NFL insider offers a fascinating prediction for the fate of Mike McDaniel in life after the Miami Dolphins
A possible solution to Mike McDaniel’s life after Miami.
Former Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel has been around the block a few times this month. After his dismissal from the Dolphins, McDaniel has pin-balled around the country while interviewing for a slew of head coach and offensive coordinator vacancies.
Detroit to meet Dan Campbell, Tampa Bay to meet with Todd Bowles. Stops in Cleveland, Atlanta, Tennessee, and Baltimore for head coaching gigs (just to name a few).
He’s in Las Vegas on Monday to interview with the Raiders. Perhaps there will be yet another viral airport photo — he’s been the subject of a few of those, too. Where he lands is anyone’s guess, but one NFL insider offered a fascinating nugget about McDaniel’s future and what his 2026 fate may be.
Albert Breer predicts Mike McDaniel could take over for Todd Bowles down the road
“Mike McDaniel has made the rounds, and if I had to guess, he’ll probably wind up as an offensive coordinator in the next week or so. I’ve heard Tampa Bay could be a good spot for him, and that, if he does a good job, he could be set up to be Todd Bowles’s eventual successor.”
— Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer on the fate of Mike McDaniel
First and foremost, McDaniel’s interview with Las Vegas on Monday will give him five interviews with teams seeking head coaches. If he goes through the selection process for each team and gets passed over, it will serve as some level of vindication for Miami’s decision to move on.
One quarter of the league is seeking new coaches to lead their buildings — if McDaniel doesn’t land a head coaching job in this climate, it would be fair to say the Dolphins’ decision to move on from him is less controversial.
Mike McDaniel’s Miami Dolphins offensive rankings by year
- 2022: 11th in points, 6th in yards
- 2023: 2nd in points, 1st in yards
- 2024: 22nd in points, 18th in yards
- 2025: 25th in points, 26th in yards
That is NOT to say I’d expect McDaniel to do poorly at his next stop if it were as an offensive coordinator. It’s quite the contrary. The X’s and O’s weren’t perfect for McDaniel in Miami, but he did a lot of creative things that added layers to Miami’s offense in unique ways. His run game work, in particular, was terrific in 2025.
That strength aligns with where Tampa Bay previously had success under Liam Coen, who some fans wanted to replace Bowles. Instead, Coen got the Jacksonville job and led the Jaguars to 13 wins and an AFC South title in 2025. A Tampa/McDaniel pairing, as predicted by Breer, would make a lot of sense. And the upside that Tampa could get in a possible internal promotion after another Bowles flop in 2026 makes it a double whammy for McDaniel.
The play design work wasn’t why McDaniel ran out of gas in Miami. The team’s direction sputtered and belly-flopped amid a series of limitations in team culture, line-of-scrimmage play, team-building missteps, and quarterback play that soured expeditiously starting in 2024.
Time out of the captain’s chair should allow the best parts of McDaniel to shine — so if he’s a hit in his next stop, I, for one, am pulling that it’s a scenario like Breer’s. But would one year of success redeem his head-coaching warts? That’s for any team that hires him to find out, but we seem to know the Dolphins’ answer on the matter.
Miami Dolphins News
The Dolphins could be finalizing their head coach decision as soon as Monday thanks to a busy day of interviews
Three interviews are reportedly on deck on Monday for the Dolphins.
