Mike McDaniel – August 7, 2024
Download PDF version
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(What are you comfortable sharing with regard to why we haven’t seen WR Jaylen Waddle and WR Braxton Berrios this week? Could their absence be a question of days or weeks?) – “The answer is obvious, provide you with a solid question. Minor stuff, we have a collection of minor things going on. Good news is they aren’t major things, but some stuff has been fluctuating the players out there on the field.”
(With WR Jaylen Waddle last year, he played through a lot. Is there anything you guys can do to minimize some of that impact he takes?) – “For sure. I think our mindset each and every year with every player is to take information that you are accumulating it to better serve the players and him in particular. I think that’s a part of the reason you haven’t seen him. We understand his body. We understand how to be a little more proactive with something. We understand how tough he is, and he’s probably one of the toughest wide receivers that I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach and that is a great thing. However, when you’re trying to make sure that you get the season started on the right foot and that you best facilitate the best-case scenario of health, then you take measures and you learn new things or red flags or whatever it may be with that particular player.”
(In your first two seasons you chose not to use QB Tua Tagovailoa in the preseason opener. If everything goes great in today’s joint practice as planned, is that the likely scenario?) – “I think the way that I really look at today and the value of it, I think you understand what our procedure always has been, that we collect all the data, fit the needs to the player and establish how we want to approach those preseason games – we’re doing that tomorrow as a staff. I can’t – tomorrow at my press conference, right? Do I have one? (Laughter) But I do not want to get ahead of myself with all the guys because I take that serious in terms of making sure that we are getting each and every player to fit their needs and where their games at. Do I expect from past scenarios that you’re going to be surprised with, as you’d put it, a deviation from the last two years? I don’t think you’re going to be surprised.”
(When we think about staying unpredictable in Year 3 of this offense, how do you keep the mystique going when you’re having joint practices and you have different opponents?) – “The mindset isn’t totally to be unpredictable. The mindset is to be able to, with conviction, make a defense or an offense, really as an offense, defend the whole field, and as a defense, compress the field. And within that, you’re trying to assert something and then force the opponent to stop that and the ways they stop that, you take advantage of that overplay. Literally on all phases it’s that abstract, but that’s what we’re doing. So from a joint practice perspective, you get different players utilizing different techniques within a different scheme so you can apply your techniques and fundamentals, and your scheme, however your scheme is evolving to how defenses or offenses are playing, it’s a great opportunity. There is a competitive advantage when you’re finding new tools schematically that you don’t want your opponent to totally be able to dive into and what those are and how big of a piece they are it’s up to the scripters and what you put on the paper. Working with Atlanta Falcons, and specifically Raheem Morris and my relationship with him, it’s helpful in that we can not worry about some of the nuances that you might worry with an unknown coaching staff or people that you don’t have this strong of a relationship with. So you can just really put your scheme and what individual players are working on and what you’re working on as a group, you can just really apply it without hesitation in situations like that and that’s kind of really the way we utilize this opportunity, both teams. In talking to Raheem (Morris), it’s a cool opportunity to solve problems that you can take out of your list of problems that you have to solve during the season. Whether that’s different rules, whether that’s success or failure, there’s really, really good stuff to get out of these things and yesterday was one of those days that we got some good stuff out of it.”
(What did you like offensively and defensively from your team yesterday?) – “Overall, I thought a big thing for us is our standard with which we approach practice, and that is a non-negotiable, deliberate, intentional, high-effort, fast, physical, with elite technique. And what I saw was, on defense, I saw a spirit that I was very confident in, but you don’t know until you actually face a different squad. And that spirit, energy and standard of play, it’s something that was really cool and definitely present throughout the practice, you look at the first play to the last and there was some real cool, fun football being played in that way. I think the connectivity from (Defensive Coordinator) Anthony Weaver down on the coaching staff to the players and that immersed, one common goal with complete connectivity, it was on display and I was pumped with that. Offensively as the play caller, understanding how unique an opportunity is, I’m looking very specifically for things within our game, and out on the field I’m really not concerned with the result. In that, on the field I was looking at things very positive and as I looked at the tape, I was pumped about the things that I was really looking for that were tangible things that we’ve been working on since April. But beyond that, you also have expectations on things that if you’re going to emphasize one thing, you know other things are going to be right where they should be which is in a process of development. So in that your expectations are like, ‘Huh, I’m expecting to be good at something, I don’t know what we’re not going to be good at,’ and I think that was why I felt supreme conviction in why yesterday was fully utilized. The things that – there are always things. What you don’t want to do is feel like you’re at full strength in your first joint practice. I think each year in this stage we’ve had some good production against opposing defenses relative to other years. I wasn’t really looking at that, I was really focused on how we, for instance, how we block people. And then you block people well, but you have some issues from an offensive drop back standpoint where you either don’t like your hot throw or you’re really anticipating blitz from one side and it comes from the other. Those things have to be ironed out, and I don’t expect any Week 1 practice to really be anything other than that. So it was what I expected, but I was really pumped at the stuff that I was looking for. But I’m expecting improvement from mistakes yesterday and the same conviction and the same line of scrimmage that I saw at yesterday’s will be important as well.”
(Do you see the competition between QB Mike White and QB Skylar Thompson developing and what are the pros and cons of having one of them go the entire way in one preseason game and the other guy go the whole way versus maybe giving each a half in both games or something like that?) – “That competition is I think, something I’m very proud of in that those two competitors really gave it their best shot last year, and I thought it was a pretty close race with Mike winning it They’ve continued to develop their games, so they continue to do really good things, and each individual, I think is better than where they were last year. That’s hugely important for quarterbacks, particularly ones that don’t start or play during the season. You don’t want to regress; you want to improve. So I see that as – it’s neck and neck, and far from me even thinking about who’s going to win that job, and I think that’s a compliment just because they’re both developing very well. And I think that one of the tricky things are solving the problems of preseason games in terms of you want to get guys opportunities, but they’re also playing with different players and against different defenses that your corresponding play calls are different. So how do you make the opportunities as equal as possible? Well, for me, I try to create a scenario where they get to work with the same players that are blocking and the same players that are receiving routes or getting handoffs. That’s a little tricky because you can’t just play, there’s a lot of position battles that that need to be settled outside the quarterback position. So to do that, for me, the best compromise is trying to get guys some rhythm, some ownership of the game to see how they respond to ebbs and flows, but then also trying to get them in similar opportunities with their teammates. So the best of both worlds, a lot of times, for me, is getting guys opportunities in several games, but then making sure that in those opportunities, that a rhythm is established, that they have enough time to play and that’s kind of really the way I look at it. It’s abstract, like most things, but you’re trying to problem solve so you can give guys an opportunity to win the job, because it’s not for me to settle, it’s for them.”
(How is WR Malik Washington doing?) – “One of the more difficult things in the National Football League is that of a rookie NFL wide receiver. The game is very different in terms of timing, particularly with us, and the details with which you do your jobs and huddling and all the motioning. What Malik (Washington) has done really well is find how to be a professional very quickly, so he is operating as a vet would in terms of how he’s studying, his ownership of the playbook and how reliable he is with assignments for his teammates. There’s learning tools each and every practice. What I’m really happy about with Malik is that he is getting better with those mistakes and I’m expecting mistakes, but he improves mistakes, which is the key for rookies.”
(With OL Liam Eichenberg, we’ve seen him consistently at right guard – that’s where you guys listed him on the depth chart, the first depth chart. Why is that the position that’s best for him in your mind? And also, what would someone need to do to dislodge him? Does he have a big gap between him and the next candidate, or is it pretty close?) – “Liam Eichenberg has developed so much in the past couple seasons with us and has done so by being a master of multiplicity. He’s really found ways to not only contribute, produce but then also improve whatever position he’s playing. That versatility we’ve had to utilize for a multitude of different reason and he’s found a way to be good at that. The next step for him to find where his ceiling is as a player is in an offense that he knows forward and backwards with all of the tools that he’s learned when you’re starting at center for this offense in terms of the calls and the different problem-solving you have to do. For our team, it best serves us to really allow him that unique opportunity of stability and reps in one spot to see how his technique can go. That is – for the Dolphins, we think that we would be hard pressed to know exactly what that would be like because he hasn’t had that advantage necessarily, based upon the last two years of the whole group. The only think I knew what to expect from Liam this year was that he was going to make improvements on a lot of little things that were going to be ultimately a big thing. He is doing that and I’m finding out each day what those things are, and it’s exciting because he’s playing with more conviction and his personality is coming out in his play. The whole group is like that – you talk about guys that have been here and new players. Guys like Rob Jones, I’m seeing a new Rob Jones. There’s a lot of quality play that’s going on – Lester Cotton is doing a phenomenal job. We got a new player, Jack Driscoll, that’s getting some reps in there and they’re all developing. Guys develop at different speeds, but over the course of a month, you start to get an idea of what’s our best group. Liam being right guard is best served for him and the group, right now, but guys are pushing, and that competition is what’s making our practice as high intensity as it has been. It’s because guys are competing for everything and everything on this team with the quality of roster has to be earned.”
