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Marcel Louis-JacquesESPN
MIAMI — The postgame vibe within the guests locker room was much less despondent than resolute. The visiting Miami Dolphins had simply given the Buffalo Bills extra of a problem than anticipated from a 14-point underdog, particularly one with out its beginning quarterback.
The 34-31 wild-card loss ended Mike McDaniel’s first season as a head coach and was a microcosm of the roller-coaster season. There was the gratifying success of constructing it to the playoffs and the frustration of not having Tua Tagovailoa at quarterback as a result of he was in concussion protocol. There was surprisingly sharp execution by the protection and a brutal delay-of-game penalty on a fourth-and-1 that McDaniel blamed on miscommunication. There was the exhilaration of a potential upset and the belief the season that after fostered Tremendous Bowl hopes was over.
“There’s at all times good and there is at all times unhealthy,” McDaniel stated after the sport.
McDaniel arrived in Miami with the status of a inventive, offensive-minded coach after 5 seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, together with as offensive coordinator in 2021. He was tasked with unlocking the potential of Tagovailoa, the No. 5 general draft decide in 2020 who had struggled his first two seasons.
For 3 video games, the outcomes could not have gone higher. The Dolphins began 3-0 for the primary time in 4 years and Tagovailoa had followers chanting “M-V-P” with big performances. However an obvious head harm Tagovailoa suffered in a Week 3 victory over the Payments triggered a sequence of occasions that might change the narrative.
Reward about the way in which McDaniel guided one of many league’s high offenses via the primary couple of weeks yielded to pointed questions on Tagovailoa’s being allowed to play 4 days after the Payments recreation. These questions then turned to intense criticism when Tagovailoa was carted off the Cincinnati Bengals‘ subject on Sept. 29 with a concussion.
McDaniel skilled a variety of feelings all through his debut season. He laughed on stage throughout Tagovailoa’s preseason charity luau and fought again tears after Tagovailoa was briefly hospitalized in Cincinnati. There was a five-game successful streak, a five-game shedding streak, a number of NFL investigations — together with one which resulted in a change to the concussion coverage — and there was a playoff berth, Miami’s first in six years. It was a season of triumph and controversy, and it was one which ended because it started — with questions concerning the workforce’s quarterback scenario.
“With out query, I do know I did the perfect that I may for all of the individuals concerned, which is extraordinarily essential to me,” McDaniel stated after the finale. “So I am pleased with that, and I do know there will likely be loads of issues I am going to get higher at, which is the way in which I have a look at the expectation for myself and my job. That can by no means change.
“My main concern is I do every thing potential to attempt to put individuals in place for fulfillment, as a result of that is what this function can provide, and I am pleased with that, however not pleased with the outcome. I do not suppose I am going to ever be till it is the ultimate recreation of the season and you are the champion.”
McDaniel is horrible at Zoom calls. His phrases.
However that is how his first interview for his first head-coaching job was performed. Regardless of his self-deprecation, the roughly 50-minute Zoom name final January went nicely sufficient for Miami common supervisor Chris Grier to schedule a second interview.
When McDaniel flew to Miami for his Feb. 5 interview on the workforce facility, he stated he did every thing potential to not get on his flight again to California. After seven hours in Miami Gardens he did not simply desire a head-coaching job, he needed this job.
“I used to be actually, actually, actually hoping I might get the job, not due to the plain causes,” he stated on the time. “However particularly as a result of I did see such a imaginative and prescient of like, ‘Man, it is a excellent match.’ And I actually needed it, however I used to be at peace with the method as a result of all of us concerned, I really feel like we have been very clear and genuine.
“It was very snug. It appeared pure, however you simply by no means know.”
McDaniel remembers the precise time he received the decision providing him the job — 2:46 p.m. PT on Feb. 7.
“A game-changer,” he stated after getting the job.
As soon as his hiring was introduced, one of many first conversations McDaniel had — throughout his flight to South Florida — was a FaceTime call with Tagovailoa, telling the QB he needed to deliver out his greatness. McDaniel knew concerning the criticism of Tagovailoa, and he was being proactive by reaching out with constructive reinforcement.
It was a very good begin to their relationship, however nonetheless simply phrases.
The reserved Tagovailoa was swayed two months later, when McDaniel arrived at his charity luau in Hollywood, Florida, ultimately bounding onto the primary stage for a drum lesson.
“[The luau was] the primary event that I can keep in mind him exhibiting curiosity, and that is the place I’d say our relationship has grown and constructed from there,” Tagovailoa stated earlier than the season. “After which numerous conversations with him in his workplace. And never simply him calling me up there, however me going up there on my own simply to speak to him.”
Tagovailoa stated McDaniel would really feel unhealthy throughout these conversations if he came upon gamers have been planning to hang around exterior the power with out inviting him. A reporter reminded the quarterback you could’t invite the top coach to hang around.
“You possibly can,” Tagovailoa replied. “This one, you may.”
McDaniel’s relationship along with his beginning quarterback was put below a nationwide highlight in Week 3.
Contemporary off a 21-point comeback towards the Baltimore Ravens by which Tagovailoa threw for 469 yards and 6 touchdowns, the 2-0 Dolphins entered a Week 3 matchup with the Payments that might impression not solely the Dolphins, however all the league.
Tagovailoa was pushed down after throwing a go, fell and hit the again of his head on the turf. He stumbled whereas making an attempt to return to the huddle and was taken to the locker room shortly earlier than halftime. Though the preliminary announcement stated he had sustained a head harm, an unaffiliated neurological guide — together with the Dolphins’ medical workers — in the end attributed his stumble to beforehand reported again and ankle accidents, and he was allowed to return to the sport to begin the second half.
4 days later, within the face of widespread criticism, Tagovailoa was cleared to play towards the Bengals.
“If Tua takes the sphere tonight, it is a huge step again for #concussion care within the NFL,” tweeted Chris Nowinski, who co-founded Boston College’s Persistent Traumatic Encephalopathy Heart. “If he has a 2nd concussion that destroys his season or profession, everybody concerned will likely be sued & ought to lose their jobs, coaches included. All of us noticed it, even they have to know this is not proper.”
Tagovailoa does not keep in mind being sacked and whipped to the bottom close to the top of the second quarter towards the Bengals, banging the again of his head on the turf. The collision knocked him unconscious. McDaniel stayed by Tagovailoa’s facet as he remained on the bottom for roughly 12 minutes. They spoke, however McDaniel stated there was a grogginess to Tagovailoa’s voice that made him nearly unrecognizable.
The league changed its concussion policy on account of Tagovailoa’s scenario. If a participant displays the kind of signs Tagovailoa did within the Payments recreation, he will not be allowed to return.
“If there had been something lingering along with his head, I would not be capable of dwell with myself if I put somebody on the market and put them in hurt’s manner,” an emotional McDaniel stated after the Bengals recreation. “That is the connection I’ve with this human being.
“I take that severely. … I’ll by no means be snug with a participant getting carted off the sphere. Ever.”
Tagovailoa missed the Dolphins’ subsequent two video games, each of which they misplaced, however cleared concussion protocol previous to the Week 6 recreation towards the Minnesota Vikings. McDaniel selected to not play him, contemplating the dearth of follow time he’d gotten since coming into protocol. The loss to the Vikings was Miami’s third straight.
The Dolphins launched into a five-game win streak as soon as Tagovailoa returned in Week 7, at one level climbing to No. 1 in ESPN’s weekly Energy Rankings.
However the win streak was adopted by a five-game shedding streak, and Tagovailoa sustained another concussion on Dec. 25 towards the Green Bay Packers.
McDaniel stated upon reviewing recreation movie, throughout which Tagovailoa threw three fourth-quarter interceptions, he noticed “inconsistencies” that precipitated him to prod. After questioning his quarterback, he despatched Tagovailoa to the workforce doctor, who recognized him with one other concussion and positioned him into protocol.
Medical consultants suggested McDaniel it was “vital” for the quarterback to focus solely on every current day; with that recommendation in thoughts, McDaniel didn’t set up a timeline for Tagovailoa’s return and would not even speak soccer with him.
“I really feel compelled each dialog to reiterate that ‘Keep in mind, there isn’t any such factor as a timeline. That is about at present,'” he stated late within the season. “So I do really feel compelled to try this early within the dialog, which if he is serious about going there, I sort of snuff that out earlier than the method.
“It is essential that he has that concrete reminder, as a result of that is a troublesome factor to do once you’re so forward-thinking like an expert athlete is, is to only say, ‘I am simply going to do that at present and never take into consideration tomorrow till tomorrow.'”
A number of days after being eradicated, the Dolphins made their first offseason transfer by firing defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, safeties coach Steve Gregory, exterior linebackers coach Ty McKenzie and assistant linebackers coach Steve Ferentz.
Whereas their defensive workers will look totally different, their quarterback is predicted to stay the identical. Tagovailoa is predicted to return as Miami’s beginning quarterback subsequent season, in keeping with Grier and McDaniel.
Miami has till Might 1 to select up Tagovailoa’s fifth-year possibility; the Dolphins can lengthen him or wait and see how he performs subsequent season.
“All the pieces is on the desk for us,” Grier stated just lately.
McDaniel’s essential concern is Tagovailoa’s well being, and as soon as that’s in a protected place, the coach can not help however take into consideration what lies forward.
“He is an ideal participant with solely enchancment in entrance of him,” McDaniel stated after the finale. “We’re speaking a few 24-year-old quarterback that I feel after I signed up for this job I spent six months making an attempt to persuade those who he is good.”
Lots of the similar questions McDaniel confronted throughout his first season will likely be ready for him this fall. Ought to the Dolphins signal Tagovailoa to a long-term extension? What can the workforce do to scale back the chance of extra concussions? Can McDaniel get this workforce to the subsequent degree?
So far as main the workforce, particularly via tough instances, McDaniel already has proved himself to some.
“It says so much, and it is easy to observe a man who leads the way in which he does, within the method that he does,” defensive sort out Christian Wilkins stated just lately. “He by no means flinches. He by no means blinks.
“He embraces adversity, so that you as a person and also you as a follower of a pacesetter like that, it is undoubtedly one thing I take from him. Simply embracing adversity and simply taking a look at all of it as a possibility.”