MIAMI GARDENS — The Mike McDaniel era is ending for the Miami Dolphins.

Team owner Stephen Ross is firing McDaniel after two consecutive losing seasons that did not include a playoff berth, let alone end the NFL’s longest active streak without a playoff win, now 25 years. ESPN is reporting the move this morning.

The question now is whether McDaniel’s ouster clears a path for the Dolphins to hire former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh.

Speculation that Ross might make this change stretches back to the opening weeks of the season. The Dolphins started 0-3 and 2-7 before a four-game winning streak cooled McDaniel’s hot seat.

Just not enough.

McDaniel, 42, lasted four years, finishing his first NFL head-coaching stint at 35-33, including his first two seasons in which Miami made the playoffs but lost to Buffalo and Kansas City.

It was a bright start built on a flashy, high-flying offense, which is what sold Ross on hiring McDaniel even though no other franchises were interviewing him. Ross was eager to not just put a winning team on the field, but an entertaining one. He saw McDaniel as a creative offensive mind who above all could maximize the talents of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa after previous coach Brian Flores could not.

After the Dolphins traded for Kansas City receiver Tyreek Hill, pairing him with Jaylen Waddle, the plan worked to perfection. Temporarily. Then defenses solved the league-leading offense by employing two high safeties to assure the speedy receivers wouldn’t get behind them. Nothing was the same.

It wasn’t until the heart of the 2025 season that McDaniel fully committed to overhauling the team’s identity, instead focusing on Pro Bowl running back De’Von Achane, the Dolphins’ best performer all season. This despite McDaniel having served as San Francisco’s run game coordinator before arriving.

McDaniel’s reliance on the ground game worked, but it was too late. Miami was given just a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs, and a prime-time loss in Pittsburgh ended any mathematical shot at the postseason.

Mike McDaniel tied his future to Tua Tagovailoa

With that, McDaniel made a decision that would have been unthinkable a couple of seasons prior: He benched Tagovailoa, the $50 million-per-year franchise quarterback, in favor of Quinn Ewers, a seventh-round draft pick.

This was no small move. Before he even landed in Miami, McDaniel had all but tied his future to Tagovailoa. He famously phoned his quarterback from the air to boost his confidence, a practice that continued for years. When it came time for the organization to extend Tagovailoa or start anew, McDaniel “pounded the table,” Tagovailoa said, in defense of his QB. Rather than solving the organization’s longstanding search for a franchise passer, the $212 million contract given to Tagovailoa today represents a drain of the Dolphins’ salary cap.

It likely played a role in Ross firing general manager Chris Grier on Halloween, replacing him on an interim basis with Champ Kelly, whose future is uncertain.

If Ross starts the 2026 season with a new general manager and new head coach, it would be a first for him.

McDaniel insisted he was promoting Ewers because he gave Miami the “best chance to win.” McDaniel said he hadn’t sought assurances from Ross that his job was safe before making a move that outwardly appeared to make it tougher to win. At the time, speculation was that between the four-game winning streak and Ross’ fondness for McDaniel, it was enough to make a coaching change unlikely.

But as often happens with the Miami Dolphins, the winds quickly shifted. And now Ross is searching for a head coach for the fifth time since taking over as owner in 2009.

McDaniel was hired off the San Francisco 49ers’ offensive staff on Feb. 7, 2022, to awaken the team and its fanbase. 

Tyreek Hill’s arrival ushers in aerial show for McDaniel

For a while, Ross’ hunch proved to be correct. Combined with the arrival of Hill, the Dolphins’ offense improved from 25th in the NFL to first. They scored in bunches, with an offense so explosive that Hall of Famer Kurt Warner saw comparisons with his legendary “Greatest Show on Turf” attack with the St. Louis Rams.

During a 2023 early season home game against the Denver Broncos, the Dolphins scored an unprecedented 70 points.

It proved to be an outlier masking critical problems that go back a bit further.

McDaniel’s 2022 Dolphins had been sailing along at 8-4 in 2022 when a trip to California revealed a blueprint opponents would copy to stifle Miami’s speedy receivers, employing deep safeties to prevent touchdown bombs. That 33-17 loss in San Francisco triggered a five-game losing streak. 

The Dolphins led the league in offense the following season as defenses continued to perfect the 49ers’ blueprint. But by the end of the 2024 season, the Dolphins plummeted to 18th on offense, finished 8-9 and missed the playoffs.

McDaniel’s overall record was respectable, but it masked his 0-2 mark in the playoffs and struggles against playoff teams, going 5-19, including 2-14 on the road.

Stephen Ross well-versed at firing head coaches

The timing of the firing was in line with others by Ross.

Ross inherited coach Tony Sparano when he took over ownership but fired him 2 1/2 years later — and only after conducting a highly publicized, failed flirtation with Jim Harbaugh. It was done despite having a coach under contract — a no-no in the NFL.

In 2012, Ross hired Joe Philbin off the Green Bay Packers’ staff to replace Sparano, mistakenly overestimating Philbin’s role in an offense that actually revolved around coach Mike McCarthy and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Four games into the 2015 season, Ross fired Philbin.

The Dolphins began the 2016 season under Adam Gase, who like McDaniel was seen as a quarterback whisperer and strong offensive mind. But Gase and quarterback Ryan Tannehill did not equal playoff success. Gase’s offenses never ranked higher than 24th.

In 2019, Ross hired Flores, the Patriots’ de facto defensive coordinator, becoming yet another hire who had no head-coaching experience. Like all other head coaches under Ross, he never won a playoff game. When Flores was fired after three seasons, he filed suit against the Dolphins and the NFL.

McDaniel became the fifth consecutive coach to not make it to a fifth season under Ross.

But McDaniel was the first Dolphins coach to lead the team to back-to-back playoff appearances since 2000-01. Don Shula and Dave Wannstedt are the only other Dolphins coaches to make the playoffs each of their first two seasons.

The Dolphins were streaky under McDaniel, including a five-game winning streak and five-game losing streak in 2022. In 2024, the Dolphins had two losing streaks lasting three games, but also a three-game winning streak. His final season was notable for two three-game losing streaks preceding the four-game winning streak.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins fire Mike McDaniel; is John Harbaugh next in line?