The Miami Dolphins enter the offseason facing numerous questions with few clear answers. They have major decisions to make regarding personnel, coaching changes, and an overall cultural shift.
One key issue on offense is playcalling—a demanding responsibility typically assigned to the offensive coordinator. Head coaches have a broader set of duties, and handling playcalling can be overwhelming. For Mike McDaniel, this added responsibility has affected the team’s overall discipline.
Whether it’s costly penalties during games or players showing up late to meetings and practices, these are areas directly influenced by the head coach—and McDaniel has struggled to maintain discipline.
But that’s not the only concern. Perhaps the bigger issue is that McDaniel isn’t an elite playcaller. While he excels at designing plays and is among the best in the league in that regard, he has yet to consistently show the ability to call the right plays at the right moments or strategically set up defenses for future exploitation.
Not only that, but he fails to relay play calls quickly enough for quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to properly assess the defense’s setup. Instead, he relies on blind trust in his play design—a strategy that has clearly backfired. Despite three years of minimal improvement, the Dolphins recently made a move that could finally fix the issue.
Bobby Slowik is the new go-to guy for the Dolphins, joining as their senior pass game coordinator. This move reunites him with Mike McDaniel from their time in San Francisco, and coincidentally, his brother Ryan Slowik now serves as the Dolphins’ defensive backs coach.
Slowik made a name for himself as the offensive coordinator for the Houston Texans over the past two years, playing a key role in CJ Stroud’s early success. His offensive philosophy closely mirrors McDaniel’s, so he’s expected to settle in quickly.
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