Mike McDaniel – September 30, 2024 (Postgame)
Download PDF version
Monday, September 30, 2024
Postgame – Tennessee
Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel
Q. Where do you start with how the offense just couldn’t get anything going? It seemed like the whole entire night. What was the main issue as you look at the way the game transpired?
MIKE McDANIEL: I have to look at the tape. There was a tremendous disconnect between preparation and execution. So there was a multitude of contributors to it, I believe, but I have to check the tape out. Bottom line is it doesn’t matter what we’re doing behind the scenes. On the field that’s not even close to good enough, so you just have to go back to the drawing board and assess very critically.
Q. How would you assess on Tyler Huntley’s performance?
MIKE McDANIEL: I thought he did some good things. There’s some stuff as a competitor he wanted to have back. Had a couple of ops and there was a throw down the sidelines to Tyreek. There was just a couple of ops, but overall I thought he did a good job. I didn’t think that his teammates around him at times were doing what we needed them to do in a game like that. I thought he had a lot on his plate. I thought he was a competitor all the way through.
Q. Do you need significant changes to your offense, do you think?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, everything is on the table. You can’t argue the offense is good or – to me in a situation like this, I hadn’t really been in one where we haven’t had production consecutively like this so you really have to open your mind to really all things.
Q. Can you talk about LB Jaelan Phillips’ injury?
MIKE McDANIEL: I don’t know much. I know he had a brace, but beyond that I’m going to have to find out more tomorrow.
Q. Was the playbook I guess fully allotted for QB Tyler Huntley tonight, or was there some sort of — was it like an abbreviated version of it for him?
MIKE McDANIEL: There were calculated decisions made based on what he was comfortable with from the previous game plan that he was a part of for Seattle and then some stuff that he had done in his career. So it was abbreviated to an extent and all things he was pretty comfortable with. We were able to rep everything that we ran in practice.
Q. Despite the current results, are there any positive takeaways that you can take away from today’s game leading up to the division matchup next week?
MIKE McDANIEL: I thought the defense will probably have one play that they’re not pumped about, but outside of that, I thought it was a step in the right direction. I thought Braxton had a chance to change the momentum of the game. And I think the game could have been a different ball game had we not had that early turnover on the lateral pass. So there was some stuff. I thought there was a couple of plays here or there, but ultimately there’s nothing good about this situation right now in terms of where our team needs to be, and we need to do enough to win a football game against any opponent and right now that’s not the case. We have to fix that fast.
Q. You’ve been very open that you are huge on player empowerment, that you let the locker room run the locker room. Do you think you might need to have more of an assertive role then?
MIKE McDANIEL: I think we have to assess everything, but I hesitate to overcook before I watch the film and kind of marinate on this whole situation, but there will be things that will change. It’s kind of hard to say exactly what those things are, but we’re definitely in need of it.
Q. With regard to the changing quarterbacks, how do you explain an offense that has WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle, RB De’Von Achane, and so on just being unable to move the ball?
MIKE McDANIEL: Yeah, I think there’s a story in the tape and all the things that we’re trying to do. They didn’t really do anything that surprised us. We felt like we could get those guys the ball in premium situations. We weren’t able to. So I don’t think – that’s not up to my standard at all. I know for a fact that I play a part in the whole thing, but it’s a collective issue for sure and we have to figure out how to score points and those guys can help us do that for sure.
Q. How do you guys address the formation, illegal shifts, procedural stuff that has been plaguing you for the past couple of weeks?
MIKE McDANIEL: Between the eyes, all the situations off the top of my head it’s one of the first things that I know that we can control. That guys aren’t getting set fast enough. So I have to take a look at the amount – you use motions and stuff to try to give players some advantageous situations, but if you have to pull back from that if you can’t execute them because there’s no play that works that doesn’t even get a chance to get started. The motioning part of our offense is something that our players have been good at in the past and have used it to create advantageous situations, but I mean, you just can’t keep doing the same thing. You have to fully adjust if guys can’t execute in the moment of truth.
Q. How concerned are you that four weeks in this has been going on it seems like weekly the same issues, that it could cause a problem that could snowball into more? What do you have to do to make sure those guys keep positive and try to move forward?
MIKE McDANIEL: Well, I think we’re really tested as individuals. We’re tested about a lot of things that we’ve said that we are individually and collectively as a group. It’s very, very challenging to have a situation like this. I don’t foresee this locker room quitting. I don’t see it as their nature. However, you have to give guys reasons to go above and beyond. I think you have to hold literally every person in the building accountable to what we see their jobs as and their purpose and what they’re doing for the team and what they’re not doing for the team. It’s hard conversations that are very, very necessary, and we’ll hit those between the eyes from a constructive standpoint. Bottom line is that there will be a list of things. I’m pretty sure I already know several of them, but there will be a list of things that you can tell the coaches and the players that if we don’t do this, this won’t change and then get those things to change. It’s already been too many weeks in a row so you just have to identify clearly exactly the direction you want to go. If you want to win, you have to do certain things, play sound football and clean football. Until we do that, we will be stuck in the same results.
Q. Late in the game the cameras caught Tyreek Hill visibly upset shouting at someone on the sideline. Can you give us an idea who he was talking to or what he was saying?
MIKE McDANIEL: No, I would expect him to be visibly upset at somebody. A lot of times guys can be yelling at – he’s a leader and he wanted to do everything that he could to make sure the result wasn’t that. Within the locker room there’s a lot of guys challenging each other and we get an opportunity to see what we’re made of for sure.
Q. Mike, what’s the challenge in I guess installing a new quarterback with little experience in your system versus actually just letting a guy get some reps and get comfortable?
MIKE McDANIEL: There’s pros and cons to really everything you do. I think, you know, yeah, there are challenges. I know what they are. I have a history of having to adjust for different players and different personnel. It’s just how much are the new guys getting better, where is the team’s conviction? We just need to be able to trot out a game plan that we are actually executing things from an offensive perspective. Each player gives us some advantages, some disadvantages in terms of how long they’ve been here versus what their skill sets are. Bottom line is I think you have to make some tough decision, but that’s what this league is about. That’s what my role is. It’s never void of adverse situations. This is as big of one that we’ve had to overcome since I’ve been here, and in those times you get to find out a lot about who you think people are and get to identify whether or not they’re the guys that you thought they were, including myself. So tough times bring out the best in people, if you have the right people. That’s what I’ll be expecting from everybody, and they’ll get a chance to prove me right or wrong.
