Mike McDaniel – November 12, 2024
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Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Just to start at left guard, do we know any more about severity of OL Rob Jones, if he’s going to miss any sort of time or substantial time with the knee? And is OL Isaiah Wynn ready to practice this week?) – “I’ll get more information on Rob – why don’t you ask me again tomorrow about those two questions and I’ll have a better answer that’s more factual and less long-winded.”
(CB Kendall Fuller, is there great concern on the second conclusion in terms of severity? How is he doing and did he travel home with the team?) – “He’s in the protocol, and basically, I’m just concerned with his wellbeing. Don’t really have a timeline. Since it was a Monday night game, I can pretty much rule him out for this game. Beyond that, we’ll just be supporting where he’s at and getting information.”
(Is he back here in Miami? Did he travel home?) – “Yeah.”
(With RB Raheem Mostert, the fact that he had a couple of costly fumbles, did that contribute at all to him not getting any carries last night?) – “No. We have a very talented backfield and we’re manipulating game plans week-in and week-out for a multitude of reasons. I feel very confident with entrusting Raheem (Mostert) with our possession, with the football. He’ll have plenty of plays that he’ll make the rest of the season. The particular usage this past game was unique to the game plan, and that’s kind of the case when you have one football and multiple talented running backs that all contribute in various ways. He’s still a leader in that room and we’ll be counting on him all season for us to get where we want to go.”
(I was looking at the snap counts of WR Tyreek Hill and WR Jaylen Waddle this season, and there’s a big uptick starting with the Colts game. They were playing the same amount of snaps the first five games and it’s gone up and the same amount of snaps the rest of the games. I’m curious what sparked that change and the impact you’ve seen from that?) – “Some of the things we’ve alluded to about how those two have really taken a step forward in the evolution of how they can contribute to the football team and making plays without the ball and impacting the game when you’re not primary. They’ve taken the challenge; they understand that coverages and defensive calls are a lot of times predicated whether or not they’re on the field. Sometimes the best thing they can do is be on the field for those coverages where they’re getting double teamed and it’s not a pass to them, maybe it’s a run. The best way to affect the game is to be out there, and I think they’ve done a phenomenal job of understanding that and going at their job responsibilities from the direction of whatever it takes to win a football game. I commend them a ton for that. They play really fast so that’s difficult to do, but it’s one of the reasons we’re able to have a ton of production from other players is they’re very distracting for opponents when they’re on the field based upon their talent level and ability.”
(No team, player or coach will count themselves out of anything concerning postseason. Mathematically nobody has, and you guys certainly have not, even through the tough times. The way you played the last two weeks and winning a game on the road last night, does it at least buoy kind of the idea that there is something here at the end of the season that we certainly are still involved in and can play for?) – “I think it validates feelings that we’re collectively held by the whole team. You feel like you’re a team that has the potential of doing things in this league and winning football games, and being able to go on the road and do it on prime time, those types of things, you feel the way. I think it validates a lot of the things that were frustrating guys and forcing them to find solutions. I think it helps you appreciate the why of what you do, because there is nothing like that feeling after a game of mission accomplished for an entire team. I think it validates a lot of things that have been felt and said, a lot of motivation that guys have had that helped steer the ship the right way. I think you get to see people’s true character in times of adversity. That’s why I was proud of the effort and I’ve been proud of the week-by-week commitment to getting better as a football team even when the results weren’t necessarily showing up in the win column. I think the formula to get to that point to be able to have a collective team game the way we had, that’s been built up through a bunch of adversity. I think the locker room understands that we’ve found the formula which is a fixation of our own game and constant strain and commitment, and we have to continue to do that to get results like we did last night.”
(Has there been a conversation with QB Tua Tagovailoa? If not, will there be about him being a tackler?) – “I didn’t waste much time saying something to him. He can’t just think about his ability to stay healthy when he has the ball, it’s also when you’re trying to make a tackle – I told him not to close his eyes next time. (laughter) But yeah, I think he could also prevent that from occurring by avoiding throwing it to the other team, which he knows as well. I think there’s always things to improve upon and learn from, and he definitely had a learning moment there.”
(With OL Austin Jackson, is surgery needed? Has he had it? Will he have it? And do you still expect him to play this year?) – “We worked through that, he will have surgery and I don’t expect him to return based upon the timeline of that surgery. Got a bunch of different opinions and I don’t think he’ll be back this year.”
(Do you think he’ll be back for the start of camp next year?) – “I mean that’s a long ways away. The abstract, broad – because I don’t do timelines – I would think that would be very feasible, but we’ll see. We’ll be talking about that in the spring. What are you talking about?”
(After a win like that, late on Monday night – what’s the exhilaration like? Do you sleep after a game like that? Because I know coaches are always constantly thinking about the next game.) – “I think Monday night games are a unique exercise where you have that extra day which on the front end of the week is great, but then it gets around to game time and you’re like, ‘Can we play already?’ And then it’s old hat to have the six-day work week, or five days before the game day, so you know that whatever pleasantries you feel about the game that you’re going to leave them for that game, because the second you wake up in the morning it is on to the next opponent. The orchestration of a – I’m an early riser, early to go to sleep guy, so night games are always late. After that one I was able to sleep on the plane, soundly, and then just came back to work. It was something that I was very happy for the team, I was very happy for all people involved in the organization and all fans of it, just because it’s been a frustrating couple of weeks. I preserved all of my happiness for others and then I tried to focus on the job at hand, which is to start the process of winning the next one so that people don’t forget what that feeling is like.”
(Ian Rapoport just reported that you guys claimed LB Tyrel Dodson – just wanted to ask what attracted you to him and why claim him?) – “He was in our division, going against him and was a surprise that he was out there. (General Manager) Chris Grier is always trying to make the team better and the more the merrier in our opinion.”
(We saw QB Tua Tagovailoa make a handful of plays off-schedule last night to extend drives. I’m curious to when you go back to 2022 when you first got here, or maybe that tape you put together of him – the seven-hour tape or whatever it was – how have you seen him evolve in that aspect of his game?) – “There’s a lot of aspects in his game that he’s been able to evolve and that’s definitely one of them. I think with regard to our specific offense, there’s so much geared to where your body has to be, the timing of plays and where your eyes have to be and how aggressive you have to be to No. 1 or No. 2. And then as you evolve, the art of ‘all right, one through four isn’t there. Let me extend the play and make something happen.’ I think that is something that in the process comes last if you’re doing the initial part of the offense correctly, and I think it’s also he’s always looking for ways to get better and the way he’s attacked his body, his diet and the residuals of that help him do that. I think it’s been a focus of his, seeing how defenses defend us and sometimes the one person they don’t account for is the quarterback if you’re playing two-man, you aren’t accounting for the quarterback. If you’re doing a three-man rush loaded zone, those types of things can be big plays for quarterbacks if they recognize them and can feel the rush and do the appropriate things and take care of the ball. I think the last touchdown we had against Buffalo was the result of an extended play and then had several key third downs in this game that led to points that were as a result of him doing that. So it’s a part of his game that he’s focused on, and I think what we’re all seeing is what’s kind of old hat for Tua (Tagovailoa), which is whatever Tua you used to know, he’s getting better at something and ready to put it on display early and often. I’m happy that he’s found that and so are his teammates, especially the eligibles that are catching the ball.”
(I wanted to ask about the big plays last night on both of your touchdown drives. You had the big one to WR Jaylen Waddle and TE Jonnu Smith’s big catch and run. Just as an offensive mind, how cool is it for you guys to see those big plays happen? But then also do you hope that that’s contagious obviously for the rest of the season?) – “It was cool because there was two different types of plays. One was an extended play that it was a loaded coverage that Tua (Tagovailoa) found a lane and was able to make the defense pay, and then conversely, the one to Jonnu (Smith) was his third read in a progression but in rhythm of the pocket and got it out pretty quick and allowed Jonnu to do what he does best which is not get tackled. So both plays, gigantic plays that led to our touchdowns. Those are the types of things that you have to do, and the way they were executed, against opponents when they’re playing a more conservative style or approach to coverage. That’s getting to No. 3 or breaking the pocket and getting the ball down the field, those are ways to effectively neutralize that conservative approach that a lot of teams have been utilizing against us. I think it’s important that we do those types of things moving forward if we’re trying to score points on a regular basis like we like to do and get into the red zone and be productive, because they both were gigantic plays and a function of people progressing within this offense.”
