Mike McDaniel – September 11, 2023
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Monday, September 11, 2023
Head Coach Mike McDaniel
(What led to the decision to use T Isaiah Wynn at guard for this team now after four years at tackle for New England? And then on WR Erik Ezukanma, the idea of actually lining him up in the backfield, is that something you drew on a napkin one night? Drew on your iPad at 2 a.m. in March? What led to that usage for him?) – “Isaiah Wynn wasn’t new. I’m a young old guy, so when he was coming out, that’s how I evaluated him. I saw him as having some good skill sets there. I think the experience at tackle helps an interior player tremendously if they have the skill set to cross over because of the types of athletes that you face on the edge. He’s been a wonderful addition to the team and earned his opportunity to start through his play, which is the only way we accept it here, so I was pumped about that. What if I told you that Erik wasn’t even supposed to line up there? Just kidding. (laughter) That’s stuff that you try as a coaching staff to see and open your mind to the unique skillsets of certain players. For that game, it made sense to try to introduce that a bit. Whether that’s something that we expand upon just depends on the opponent and the pros and cons of what that does, if anything. We felt like that was a good way to get him the ball that way and get him some opportunities and get the defense talking a bit. I believe he was in the backfield during the go-ahead touchdown, right? I’m pretty sure he was lined up in the backfield, at least that’s what I called. It was a long flight. (laughter) Those are fun things that you’re able to do, especially in year two where you can move people around a little bit more just because of the inherit understanding of what words mean.”
(When you reviewed the tape today, there were a lot of QB Tua Tagovailoa completions. Which one was your favorite?) – “Well, which one presented as though adversity was an opportunity?
(The 35-yard touchdown) – “Boom. Those are things that are not easy to do. It was my favorite because it was more of a team moment. That was a series of plays, starting with the interception that he targeted Braxton (Berrios) on, because on that specific play, the Chargers got the ball on the four-yard line because they intercepted it, and (Jaylen) Waddle and ‘SA’ (Salvon Ahmed) didn’t stop playing, and got a tackle on the four. Got the ball back following a really good play by Kader (Kohou) on a well-timed blitzed that is rarely executed to be honest. Free runners at quarterbacks generally miss for whatever reason. We’ve been emphasizing some technique, he got the sack, and then we had a great punt return blocked up, but it was a short kick. So we had a short field and off that momentum, Tyreek Hill started making it very known that he was ready to make a play. I fancy myself as a great listener. That throw culminated a team effort that is very, very important playing off each other in the various phases that are important to winning close games like that.”
(I was thinking of the third-and-10 where he scrambles forward and…) – “That was another good one.”
(We have seen QB Tua Tagovailoa off-platform a bit but that throw in particular, we haven’t really seen that. Was that…) – “I need to open more practices to you guys. (laughter) That’s really cool stuff from a developing quarterback that is finding his own footing in how he plays because he went through his progression, felt the pressure in a good interior pocket, utilized that and then did something that most people can’t do with their writing hand let alone their non-writing hand like he does it. That was a good one too, but I really liked him taking advantage of everything that he’s learned and really focused on and had a game application, similar to the preseason rep where you throw an interception and then what? And in a game like that, for all three phases to come together at that moment, and then for the three phrases to play off of each other, when the offense scores the final touchdown but leaves a solid amount of time left on the clock, Jason (Sanders) is one of the guys we count on most on the entire team and pushes one, and then the defense comes and saves the day and wins the game. Those ones, especially where he was participating in big team moments like that one, were the most important to me.”
(One thing that I noticed that was a wrinkle in Year 2 was instead of motioning WR Tyreek Hill and other pass catches across the formation, you kind of had him as a flex in the slot and then put him in motion. I’m curious if that’s a way to get pass catchers free releases, to prevent communication with the defense or maybe a little bit of both?) – “I was just bored. (laughter) We work hard here at the Miami Dolphins as a collective group. Coaches bring forth things. You see stuff on tape. Players bring forth things. I think it is important to be constantly pressing the envelope. I believe that players deserve schematic advantages. It’s hard enough to do their job and a coach’s job is to try to generate those. But man, I’ve drawn a lot of stuff on paper. It’s a lot harder doing it. So on the road, to execute that with the crowd noise on a silent (count) is a credit to a lot of people working deliberately. I think Tua (Tagovailoa) and Tyreek (Hill) did a really good job with that as well as the rest of the offense that’s doing it in a noisy situation.”
(The decision to go for points at the end of the second quarter, was that situation-specific or was that a general Mike McDaniel, here’s an opportunity, all points matter?) – “I think it’s important that you constantly evolve as a coach and a play-caller. At that point in time, I thought our guys would block them well enough to pump the ball down the field and see if our playmakers could do something with it. There had been a good amount of plays made by the skill positions in the first half so shame on me if I just mailed it in. It was great execution by a lot of people on those plays and a good job by (Jaylen) Waddle running fast and getting out of bounds, and then a good job with Erik (Ezukanma) putting enough stress on the defense that they had to hit him before the ball got there.”
(I know you do a lot of situational stuff but something like that, where a lot of people were confused at first when you did take the timeout, do you practice or go over those things outside of practice?) – “A little bit of both. I have situational meetings with our analytics department in the offseason then I do every Thursday night. You can’t rep enough situational football because what you don’t want is to be in a foreign situation for the first time when the box score matters. So that exact one, no. But I think you do enough situational reps, knowing how much time things take, and felt pretty good that we could get an explosive within six or seven seconds, with the proper execution. I hadn’t done that one. I think when I started the process of calling timeouts, most people knew what was going on but I was very aware it was going to be unusual and if it didn’t work, people would be like, ‘What were you doing?’”
(I can’t remember a time if a touchback with less than 10 seconds left would result in a field goal. Touchdowns obviously happen. But can you remember an instance where that happened?) – “No. But if you can’t remember an instance, you might as well create one, right? The players did a great job of executing crucial points. Then on top of that, for us to take advantage of it, means that the field goal team needs to properly do their job. Blake (Ferguson) and Jake (Bailey) need to operate and so does Jason (Sanders). That’s the type of stuff that if you can take advantage of every second and every yard, you have a chance to win. It proved very beneficial for us yesterday.”
(A couple of small injuries. I know you addressed WR Jaylen Waddle after the game. Any update today on him and his soreness or stiffness?) – “It was a positive interaction with Jaylen in terms of the soreness is where we kind of had hoped. We knew it existed but we didn’t want it to be something debilitating. That’s something that he’ll continue to work through. For him, he does such a good job of developing his game within practice, so it’s very important to him that he gets out there and we’ll just manage it accordingly. But he should still be able to get some reps in this week, which I know is very important to him.”
(WR Tyreek Hill went to the locker room early. Obviously he was ok. Cramps or was that anything…?) – “Preventative hydration is what we’ll call it. Well no, we weren’t preventing hydration. (laughter)”
(Preventive methods to keep hydrated?) – “Boom.”
(WR Tyreek Hill mentioned yesterday that some of the receivers have been getting together after practices to work on being in the right spot and things like that. I’m wondering as a coach, how is that helpful for you when position groups are kind of proactive in that way and get on the same page?) – “This is the difference between being average and good or good and great. It’s a very, very big deal when guys are able to communicate directly with each other. It lends for little to no gray area. You don’t know some questions or maybe uncertainties that players will have a lot of times in the environment of student teacher. The great thing about those meetings are there’s no federal agents, as they would call them (laughter) and they can just discuss stuff freely. That type of ownership gives you a chance to max out your current situation and your current locker room and phase of football. I think that’s something that I haven’t been on a team that’s done anything worthwhile that hasn’t had players do that. That doesn’t mean that it’s always done. It means it’s vitally important if you want your product of football to really meet your expectations.”
