to why is particularly interesting and underscores the latest opportunity for him to prove he’s got a firm read on his football team — and should be the one to keep leading it into the future.
Mike McDaniel is confident his Dolphins team won’t lose momentum out of the bye week because of what they’ve learned this season
“I’ve felt different ways in different seasons before for various reasons. This one in particular, the momentum that we have established was building a work week that is full-tilt, the meetings are engaged, the walkthroughs are very attentive, with energy, and the focus is at the right place. Long story short, our momentum that we’ve built up until this point in the season has been built on our work week. I’m not as nervous about the momentum altering. I think we kind of learned the hard way — or were forced to learn the hard way on a way to get our team to play the way we feel like we’re capable of playing. The rest is necessary when you really empty the tank, but I think our formula is the guys didn’t blink going overseas. They really found a way to remanufacture that practice energy and that focus and that strain. I think it’s a good time to get rest, that’s the next thing we have to win.”
— Mike McDaniel on the timing of the Dolphins’ Week 12 bye week
Upcoming Miami Dolphins schedule
- Week 12: Bye Week
- Week 13: Versus New Orleans Saints
- Week 14: At New York Jets
- Week 15: At Pittsburgh Steelers (Monday Night Football)
- Week 16: Versus Cincinnati Bengals (Sunday Night Football)
This is going to break one of two ways. Suppose McDaniel is right. He’s got a young football team that had to go through a school of hard knocks about the rigors of an NFL season. And if he can keep this young team dialed in across a week off and the Dolphins come out swinging and playing some of their best ball of the season in the next few weeks after? That’s a heck of an argument in his favor that he’s deserving of extended life as Miami’s head coach.
Separating what parts of Miami’s 1-6 start are assignable to Mike McDaniel versus roster turnover versus a youth movement is messy. If McDaniel has the proper feel on his team and his belief in their foundational work this season is proven correct, it will reflect well on the head coach.
But say McDaniel is wrong. Say the Dolphins come back from the bye with scattered minds, entitled expectations they haven’t earned at 4-7 or simply can’t light the fire once again? Not only will it be a red mark for McDaniel, it will be a double dip of disappointment now that he’s stated his belief that this team’s composition will handle the bye week well. Misjudgments of every kind will reflect poorly on an evaluation process that is parsing through every detail of the operation. We’ll need to wait 13 days to figure out if McDaniel is, indeed, right. But file this one away and let’s circle back after the Saints game.
Miami Dolphins News
The Dolphins’ long search for offensive line consistency rolls on in 2025 — and Miami’s evolving passing plan is a source for both optimism and frustration
How are the Dolphins’ renewed investments in their offensive line going so far in 2025?
