A Failure of Leadership

[masterfins]

Exactly what I meant above:

https://x.com/FinsXtra/status/1979955001868042597

+1

McDaniel is a nice guy, but he's got no fire, no emotion; he's not NFL HC material.  They need to fire him now before they lose any more players.  I think the Dolphins are at that 62-7 Jags playoff loss where nobody cared except a couple guys.

[Dolfanalyst]

+1

McDaniel is a nice guy, but he's got no fire, no emotion; he's not NFL HC material.  They need to fire him now before they lose any more players.  I think the Dolphins are at that 62-7 Jags playoff loss where nobody cared except a couple guys.

It's real simple -- if a team takes on the personality of its coach, then its coach's personality must consist primarily of traits that are consistent with winning in the rough and tumble game of professional football.  The coach's personality can't be absent almost ALL of those kinds of traits and in their stead consist of the opposite of them -- a meek, clownish, goofball persona.

This is exactly what Tedy Bruschi was talking about in the video above.  And he's certainly been there and done that at a very high level in the league.

If McDaniel were coaching a tiddlywinks team it wouldn't matter -- his personality wouldn't detract from the effort.  But he's coaching professional football.  Quite the opposite.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

It's real simple -- if a team takes on the personality of its coach, then its coach's personality must consist primarily of traits that are consistent with winning in the rough and tumble game of professional football.  The coach's personality can't be absent almost ALL of those kinds of traits and in their stead consist of the opposite of them -- a meek, clownish, goofball persona.

This is exactly what Tedy Bruschi was talking about in the video above.  And he's certainly been there and done that at a very high level in the league.

If McDaniel were coaching a tiddlywinks team it wouldn't matter -- his personality wouldn't detract from the effort.  But he's coaching professional football.  Quite the opposite.

McDaniel has the best win % of the three coaches hired by Chris Grier.  The problem is bigger than the coach. 

[Dolfanalyst]

McDaniel has the best win % of the three coaches hired by Chris Grier.  The problem is bigger than the coach. 

First, just because something isn't the only problem doesn't mean it isn't the central problem.  If heaven forbid you had stage-four cancer it would certainly overshadow your strep throat for example in your overall health situation.  It wouldn't be the only problem you had but it would sure be the most impactful one.

Second, the statement above splits hairs.  McDaniel's win percentage is 49.2%.  Adam Gase's was 47.9%.  Brian Flores's was 49%.  McDaniel isn't distinguished significantly from those other coaches in terms of win percentage.  All are essentially slightly below .500.

Third, McDaniel's win percentage doesn't distinguish him favorably from head coaches who have been fired and were subsequently never highly successful as head coaches in the NFL.  In terms of winning in the NFL at large, he's done nothing distinctive as a head coach.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

First, just because something isn't the only problem doesn't mean it isn't the central problem.  If heaven forbid you had stage-four cancer it would certainly overshadow your strep throat for example in your overall health situation.  It wouldn't be the only problem you had but it would sure be the most impactful one.

Second, the statement above splits hairs.  McDaniel's win percentage is 49.2%.  Adam Gase's was 47.9%.  Brian Flores's was 49%.  McDaniel isn't distinguished significantly from those other coaches in terms of win percentage.  All are essentially slightly below .500.

Third, McDaniel's win percentage doesn't distinguish him favorably from head coaches who have been fired and were subsequently never highly successful as head coaches in the NFL.  In terms of winning in the NFL at large, he's done nothing distinctive as a head coach.

The central problem is Grier.  McDaniel might also be a problem, but if he a failure as a coach, this means Grier has in three attempts been unable to find a suitable coach.   

[Downunder Dolphan]

Omar Kelly on the Dolphins: “Bad Roster, Soft Team, Soft Mentality.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnjG30Y1jIk

[Dolfanalyst]

Omar Kelly on the Dolphins: “Bad Roster, Soft Team, Soft Mentality.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnjG30Y1jIk

Ideally what you want is a head coach whose personality is consistent with the mentality of the city in which the team plays, and who obtains players whose style of play reflects that as well.  If you're coaching the Philadelphia Eagles for example, you want a hard-nosed blue-collar type head coach who has a Brett Favre type at QB and a central leader on defense whose style of play reflects that as well.

This is what attracted Dan Campbell to the Detroit job for example -- he had a certain kind of respect and admiration for how that city functions and what it stands for, and he wanted to infuse that into the organization both with his own personality/style and with the players he obtained.

In Miami that's a little tougher because the flavor of the city itself (and I grew up there) isn't consistent with football -- it's a laid back, glitzy, glam sort of environment.  For that reason the team has to give additional effort to overcome that with coaches and players whose mentalities and styles of play are consistent with football.

Unfortunately where the team is at present runs totally counter to that.  They have a meek, clownish head coach and a diminutive, oft-injured QB.  Those are the faces of the franchise at present, and they aren't consistent with the nature of football.  Consequently the team is just as soft as the city.

[Dolfanalyst]

More of this kind of stuff, this time from Richie Incognito:

https://x.com/DavidFurones_/status/1980791927692788166?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1980791927692788166%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=

[Spider-Dan]

Everyone who has sat on their hands for the past three years of Mike McDaniel being a football nerd is coming out of the woodwork with their axes to grind.  They couldn't say "This is not how a Football Coach acts" when the Dolphins had the #1 offense in the league, but they can damn sure say it right now.

Note how you didn't see this kind of piling on when Brian Flores was 1-7 (twice!).  Because he was coaching football the right way.

[Dolfanalyst]

Everyone who has sat on their hands for the past three years of Mike McDaniel being a football nerd is coming out of the woodwork with their axes to grind.  They couldn't say "This is not how a Football Coach acts" when the Dolphins had the #1 offense in the league, but they can damn sure say it right now.

Note how you didn't see this kind of piling on when Brian Flores was 1-7 (twice!).  Because he was coaching football the right way.

Immediately after McDaniel was hired, I made the same case I am here for McDaniel's personality being a problem:

http://www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com/forums/index.php?topic=27201.0

This is what I said way back in February of 2022 (copied and pasted from the thread linked above):

No telling how it will play out, but I'm concerned about the fact that virtually all of the greatest coaches in college and NFL football history haven't been silly or goofy or whatever you want to call McDaniel in terms of the demeanor we're seeing, but have instead been serious and stern disciplinarians.  When that's a trait that's seen in virtually all coaches in that category, I think you have to wonder what the absence of that trait (apparently) and in its stead sort of the opposite -- silliness or goofiness -- will mean in terms of one's ability to be a successful head coach in the NFL.

[Spider-Dan]

Yes, you objected to McDaniel's personality from the beginning.

Which is why you disappeared when his team was having success, and only show up here when the team is doing poorly.  It's the same reason why these "He doesn't have the demeanor of a Football Coach" pilers-on had nothing to say when he was fielding the top offense in the league.

[Dolfanalyst]

Yes, you objected to McDaniel's personality from the beginning.

Which is why you disappeared when his team was having success, and only show up here when the team is doing poorly.

The problem you've had continually with regard to this topic is that you define making the playoffs as "success."

14 of the 32 NFL teams make the playoffs every year -- roughly 44%, slightly less than a coin flip in terms of probability.  A tremendous number of NFL head coaches have made the playoffs, even multiple times, and were nonetheless never highly successful overall as head coaches.

So whether I've badgered the forum like you do throughout McDaniel's tenure or whether I have more important things occupying my attention is immaterial -- he's never been successful enough to obviate my initial concerns, which were right on target.

[Spider-Dan]

Again, you didn't show up to make these "Only playoff wins count" points when the Dolphins were 9-3; that would show intellectual accountability.  Instead, you simply disappear, wait for them to lose, then come back to talk trash.

This makes these kind of threads ring extremely hollow.  If the Dolphins went on a run (like, say, the last Dolphins team to be 1-6) and made the playoffs, culminating in a playoff win, you wouldn't come back and admit your error.  You would simply disappear until the Dolphins start losing again, then come back and crow about how right you were.  It's exactly what you did with everyone who said Ryan Tannehill wasn't the problem in Miami.

And you STILL can't take accountability to this day: you're currently trying to represent that the reason why your comings and goings precisely track when your narratives are being reinforced or refuted has something to do with other important items demanding your attention in the real world, which no one buys.

[Dolfanalyst]

Again, you didn't show up to make these "Only playoff wins count" points when the Dolphins were 9-2; that would show intellectual accountability.  Instead, you simply disappear, wait for them to lose, then come back to talk trash.

This makes these kind of threads ring extremely hollow.  If the Dolphins went on a run (like, say, the last Dolphins team to be 1-6) and made the playoffs, culminating in a playoff win, you wouldn't come back and admit your error.  You would simply disappear until the Dolphins start losing again, then come back and crow about how right you were.  It's exactly what you did with everyone who said Ryan Tannehill wasn't the problem in Miami.

Being 9-2 during a single season doesn't obviate the initial concern (McDaniel's personality) because it doesn't distinguish highly successful head coaches from unsuccessful ones who are eventually fired and do nothing extraordinary in the league.

Again you're generating criteria for "success" that are neither valid nor reliable and then using your own erroneous, self-generated criteria to determine whether someone should be eating crow or not.  You're way off-base.

An analogy:  if someone was skeptical about whether a highly-drafted QB was going to pan out, should he come back here and eat crow after the QB has a few good games?  Of course not, because a few good games have happened often enough even for QBs that never become highly successful that the criterion of "a few good games" is meaningless in determining the overall quality of a QB.

[Spider-Dan]

The problem isn't necessarily that you don't post when the Dolphins are playing well.
The problem is that you are a fixture when they aren't.  You only want to post when the team is doing poorly.

A person who only shows up when they can claim they are right but disappears when others have strong evidence they are wrong has no intellectual credibility.  The moment the facts on the ground contradict your position, you'll just disappear again.  You've shown this multiple times.