Kelly: Have the Dolphins tuned out Mike McDaniel and his coaches? | Opinion

In the three seasons Mike McDaniel has been the Miami Dolphins’ head coach there has only been one starter who has been demoted, replaced, benched during the season.

Some players have lost jobs and roles during training camp.

A couple non-starters have had their playing time decreased for performance reasons, or maybe an injury. But only one player — uno — has paid the price for poor performance during the season, and that’s Durham Smythe.

Smythe began this season as Miami’s starting in-line tight end and seemingly lost his prominent role, a job he has had for six seasons, to another tight end, and it’s not Jonnu Smith, who coincidentally hasn’t started a single game for Miami.

Julian Hill is the answer to this odd trivia question of who replaced Smythe, and even his position coach excuses the fact this second-year tight end has leapfrogged Smythe, a seven-year veteran, as a package-based situation.

Hill has started five of six games, and handled 201 offensive snaps while Smythe has handled 143, with two starts.

Smith, who scored the first touchdown from a Dolphins tight end in 23 games last week, has handled 166 snaps.

Plenty of how they are utilized is indeed package-based, so it’s not exactly safe to say there’s a tight end pecking order. But there’s clearly a shift.

Why is this important some might ask?

Anybody other than me finds it odd that a professional football coach, an individual leading one of 32 NFL teams filled with a collection of alpha males, playing for a franchise that hasn’t won a playoff game in 24 years, demotes just one player in three seasons?

ONE!

One demotion for a team that has been one of the most-penalized franchises in the NFL for multiple seasons (2022 and 2024).

This fact adds a bullet to the weapon held by McDaniel’s critics, who claim he runs too loosey-goosey of an operation in Miami.

I have this fundamental belief that coaches should be who they are, and history has shown me that when coaches stray from that they typically get themselves into trouble. That’s when they lose the locker room.

McDaniel comes off like a stylish, quirky amateur comedian whose appeal is that he’s everybody’s buddy.

This is who the Dolphins organization knowingly hired, and if we’re being honest, there wasn’t an issue with his approach, his style when the Dolphins were winning like they did in 2022 and 2023.

But sitting at 2-4 those jokes aren’t as funny.

Now that adversity has hit, and the team’s performance has consistently featured some undisciplined moments, we have to wonder if McDaniel’s player-empowerment approach — one which I’m honestly a fan of — needs to be criticized, and/or scrutinized?

Nobody but the players and coaches know what McDaniel’s doing, or saying behind closed doors. But at this point, considering the same mistakes keep getting made on a regular basis, we have to wonder if enough is being done and said?

We have to ask/wonder if players have begun to tune McDaniel out?

Is a team where only the practice squad players have to worry about being released, and nobody fears for their job security, or role, going to maximize its potential?

Ironically, one of the reasons this topic intrigues me so much is because Hill, the beneficiary of Smythe’s demotion, happens to lead the Dolphins in penalties (eight), and has had moments in games that merited scrutiny, if not punishment.

So the one player who has benefited from another’s demotion is actually the biggest mistake maker?

“Sometimes it’s ticky-tacky, but sometimes it’s ‘Dude, even Stevie Wonder could see that,’” tight end coach Jon Embree said about Hill’s penalty prone play, which is usually a result of being too physical as a run blocker.

“Of course it’s not something I want to do. I have to learn how to play with the right speed….A lot of times I’m too out of control, trying to be too aggressive because that’s what helped me get on the team in the first place,” said Hill, who has four receptions for 34 yards. “Trust me, I’m working to fix that. McDaniel has made it known that it can’t happen. The penalties get you behind the sticks and I’m a guy who wants to do what’s right by the team, so I’m working to make sure I don’t have these mistakes and penalties.”

Embree’s clearly not willing to give up on the team’s investment in Hill.

“He’s playing on the biggest stage out, coming from Campbell University, so there is going to be some [struggles],” Embree said of Hill, who made the Dolphins’ 53-man roster as an undrafted rookie, edging out a 2023 draft pick (Elijah Higgins) who was waived. “There’s going to be times when mismatches happen. I get that. I understand that. It’s part of the maturation process of a young player.”

At some point we have to worry about the maturation process of a young coach.

I’m not proposing Smythe regains his role because a penalty he committed last week in Miami’s 16-10 loss to the Indianapolis Colts negated a 30-yard run, but what’s keeping this team from tuning out McDaniel?

While McDaniel’s approach might appeal to this pampered generation of professional athletes, there has to be an assurance that leadership is maximizing this team’s talent level, and the argument can be made that the Dolphins have fallen short in that department.