Mike McDaniel – December 20, 2023
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Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(I’ve got to ask, watching Hard Knocks last night, you’re in the office at 4 a.m. on a Tuesday. Did you go home after the game?) – “Just work. Season hours are you just need to do what needs to be done. It’s a short week, so you just work.”
(So Eminem is your angry music?) – “Yes. How’d you know?”
(Because Hard Knocks told us.) – “Oh. I still haven’t gotten used to that. Yeah, I think ‘99, I was a sophomore in high school when he came out, or when he hit the mainstream. Yeah, he has a tone, a tonality, that I was trying to harness, I would say probably.”
(After talking with the trainers, the plan this week for WR Tyreek Hill and S Jevon Holland. Do you expect Tyreek to practice at all this week and is Jevon at the point where he can progress from limited involvement like the last two weeks, to full involvement this week?) – “We won’t have Tyreek practice today but that’s not any indication of left or right. It’s more just us trying to make sure that we have all cylinders go. Then Jevon Holland, he’s doing well. One thing that we have to do specifically with Jevon, just knowing him I’m sure you get the sense of he’s so motivated, and so aggressive to attack things that we have to kind of (takes breath) so that we don’t have lingering effects. He’s a very, very important part of the team. There’s a lot of guys that I kind of have to step in and get involved with the training staff, and really protect people from themselves. He is very high up on that list in terms of having to be proactive. So he’s doing well, though. He was in great spirits today so I know he knows that he’s getting closer. But we’ll be prudent and do right by him and the team.”
(You’ve talked about every loss being kind of a learning lesson and the team learning from that. Obviously you guys haven’t suffered back-to-back losses. What do you think the four losses kind of as a whole have taught this team as you look ahead to this weekend and the three-game finish?) – “Well, each is unique to itself. Each came at a different stage in the season and I think each has been extremely valuable. The first one, we were riding the high of a rare, I think 50-point margin of victory, and we experienced humility. Not because it was out of lack of respect; it was just a unique experience to go from that high to that low. So I thought from that loss, the way we practiced football changed for the entire year. Then the second loss against Philly, going on the road and not playing clean football from a standpoint of, it’s hard to go to a place that they hadn’t lost there. I think they’ve lost one since. It’s a really tough place to play. It was a big stage and we needed to feel that. We came up short, not out of lack of effort but that was something that this team hadn’t felt. They had only felt one loss and by their own volition, they had a big part in that. So then that occurs, we just get beat by a good football team. And then I think in Kansas City, we learned that in a different way, people were pressing when they shouldn’t have or shouldn’t need to, a different way from the Tennessee game. They also learned how hungry they were and they hadn’t really accomplished anything that they had set out to do, which is a humbling experience but a very healthy experience. This last loss, I think we learned a vital piece of what will shape the rest of our season, namely this game against the Cowboys. But that one, we learned a vital piece on where our attention should lie, and how, in a matter of four minutes in that case, how things can go drastically awry. You also don’t have anywhere to hide. You have to stare yourself in the mirror. You have to feel that. You’ve got remember that the identity of each and every player, coach and person on the football staff, they’re wrapped up in the Dolphins. And when, as an organization, you feel that kind of humbling embarrassment, the only thing you can look at is exactly what’s on deck today, exactly what your assignments are and the details with which can help you fix the feeling. It’s the most heightened sense of being present. It’s the most intentional way that you go about your daily week that football teams have to learn. You just aren’t birthed it. We’re in month 20 in the season and you have to keep finding a new level of intent and hard work and keep building on the last week and that’s kind of where we’re at right now. I know one thing, there’s an entire team that is solely focused on the Dallas Cowboys. Good teams are hard to beat anyway. So you can’t do anything to – you can’t just hope and wish. You have to make sure that you can do everything in your control, and then when you do that, I think that’s when you see our team come to life. I think that’s when we have a spirit on the field that’s unique because it’s earned. It’s not fake and it’s born and built out of preparation.”
(You’re facing a team on Sunday that just gave up 266 rushing yards to Buffalo. When you looked at the film of that game, what jumps out at you?) – “I think for one, any football coach in the National Football League pretty much knows by reputation shown on film of what type of coach Dan Quinn is as a defensive coordinator. He inspires guys to truly be their best selves. I’ve witnessed it firsthand for a couple of years. They are a team that strains and they met a team that was also straining. It wasn’t like they were just giving up big open spaces and easy – it was deliberate, intentional. Each team has their own thing going on and you could tell that Buffalo had a mindset that – it was more Buffalo executing then I saw than this, that or the other with Dallas. But one thing in this league, if you guys are hearing about and speaking to me about it, I think that our team is well aware and I’m very well aware that that team is very prideful. The Dallas Cowboys have prided themselves on a lot of things football, and they are hearing about it too the ‘nth degree, so we know exactly what to expect this Sunday. And that’s something similar that we can relate to in terms of what we went through just six days ago. I think it sets up for two teams that feel internally that they really have something to prove to themselves and that makes for good football. It will be a hard-fought test for both teams that I’m really excited about. This is what you play football for. You play football to play the best teams and we’re very fortunate to have the opportunity, and we look to take advantage of that this Wednesday and then do more of that on Thursday.”
(What’s the condition of your offensive line? You had OL Austin Jackson and OL Liam Eichenberg get through the game. How are they doing?) – “They are earning stripes and metal with every single one of their teammates. The rarified air to be – I mean the whole group really has battled things throughout the whole season. And Liam Eichenberg, his performance when the team absolutely needed it, he wasn’t saying, ‘okay, I’m going to try to go.’ He was telling everyone he was going and then not even leading on to that he was dealing with anything. You just had to look – one of his feet had terrible footwear. It was a boot. Then what Austin was doing. In this stage of the season, you don’t know where, you don’t know which position, but if you’re trying to win, it’s a big task. It’s inherent that there’s people willing to go there for the team. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. I think they’re building onto the already established equity that they’ve built with their teammates this year.”
(I know you’ve known RB Raheem Mostert for a long time. What, if anything, have you learned new about him this season as he’s having a career year?) – “Even in a career year, the stripes that – what makes him him is the chip on his shoulder that he uses for a competitive advantage never goes away. So, he finds in one way, shape or form to find his formula, which is that no one thinks he’s good enough ever. That’s the way he looks at it. You got to understand the stuff that he’s gone through in his career is real. That would break most people. So it doesn’t surprise me. But if you want to talk about a guy that every single game, every single one of his teammates knows that dude is a hard tackle. Whether you’re blocking for him, you’re handing the ball off to him or you’re watching him play from the other sides of the ball, in the game of football, when there’s an element that you feel like a controlled variable, it is monumental for a team. So, we rely on him week in and week out to deliver on that. He’s a huge reason for the success that we have had this season.”
(I don’t want to jinx anything, but QB Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t thrown a pick in three games. How much is that him maybe not taking chances? Is that play calling? Is that more signs of his growth?) – “So especially with Tua, there’s a pattern here where somebody’s got to pick up on, ok? He gets better. And he gets better in an inordinate amount in a short period of time. That doesn’t mean– the game of football is tough. He will throw an interception at some point in his life. But what he’s doing is he’s learning from everything because he’s not pointing a finger or hiding from it. He’s really holding himself fairly accountable for everything, but not backing down from anything. You’re seeing a guy develop as we’ve seen him develop really since I’ve been here. So should it surprise us that he continues to improve his game? Well, if we’re blindfolded with earplugs, it should surprise us. That’s what you know about Tua. His hunger is deep within himself and that will continue. He’s playing the quarterback position better than he had at the beginning of the season. Numbers are numbers, but he’s learned stuff that is tangible as you progress through the season. It’s a tremendous responsibility to have the football every play and he doesn’t take that lightly.”
(What have you noticed about Dallas LB Micah Parsons?) – “He is one of the best players in the National Football League in any position. And I don’t think it’s really debatable. This dude is different. The orchestration that he has with his teammates and the stuff that Coach (Dan) Quinn does with the multiplicity of his alignments, you can tell not only is he unique in skillset, but you don’t play all the way across the line and in the stack and do all the things that he does without having a true love for the game. I would probably say he’s more to fun watch when you’re not going to play him. But that being said, I like the challenge of facing elite players like our players do. It’s really cool to watch because when you combine talent with strain, that’s rarified air, and in general with the level of talent and the level of strain he exhibits. So, he is a real dude for sure.”
(What have you learned from how defense have adjusted to you timing and motion throughout the season?) – “To expect the unexpected. I think our guys have gotten pretty comfortable. It’s been a while since we’ve played a team that has just kind of done exactly what they do against other teams. Sometimes that means it’s a different ratio of the coverages that they like to play. Sometimes it’s coverages that we’ve never seen them play. I think that’s something that is a badge of honor that you try to earn in the National Football League because it’s both a sign of respect but also a challenge at the same time. It presents unique things. We were just talking about Tua’s development. That is something that he is well versed at week in and week out is new challenges presented. You can forecast to a certain degree. To a certain degree, it’s impossible. That’s what December football is and meaningful football games. From my experience, that’s what I know to be true about playoff football. And throughout the postseason, it only gets more extreme, especially when you get to a game with two weeks to prepare. These are things that you have to become successful at if you’re trying to be successful. So they’re very good learning experiences as our team grows throughout the season.”
(Just a check in on S DeShon Elliott. Is he still in concussion protocol?) – “I don’t think he’s cleared yet. But he’s participating in the process of getting cleared. Does that make sense? You have to walk before you can run.”
