Mike McDaniel – June 7, 2023
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Wednesday, June 7, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I wanted to touch on base on the South Florida athlete and how they stand out? During your coaching tenure you’ve had time with Santana Moss, Travis Benjamin, Devonta Freeman and Nick Bosa. Your thoughts and what’s unique about those guys and how is WR Robbie Chosen been similar in those aspects as a South Florida athlete?) – “First and foremost, it’s one of the hotbeds in the country for talent and my experience doesn’t mean it’s a 100 percenter, but the guys he just named; a common denominator is that they’re very used to good competition and have a chip on their shoulder to go above and beyond. Any time in professional football, you have athletes that also have the drive – you have top-tier athletes that are super driven to be the best at their respective positions in the game. It’s a good formula for success. So I’ve always really, throughout my career, and all the teams I’ve been, there’s been guys from South Florida that they have stood out because they’re familiar with the competition, and they have a burning desire to uplift themselves for sure. Chosen has been awesome to have him around because he’s at a point of his career where he’s experienced a good amount of success. But he’s hungry to continue to develop and improve. One of the most coachable guys that I’ve been around that have had success at the level that he’s had in this league. He is open-minded, bright-eyed and wants to be better and doesn’t just say that. A lot of people can say they want to be better, but then when you’re trying to improve stuff, you have to be real with yourself and take criticism. And he is a tough-minded individual that means what he says and has followed through, has really just approached it that he wants to be a part of the team. I think he is about the cause as much as anyone in terms of he knows the direct history of the Dolphins and what it would mean to the city to for the Dolphins to be a success at the level that we all aspire. So he’s doing it for the right reasons and doing it well.”
(I wanted to ask you about WR Tyreek Hill. Obviously last year he seemed to take basically every single rep. Didn’t do too much team or I don’t think 7-on-7 yesterday. Is this just understanding at this stage in his career he doesn’t need all that kind of work or is he dealing with something?) – “I’m very consistent that I’ll be inconsistent with player to player. I think it’s hard, but if you prove to the players that your intent is right, and you’re doing stuff for the right reasons and you pay attention and know who’s deserving of a little time off or maybe we’re hypersensitive to maintenance of someone. Case by case, you approach it as such. I know one thing if Tyreek (Hill) is at risk for further injury, he doesn’t know any speed on the practice field as you guys know, but full go, so there’s also a component of coaches protecting players from themselves. And he’s dealing with some minor stuff, but if at any point, we think it makes the Miami Dolphins worse for someone to practice, turn the page, he will not practice. So that’s kind of where he’s at. I have no concerns of any player, whether you’re the 53rd, the 90th, or one of the best players in the league; all those players in a pool, Tyreek is probably the least I’m worried about him being physically able to perform his tasks. And I will say in executing his assignments in walkthroughs his putting his best foot forward is night and day ahead of where he was last year with regard to the offense and has his mind set on improving and getting better from last year, which is the only place we want it.”
(When it comes to Year 2 in this system for QB Tua Tagovailoa and overall Year 4 for his career, what are you looking at on a day-to-day basis from practice to say, “okay, I saw what I needed to see from Tua, we had a good day with him”?) – “There’s a lot that goes into that. I think Year 2, the prerequisite is that he, as the quarterback, he has to have ownership of everything he’s doing and what everyone else is doing as the facilitator of the offense, and he’s checked that box every day. It’s been really cool in a year’s time, how he’s not only learned the language but is now fluent in it. That opens quarterbacks up to doing some of the components of the job – it’s really hard to try to be the leader of an offense and motivate guys and encourage guys when you need to or maybe be hard on guys when you need to, when you’re just trying to spit out a play and know your own assignment. So this offseason, hoping that I would see a graduation of sorts and really have every single day. That’s first and foremost. For his game, you’re less concerned about the really good plays. Your attention is less drawn to that and it’s more about consistency of the entire practice. Just like a game where you can have some – he had his games where he made some big-time plays and then he wasn’t as happy with the rest of the game. So kind of looking at it through that lens, he’s really been one of our more consistent if not – I think he’s been as consistent as anybody day in and day out, which has residual effects to the whole team. I know the team can feel it as well.”
(Is OL Connor Williams expected to return to the team before the end of minicamp or is he expected to be away for the remaining two practices?) – “Well, I don’t have my ‘what would Connor Williams do’ bracelet on, so like I said, for me personally talking about our workings, that’s one hand the Dolphins, one hand Connor. It’s something that I don’t think is business necessarily that needs to be out there on the street that he can’t answer to. We’re in communication. I’m not going to put a day when he’s back. He might be in the back of this room right now. I don’t know. But like I said, I know where he’s at. We’re in healthy communication, so there’s nothing wrong with that and I have so many other very quality players to worry about that you’ll get to watch in vet minicamp Day 2, which is where all my concerns really focus.”
(But to your knowledge, not here today?) – “To my knowledge, he’s not here today.”
(I wanted to ask you about LB David Long Jr. We have not seen him much at team drills in the days that we’ve been here. At what point – I don’t know if this is an injury-related situation or if it’s a veteran rest, if you could clarify that, but at what point does he have to get his legs in and gain a comfort level about the defense or do you just worry about that at training camp?) – “No, although practices started OTA 1, we had Phase 2 in front of that and he’d been getting really good work there and then had a minor tweak or something that isn’t that big a deal, but it’s cost him some immediate reps. Those we will see when he comes back, how much he got out of it. You can go one of two ways where you can be on the sidelines and observing and as an observer, or you could be gaining reps from putting yourself in situations that the people that are playing are going through. So I think he’s more of the latter, but the great thing is he gets to show me and the rest of the coaching staff and his teammates, how the time getting healthy has treated him. I love his energy. I love what he brings to the locker room. I love what he brings to the practice field. You can feel that he’s out there and I’m certainly excited for when he’s able to get back on the field, but I’m not going to all of a sudden overreact and put them out there before his body’s fully ready. He’s in a good spot and look forward to getting out there, but first he has to get fully healthy.”
(Kind of discussing what you just mentioned with LB David Long Jr., the guys who have been in there in place of him during this time, what have you seen from them and maybe your overall inside linebacker depth?) – “Well, that’s the key really, you have to be opportunistic to succeed in this league, for sure. When you do have available reps, you need to seize them and I’ve seen several players. It’s giving great, great work for our rookies, but the extra reps that ‘Gink’ (LB Andrew Van Ginkel) has been able to get, invaluable. Duke (Riley) has been doing a tremendous job at that spot. ‘Bake’s’ (Jerome Baker) been doing a tremendous job learning this new system and not just knowing it, but being able to react in an elite fashion. It’s hard to do. That’s why it’s not for everybody, but we’ve got several quality guys that have gotten work and then all the reps that the younger guys get are incredibly invaluable. As I talked to the team about numerous times, you don’t know – these reps might be more than your first two weeks of training camp. You just don’t know. So you have to be opportunistic, so each and every rep that people have been able to take as a result of him being out has been very beneficial because this is all stipulated on guys are going after practice in an elite fashion, and we’ve really had that thus far.”
(What kind of things do your coaches tell you about what CB Jalen Ramsey is like within the facility, what he’s like in meeting rooms, on the sidelines, when he’s not in team drills?) – “Just nice, very nice things. He’s a very talented individual in more ways than one. He’s been exactly what we need from a guy that is in charge of holding a predominant piece in our defense. He’s been engaged. He has history in a version of the scheme so there’s a lot of talking points that if you have the right type of players, you can really get to the next level in terms of how you execute your defense. He’s fit right in with a lot of the veterans here. I mean, you can already see him push ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) for ‘X’s’ benefit. The way he communicates with guys that are out there coming off the field in Jevon Holland. I mean, that’s tremendous, but there’s also, he’s communicating with all the secondary players, as well as some of the guys that aren’t practicing like, the Brandon Joneses or the Nik Needhams. He is exactly what we’d hoped for, probably a little bit more.”
(Along those lines, you talked about WR Robbie Chosen being a guy that blends in well here. As a coach, with all the turnover in the league now, how tough is it to get that group of guys? You’ve seen it go sideways in some places. How in touch do you have to be with it?) – “It’s huge. First and foremost, we wouldn’t have a chance to have the camaraderie that we have in this locker room if it weren’t for the personnel department and how good of a job they do and really figuring out what types of people we’re getting on this team. As a result, I think over time you have a bunch of like-minded individuals that are trying to be their best, which is ultimately, that’s the only thing that wins, really, are people going after it like that at least on a consistent basis. So it’s incredibly important. You have to pay attention to everything. I think before any player comes on this team, Chris Grier and I are spit balling what’s that going to look like starting with the position room. Then you extrapolate that out to the rest of the team, but a predominant fixture on our minds, is, what is our team going to look like? And it’s not just Madden, you know what I mean? To get it to orchestrate the right way, you need the right people and I’m very confident that we have that.”
(We’ve seen a more stout version of QB Tua Tagovailoa this offseason coming in. What does maybe that added weight or strength do for him going into the season?) – “I think that the major part of it is that he’s put time into his body that I think helps him perform all tasks. It’s funny to reflect on some of the areas of concern, so to speak, when I first got here, or just things that were on my radar of, you know, random people saying, ‘Okay, well, he’s young or whatever.’ I didn’t have a complete picture on what type of professional he was. As we stand right now, I mean this dude is everything you’d look for in a starting quarterback in terms of professionalism, how he attends to his job, how seriously he takes it. He takes pride in making sure he does his job, but more importantly, how he makes others better at their jobs. All of that can fall on deaf ears if you’re not living it yourself. So I think it’s empowered him to, kind of what I was talking about before where he is really owning the position and going about the verbiage of the offense as well as motivating teammates and encouraging them. That probably doesn’t look the same if he didn’t go about his individual work on his body, which has residuals all over the place. So you’re talking his ability to make certain plays is enhanced. His ability to protect himself is enhanced and his ability to communicate and do his job with his teammates is enhanced. I think it affects everything.”
(Can you give us an example about how the camera, the go-pro, has helped him? Have you seen one thing get better the next day because you were able to see it on tape?) – “I think that added resource, he’s seen it live and he has a very strong recall in what he sees and is able to communicate it to coaches. So it’s more for coaches to see exactly what he’s seeing. That’s proved beneficial as well as, I’m not sure if you guys have noticed or not, but I’m never in the huddle. Now I am. There’s a lot that goes on with that. How you communicate to your teammates, all that’s available now. I think he does get some enjoyment on, like, ‘See Coach (Darrell) Bevell? This is kind of hard to see.’ (laughter) But he’s at the stage of his game where he already knows what he’s seeing and he’s able to articulate it well enough to now we’ve just found out how honest he is, which is a great thing.”
(Can you use some of that to teach the other quarterbacks?) – “Absolutely. It has so many different applications, but they’re all not totally calculated. I’ve really set off the last two consecutive team meetings with random things that are hilarious like the noises Raekwon (Davis) makes when he pass rushes. (laughter) Like I said, it’s a tool of resource and it has many different applications. It’s just case-by-case, play-by-play how you can really employ those applications.”
