Mike McDaniel – November 29, 2023
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Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(Will anyone not practice at all today because of non-rest reasons? So someone who’s injured who just won’t practice today. And then what particular skills of LB Jason Pierre-Paul, at this stage of his career, appeal to you and General Manager Chris Grier and Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio?) – “There’s several people that won’t be practicing. We have good depth on the team. We have some bumps and bruises for sure, but we’re approaching December, which is the 12th month of the year. We started in the seventh and it accumulates. We’re fast on our feet and we’re adjusting on the fly, but there will be plenty of guys getting reps that if guys can’t get themselves to the place they need to be to perform at the level they need to perform at, they’ll be able to step in. It’s one of the cool things about this team is with all the confidence that the locker room has within each other, they don’t really blink. We’ll be seizing the day regardless.”
(LB Jason Pierre-Paul, with his signing, what did you guys see at this stage of his career that made you think he could offer you some depth with LB Jaelan Phillips going out?) – “Just seeing tape on him the last couple years. He’s someone I’m very familiar with. He got his start in the division that I was in when I was with Washington and he was with the New York Giants. I actually reminisced on one of the most catastrophic run plays that I’ve ever experienced that he was at the point of attack on. I’m pumped for the team to add a player of his experience, of his esteem. He’s a force on the edge and I’m just pumped for him to get in the mix with the entire team. This is a team that’s been working diligently together for a long time. So he’ll be getting up to speed, studying really all day and trying to get comfortable in what we’re asking him to do. It’ll be exciting. I’m just pumped to have the depth that we have really on this team. Adding a player like him is just more of that.”
(I know you hate timelines. But I saw LB Jaelan Phillips posted he had surgery. Realistically, do you think – I know it’s way down the road – but is training camp the target for him?) – “You sound pretty optimistic that you’re going to get a hardline answer. (laughter) It’s not that I hate them, I just don’t really pay any mind to something that – the first checkbox is, does the surgery go well? I know internally, a classic example is Jalen Ramsey, who just came back from an injury. One of the things that we focused on that our training staff firmly believes is you just take the one step at a time, because if you start thinking about something that’s – honestly everybody’s body is different. Every injury is slightly different and for you to forecast something as a grade, the grade is not that. I just want him to be fully healed and recovered. I literally do not think about his timeline because it’s like, just whatever it takes to do it the right way so that no one’s doing anything for the wrong reasons or pressing when you should pull off or all that stuff. But you guys have seen him in action. This dude is as hard of a worker as they come. He’s passionate. He got a taste of what he knows is his ability to play in this league, to make plays in this league and to perform for his team. That juice will push him through. It’s not always easy but nothing worth it really ever is, is it? No timeline. Sorry.”
(Did LB Jaelan Phillips undergo what could be termed I guess as conventional Achilles surgery or more the nature of what Jets QB Aaron Rodgers went for?) – “Theoretically, the way medicine is progressing, what is conventional? What is unconventional? I don’t think it was along the lines that you’re insinuating. I guess it would be more traditional. It’s an Achilles procedure that honestly – I know where the Achilles is. I’m not sure I know much beyond that. There’s experts for that, including our training staff. All I know is that it went well, that we’re very happy. It’s not about how quick a recovery can be for him. It’s more about, with the position he plays, his explosiveness. It’s about getting him back, which I’m very confident that can happen. He’s just got to take it one day at a time. But there wasn’t anything crazy as far as his procedure.”
(In regards to Washington, you’ve talked a lot about your formative years while you were there, and specifically, how you guys developed that offense for Robert Griffin III, where none of you have any experience with that type of offense. What did that do for you when you came to Miami and took over coaching a new quarterback?) – “Well, it’s funny how life works out. I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to be in that competitive atmosphere of coaches that were trying to all make a name for themselves in one way, shape or form. Then to have a situation where you get a supremely talented player that’s faster than people at that position generally and had played in a spread, no-huddle type offense. To be in a situation from the top down, Mike Shannahan didn’t mandate that we go on a clinic circuit. Kyle (Shanahan)’s acumen and the entire staff problem solving, quite literally thinking outside the box at that point in time, there was like 29 – I don’t remember the exact number but there was like this fixed number because Mike Shanahan made us watch 900 times but it was like 29 zone reads by Tim Tebow in the NFL. Then we had some college tape. We had never done anything out of the pistol ever, so all of those things kind of set a foundation of opening your mind, having assets as you will, and finding a way to not fit people into something, but fit the play, the scheme, what you’re trying to do around the talent that you have. To have that happen to me at that age, I just don’t know any other way. I was so fortunate to have that foundation because moving forward – and the blessing at the time, it definitely didn’t seem like a blessing at the time getting fired by different teams and jumping around, being in seven different organizations – because you learn how to adapt. And to me, I hold a strong principled connection to the role of coaching. I feel like that experience enabled me to do my best that I can do towards what I feel like is owed to the players, organizations, football teams, all that. It was rocky. The second I got there, we got hit with a monumental fine by the league and we lost out on free agency. But then we had some really good players that were very committed. It was the first time I had ever been to the playoffs, Robert (Griffin III)’s rookie year and Alfred (Morris) and all those guys. Doing all that stuff was pretty cool and it kind of set a foundation for how I look at the game all the time.”
(In the first episode of Hard Knocks when you were watching Maxx Crosby film, you complimented LB Andrew Van Ginkel. You said, ‘That’s when he goes all Van Ginkel on you.’ What does ‘going all Van Ginkel on you’ mean?) – “So you’ll notice a lot of the production Van Ginkel has particularly on the edge at the point of attack in the run or pass, he’ll have an innate ability to kind of limber his upper body so he can bend and get low under pad level and take away his chest or front blocking surface, and run around the corner. You’ve seen guys in defensive line drills have a giant hula hoop that they run around. That is something that he’s been very adept at in minute times. You have an offensive lineman that’s hesitating for a second and you can all of a sudden go step-right-left and bend around the corner and make a play. That limber nature from that position, which has to be stout as well and firm, it’s a unique trait. There are sacks and forced fumbles and things from this year. In that way, he makes plays in a similar fashion that Maxx does. I was also learning. You know people’s names you see in the draft process, but until you study a guy, until you study a team and individual players that you’re preparing for, you don’t really know the ins and outs. So it was the first time I had done with him, and I came away supremely impressed. I could see where the hype came from because he’s a very, very good player.”
(When you guys traded for WR Chase Claypool, I’m sure you had a role you envisioned for him. Has that changed? Do you still see a way that he can be productive in this offense?) – “Oh, I’m so pumped to have Chase. I’m very hesitant to over the top be like, ‘ok this is going to happen.’ There’s been certain games where he’s been more involved than others. But realistically, I wanted the football player. From all the people I know and have connections with, I thought he’d be a valuable person as an asset as well to this football team. He’s proven himself. I’m very happy to have him. Nothing’s changed with that. It is no small task to come into a team in the middle of the season. Mind you, it’s even more rare to jump into a season or onto a team that is specifically, in his unit, is not struggling. We operate at a high level, and he’s really gone above and beyond to assimilate and get up to speed, and his teammates can feel that. So there will be roles for him throughout the season. It wasn’t really like, ‘hey this guy is going to come here and do X, Y, and Z.’ You’re just trying to make your team better and give yourself some more bullets to be able to match up with whatever team or situation or thing that the defense can present. He’s very much done that. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, he’s like one within the locker room, and that speaks to him, our locker room, and what our team is about.”
(You addressed the fourth-and-shorts and third-and-shorts. I looked it up, you’re 4-of-12 passing on third-and-2 or less. And you’re 3-of-7 on third-and-2 or less running the ball. What is your thought process when you’re in that situation?) – “We’re trying to do stuff that works. You hope it’s not as much of an eyesore as where that ranks in the rest of the league, and it’s not good enough. But there’s always stuff that you’re working on in your game. I think one of the things that gives us a chance to play good football every week, to get better at that, those are the facts as life stands right now. You have to work at stuff. And for me, I’m not going to pretend that every decision I make is good. I’m trying to make the best decision. Football is a humbling game. For instance, every single one of those plays that didn’t work, in my mind, I was definitely hoping they’d work. And they didn’t. So you try to learn from it. Case in point, we couldn’t run the ball before. Now we can. You have to work on stuff. It starts with me. Ultimately, I make the decisions and I’m held accountable for the ultimate result, as it should be. What I do know is we have a collection of individuals that we’re all fighting for whose fault it really is. I have the loudest voice, so I get to say it’s mine. And that’s a healthy process through an NFL season. I need to give guys opportunities on the ground more to make plays. But at the same time, you make each and every one of those decisions, for me at least, I don’t pretend that any play I ever call is the reason that something successful happens. I know it’s a part of it. With that mindset, you just have to continue to try to do your best. For me, if I feel like my decisions were sound, that I invested the amount on the front end, and that I was trying to do the best, you live with the results. I’m fully aware that this narrative isn’t new and we haven’t done anything to change it. But it’s not like I don’t know before a fourth down call that if it doesn’t work, people aren’t going to be fired up about it. I’m definitely not fired up. I’m confident in the people that we have in the building. I’m confident in myself that if you work on stuff, you get better from it. I don’t expect to be the last-ranking official at the short-yardage conference for the rest of my career. But we’ve got to work through that and we do that diligently and to the best of our ability for sure.”
(When you look at QB Tua Tagovailoa’s interceptions this year, is there a common thread that you see in the thought process and execution?) – “It is much easier to try to find a commonality – and we definitely do, we scour these situations. But I think you also have to take each individual situation for what it is and be able to categorize what’s going on when things are not going the way we want them to go. My personal opinion is that there’s an art to playing the game of quarterback. When you’re able to execute at a high level, you forget that it’s a progression and as a player that is highly motivated and highly committed, there’s sometimes that the play to make is not throwing it to the other team. That’s the play. I try to do my best to minimize those situations where that’s the best alternative. But there’s sometimes when you’re playing the position, that’s a learning process. What I don’t do is just scream ‘Don’t throw picks,’ because that’s like the coaching point ‘Catch the ball’ for me. I’m pretty sure everyone is trying. That’s why it is so important to be so deliberate every day and so intentional because you can re-create those moments of competitiveness. You can re-create game moments and you have the game moments, and you learn from them. To me, it’s not about being infallible. It’s about winning at the game of improvement, that I think is a direct correlation to every day life for everyone, because sometimes you have to have the humility to be like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to always have to improve on something.’ For him, he can protect the ball better. He knows that. There’s literally no one on the planet that is more angry every time there is a turnover. I’m just telling you. And with that, he has to use it constructively and it can’t be absolutely. It can’t just be like, ‘I can’t throw picks.’ What does that mean? They’re going to happen. Well, in certain scenarios, do you need to take a risk? Does it need to be a completion? All of those things. That’s part of the growth process of every player and I think we’re very fortunate, and I feel very fortunate, to have one of the best learners that I’ve ever been around and coached, at the quarterback position. He’s expecting to be better just like I’m expecting to be better, like we all should be.”
