What Teams Did Mike McDaniel Coach?

The Miami Dolphins are about to begin their second season under head coach Mike McDaniel whom they hired prior to the 2022 NFL season. McDaniel was born in the city of Aurora in Colorado in 1983 and went to college at the University of Yale. He used to play wide receiver in college but was not able to forge out a career in the NFL as a player.

Nevertheless, after graduating from Yale, McDaniel turned his attention to coaching the game of football and he was hired as a coaching intern by the Denver Broncos. This is where McDaniel first got his start in coaching at the young age of 22. Signing with the Broncos was a huge boost for his career as he got first hand experience of working with top level coaches such as Mike Shanahan. McDaniel has brought all of the wealth he has accumulated over the years to the Dolphins franchise as he hopes to build a solid team in the future.

Mike McDaniel as the Dolphins head coach

Prior to joining the Dolphins, McDaniel had served a five year stint in San Francisco, first as the run game coordinator, followed by the offensive coordinator position for one year. By winning his first game of the 2022 NFL season, he became the first rookie head coach to do so for the Dolphins franchise.

The Dolphins had been struggling for the past many years, but with McDaniel in charge, they earned a victory over their divisional rivals, the Buffalo Bills for the first time since 2018. The Dolphins also got a playoff berth for the first time since 2016. Even though finishing 9-8 last year is not much to boast about, the Dolphins did have injury problems especially with their starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

The main problem with the team was their defense as they constantly gave away nearly 30 points on average. Even with the likes of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle making up two portions of the receiving core, McDaniel will need his defense to step up this year for better results. As for the offense, if Tua can stay healthy then we have already seen what their offense is capable of, so McDaniel should have an easier second year provided he has all hands on deck.

Mike McDaniel teams coached before the Dolphins

Making his debut in the league as an intern with the Broncos, McDaniel left them just after one season to join the Houston Texans as an offensive assistant. Across his three stay in Houston, the current Dolphins head coach got a chance to work under some quality offensive coordinators such as Kyle Shanahan.

After being out of the league for a couple of seasons, he was once again given the offensive assistant role this time with the then Washington Redskins (Commanders). He was made the wide receivers coach for the 2013 season. At Washington, McDaniel again got to work with some of the brightest minds of the game as he was reunited with Mike and Kyle Shanahan. He also played under Sean McVay and Matt LaFleur.

After leaving Washington, McDaniel served a couple of short one and two season stints with the Cleveland Browns and the Atlanta Falcons again as a wide receivers coach or an offensive assistant.

Then in 2017, McDaniel got his first big breakthrough in coaching as the 49ers signed him to be their run game coordinator which led to him being appointed as their offensive coordinator later on down the road. The highlight of his career came in 2019 as he was a part of the 49ers team which reached Super Bowl LIV but came up short against the Kansas City Chiefs.