On Monday, The Athletic released a new narrative podcast series called “The Playcallers.” It explores the clashing of offensive and defensive systems, of coaches, and of players inside the NFL’s youngest coaching family.
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is prominently featured in the series, as one of this coaching family’s core members — who worked alongside the others from the beginning, in stops such as Houston and Washington.
Here’s what Dolphins fans should listen for as they dive into the five-episode series, which is playing in full on “The Athletic Football Show” podcast feed and wherever podcasts are available:
Finding a way in
McDaniel, a Yale graduate, recognized pretty quickly that in order to compete with young co-workers Matt LaFleur and Sean McVay while working under Kyle Shanahan, he had to differentiate himself from the other two. The goal, whether in Houston or in Washington, was to get plays on Shanahan’s call sheet.
Advertisement
“(Shanahan) had that ambitious — he was driven like I was in a completely different way where he was trying to, you know, deep down, I think, establish his own identity in a huge shadow,” McDaniel said. “And I was f— ‘no-name Johnson’ from, wherever, Johnson Province.”
“I was not sleeping so I could be more involved,” McDaniel said. “And then pulling all-nighters like every other week so I could be involved in the game-planning process. And then pitching plays to (OL coach Chris) Foerster — if he co-signs then I would get with Kyle and have Kyle name them so the play would get in. Because if he named it, then he had ownership over it. I just want to get the play in. So. A little understanding of psychology never hurts.”
GO DEEPER
How Shanahan's playcalling personality evolved
Gaining perspective
McDaniel was also open about the toll working like that took on him. He developed an issue with alcohol, was fired while in Houston, later went to rehab and says he has not drunk alcohol since 2016.
“But I couldn’t handle the emotion of not getting what I wanted, when I wanted it,” McDaniel said. “So I was going out and being young. … I had to have a grown-up journey where it all kind of evaporated through my fingertips … blew my world up.
“Then I went to the UFL for two years in obscurity and coached there for 895 days. I wrote it down, so when I got back to the NFL I’m never going to let this happen again. I’m never going to forget that 895 days — or that feeling, so when you’re on a five-game losing streak or whatever, things that you perceive to be as bad, you can have proper perspective.”
McDaniel’s mentality
Through the course of the series, McDaniel is extremely candid and detailed about how he invents plays and thinks about football overall. One example:
“We’ve been doing the fake bootlegs since I came in the league,” McDaniel said. “And then this one … they had these wide-ass defensive ends and (I was) just thinking in bed on Monday night: ‘Well, Tua’s left-handed. What if you faked the toss to the running back, stayed on track and then threw to Jaylen Waddle without booting out of it?’ And it was, it was something we’ve never done and we’ve done bootlegs since I got into the NFL.”
Advertisement
McDaniel hired Vic Fangio this offseason as his new defensive coordinator, understanding that Fangio would challenge him every day as a coach and a play-caller/play-designer.
“That’s one reason I’m so excited and went the direction I went with our defensive coordinator because I think there’s a ton of ability to grow within,” McDaniel said. “And if you are paired with the right system and teacher — (then) you can really get a lot out of it.”
“I think having an ego is pretty dumb,” McDaniel said. “(The) one that operates in a land of insecurity. That ego, whatever that is, is pretty dumb. And I refuse to have that be a part of my being. (I think) it’s a special situation for us where I can really take advantage of Vic, where some people, you know, ‘There’s people that I wouldn’t hire them because of the threat,’ whatever that s— is, or that would just try to show out of insecurity, just to show them how much they knew all the time. And both of those things, I think, are dumb. And I’m not trying to be dumb.”
Catch the entire five-episode series streaming now on “The Athletic Football Show” podcast feed, and wherever you get your podcasts.
Required reading
(Photo: Jasen Vinlove / USA Today)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57k29tb3BlanxzfJFsZmlvX2Z%2FcLnImqSiZZSkubG0yKeqZqWZoLJuucKdmKehlaF6sbjAspqapJyav7R5z6ibnJmjqXw%3D