Mike McDaniel – July 26, 2024
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Friday, July 26, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(QB Tua Tagovailoa – we didn’t observe him do anything yesterday. Was that veteran day of rest or was that part of his hold-in and what do you expect today?) – “Nothing has changed really from that standpoint and how we’re collectively approaching practice. As far as today, I do think you’ll observe him playing football in a multitude of fashions.”
(Do you guys talk every day about the plan for the day or is there a plan for the week? How do you do that?) – “Every day. I think it’s important to assess all variables, take into consideration everyone involved as the head coach so you’d love to get in front of it, but there’s a lot of days that if you’re trying to extrapolate that, a lot of days that you can’t account for different way the wind blows. So every day assessing exactly what we’re doing because we’re trying to do good jobs here.”
(How do you I guess loop the team in on that? Is that something where you say, “Hey, this is a me and Tua thing” or do you try to keep them abreast of…?) – “As professional athletes, people pretty much know and understand and are very considerate of business dealings. I think our team specifically has found opportunity in the situation really because I haven’t even been fielding questions, concern – people have enough on their plate and their focus in situations like that, you could have some people that were exposed to not be focused. Fortunately for us, the deliberate intent and focus from each and every player has been on maximizing the opportunity on the field and getting their job done because collectively we’re trying to achieve things as a team.”
(Yesterday I asked FB Alec Ingold about QB Tua Tagovailoa not being there and he said, “Don’t allow it to be a distraction. There are going to be games where we don’t have our star player. Use this as preparation.” Is that kind of your attitude or have you talked to the team like collectively overall about how they should approach this?) – “No, I think that’s outstanding. It’s exactly how I feel about it and in a lot of ways I’m very hopeful that everyone sees it the same way. We’re a bunch of grown men working together day after day. You start to learn each other so that fires me up. I can’t wait to give him a fist pound because that’s exactly what you do. You use the opportunity for any sort of advantage.”
(With the TE Jonnu Smith and – it was a laundry list of guys yesterday – DT Calais Campbell and – nice extensive list, I’m sure you know the list. Was it more veteran rest day or are these nicks that we need to just monitor and address?) – “The former. What you try to do is you have your group of players that you’re going to establish on the forefront – who do you want to manage before you get to managing and find more people to manage? And in that, you’re trying to disperse veterans so that no one position is put out of sorts or left vulnerable by lack of legs, thereby making their position group and players more vulnerable to injury. So it’s all very strategic. Trust me, it’s not just me involved in those plannings. That takes a whole team that when they bring the best ideas and the good ideas, I cosign those and make them my own.”
(I wanted to ask kind of a related question. We saw yesterday, I think WR Tyreek Hill caught two balls from QB Gavin Hardison. That doesn’t seem likely to happen in the regular season. What’s the benefit in July of having those reps – well, maybe I’m wrong…) – “So you think.”
(So I think, I’ll stand corrected if that happens, but what is the thinking broadly about having your franchise wide receiver catching passes from an undrafted rookie?) – “You feel comfortable doing that when you’re trying to work on your entire game. That’s happened since we’ve got here, it’s kind of something that I’ve always believed in. If a receiver needs to run a route versus man, instead of forcing the defense to cater to your needs, why not have – wait for a rep that goes against man, maybe that’s in the second or third group? That’s kind of erroneous. And so our skill positions really rotate that way so they can get opportunities at point of attack stuff. Generally – I’m kind of hesitant because this might give our defense a competitive advantage against our offense – but generally if Tyreek (Hill) is in with said quarterback, the ball is probably going to him. (laughter) So there’s a lot of things at play. The quarterback-receiver connection, but it is one of many things that are important and there’s a lot of work to be done in between.”
(LB Emmanuel Ogbah said that he came back here because of unfinished business and it sure looked like he’s playing great these last two days. He’s already got the orange jersey. Assess what you see in LB Emmanuel Ogbah this time around.) – “I just got little goosebumps there because it was cool to see the timing of things. You just know when a player is a free agent for any amount of time, there’s uncertainty so you’re thinking through all the different scenarios and he gets here and then it was not just like a – it wasn’t charity to give him that orange jersey. It was one of, if not, the best practice that I’ve seen from him since I’ve been here and there was a level of focus, a level of concrete certainty of his assignment and he came out hungry. And whatever he’s drinking in the morning – might be a little fountain of youth in there – it was exciting. But you know the coolest thing about situations like that, is you learn a lot about people just by observing the reaction of teammates. And when I tell you everyone, when they found out that he was the orange jersey, was juiced. And then all he did with that, is he was the – I think he ran 19 miles an hour yesterday at practice wearing that orange jersey.”
(You were talking about WR Tyreek Hill earlier. I was curious, does he still surprise you athletically and is there anything he’s done that really stands out for you where he really shocked you with something maybe we haven’t seen in practice or anything over the last couple years?) – “Yes. Tyreek is a guy that is supremely competitive and within that, in practice, he gets game reps. And so being able to put him in different situations, for him to try different things, is a really cool process, because he has a skill set unique to his own. And I think he – every month that I’ve been, every year with him, he’s really grown more and more into the leadership role and the responsibility of being one of, if not the best player in the league and what does he want the Miami Dolphins to look like? Instead of having to carefully and deliberately coach players and tell them, he can just show them how he wants his teammates to practice and play by his effort, strain and not just the pass game, the run game as well.”
(A few guys have mentioned that Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver has a nice package of full-out pressures and simulated pressures. Can you kind of tell me what kind of advantage that can create and what you sense might be coming as this Anthony Weaver pressure package develops?) – “That’s a very good question that is layered in ways of like, a pressure in it of itself, everybody has that. It’s about the how you are able to package that with like looks that can keep an offense off balance, as well as have multiplicity where the pressure is going to come from. I think as teachers, our scheme here are, ‘Weave’ (Anthony Weaver) and his staff really do a great job of finding concepts that players can understand and from one player understanding all 11, so that you can put different pieces in different places. So that balance of keeping an opposing offense off-balance, while being sound and multiple, yeah, everyone would like to do it. We’re confident that we’re headed in the appropriate direction in that way because we’re trying to be as challenging that we can each and every Sunday. And I think it’s playing that way, being able to do simulated pressures specifically, you can have blitzes and coverage that overlap. You can have technique that overlaps, which means you can be better at what you do while being more multiple. So I think with that focus, the coaches have communicated the whole vision to the players in a very good manner, because I can see by how they execute their jobs that they understand it and really how they strain shows me they believe in it.”
(WR Tyreek Hill said the other day that he and some of his offensive teammates without the coaches, they want to get more 10-12 player drives this year rather than the two-strike 75-yard bomb I guess in an effort to tire out the opposing defenses and they really want to focus on that this year. What’s your take on that?) – “I think he’s in his own way, what he’s describing right there, is our players on offense here are immersed enough in the system to understand areas where if you improve, can make everything improve. So what he’s saying, he is confident in our ability to score explosively in short drives. Well, we’ve lived experienced the last two years, that defenses don’t want you to do that. So they give you up space initially close to the line of scrimmage to make sure they can keep a roof over the offense and their eligibles. It’s all about taking advantage of overplay. So if you’re overplaying deep, how can you get most efficient yardage? Through execution on shorter things – run game. As a leader and a football student, Tyreek understands that unless you want to see very deep coverage with everyone 30 yards down the field, you better make people pay, otherwise they’re going to keep doing it. So that’s something I think our locker room does a great job of, is as players identifying consistencies of what’s happening to us. And then our coaches, we try to come up with a plan on how to counter people’s counter.”
(Obviously, there’s a lot of anticipation to see WR Odell Beckham Jr. at some point. Obviously, he’s on PUP now. Is this something that he’s had coming into the season or is it something that popped up more recently as far as his injury?) – “It wasn’t recent. It’s something he’s working through and we’re trying to – like we do with all the guys that are coming off something – we don’t want setbacks because really, and I don’t really explain this ever, but setbacks in this time of year are pretty problematic most of the time for guys for the whole season, because this time is for you to be able to be game-ready for football. And then if after that, you happen to get dinged or injured, it’s a lot easier to reassimilate. You go in, you start playing football after with the last football that you’ve played is last season like everybody and then you have a quick exit from participation, especially in Year 1 of a system, that’s problematic. So we signed Odell to be Odell, and we’re – between the Miami Dolphins and him – we’re making sure that we get him back on the field the right way and hit the ground running. So for him all, it’s just that much more important that he’s on it in the classroom and he’s been as attentive of a veteran, basically stalking Wes Welker, as one could hope.”
(I wanted to ask a follow-up if I could. WR Odell Beckham Jr. had the ACLs. When it’s a recurring thing like that, how do you manage it to make sure God forbid something doesn’t happen again to the same knee?) – “It’s science. Don’t ask me any more than that. I think every individual is unique to their own, that people respond differently. Our buddy Frank Gore, I think tore an ACL every year of his adolescence or something and then played 30 years. So you just have to be – and players need to know that you can’t just take things at surface value. For him, you see how the body responds and you don’t go into it assuming anything, but if the body loves it, you just let him roll. If there’s some swelling, you chill out and then you kind of go that way.”
(As far as some of the early returns you’ve seen on RB De’Von Achane in his second year utilizing a full offseason for the first time as a pro?) – “I’m seeing a pro that – not to say that he wasn’t a pro last year – he was a rookie that really impressed his teammates with his ability to digest and execute. And he really impressed guys about how the game – you hear this a bunch – the game is not too big for him. Right. Well, that’s cool for De’Von (Achane), if that’s where he wants his ceiling. Thankfully, for the Miami Dolphins, that’s not. So he’s expanded roles expanded, different ways that he can get the ball, but he’s become a guy that pretty much every person on the offense counts on to know his responsibility and that helps everyone. So he’s become a pro, diet, strength – it’s really cool to see. He had a taste of success and fortunately for us, he’s not satisfied with that.”
(With QB Tua Tagovailoa while he wasn’t throwing, was his level of attention to practice where you want it to be as far as mental reps, communication with you? I think he was listening to play calls.) – “Absolutely. And you know what, everybody involved has been super professional because if he’s not going to be taking a rep, he’s not going to have that rep lost on him. And in Year 3 of the offense, that’s a lot more impactful than if that would be the case in Year 1. You have the muscle memory on a lot of things so every rep can be – whether you’re doing it or not – can be something that you can use to your advantage because that muscle memory, it’s not what he really needs to train. It’s the visual scene, this particular picture. Our defense presents so many unique pictures, and he’s been – basically all those simulated pressures, keep your awareness and locked in focus.”
