Mike McDaniel is no longer NFL’s darling with Dolphins engulfed by quarterback mess

Narratives in the NFL shift as rapidly as the winter winds in the league’s Northeast stadiums.

But it’s not Mother Nature that dictates these narrative shifts, it’s the quarterbacks.

For the past two seasons, Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel had drawn praise as a brilliant and creative offensive mind, and a coach who doesn’t always follow the traditional NFL head coaching playbook.

In his first season, McDaniel led the 2022 Dolphins to their first playoff berth since 2016, and only the second since 2009. Last season, he led the Dolphins to an 11-6 record and another playoff berth. He was widely considered one of the great bright young minds in the game.

The common denominator to those two seasons of success was quarterback Tua Tagovailoa playing well and staying healthy. Tagovailoa started 13 games in 2022 and went 8-5, and he started all 17 last season.

Then, in a Week 2 loss to the Bills, Tagovailoa suffered his fourth known concussion, which has him out indefinitely. His backup, Skylar Thompson, suffered a rib injury in the Week 3 loss to Seattle, leaving recently signed Tyler Huntley as the Dolphins starter.

Huntley failed to throw for 100 yards in last week’s loss to the Titans, leaving the Dolphins 1-3 and in last place in the AFC East entering their game at New England on Sunday.

McDaniel and Dolphins management deserve criticism for not retaining backup Mike White, who proved himself to be a dependable No. 2. The Dolphins opted to save some money by not retaining White, who signed with the Bills, and now they’re getting burned for it.

This mess at quarterback has led to some heat being placed on McDaniel, who has quickly been removed from the mantel as darling among NFL coaches. The Miami mess only emphasizes this about NFL coaches: If they don’t have a good quarterback, they don’t have a chance.

Not even the Dolphins’ top receiver tandem of Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle has been able to pull their offense from the malaise.

Look at what happened with Brian Daboll and the Giants a year ago. Daboll went from NFL Coach of the Year in 2022 to having his job security questioned, with starter Daniel Jones out for the season and undrafted free agent Tommy “Cutlets’’ DeVito starting games.

Look at Bengals head coach Zac Taylor. With starting quarterback Joe Burrow healthy, the Bengals went 10-7 and got to the Super Bowl in 2021 season and went 12-4 and got to the AFC title game in 2022.

Tua Tagovailoa concussion fallout

Then, with Burrow missing the final seven games last year, the Bengals sagged to 9-8 and missed the playoffs. Suddenly, Taylor’s prowess as a head coach came to question in some circles.

Jets coach Robert Saleh didn’t have a competent starting quarterback on his team for his first three seasons, and the poor results showed. Part of that was his fault, because he was a part of selecting draft bust Zach Wilson second overall in 2021.

Now Saleh has Aaron Rodgers, and we’ll truly find out his chops as a head coach.

What kind of head coach was Bill Belichick once Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay? He went 29-38 in four seasons without the GOAT before parting ways with New England — saving his reputation as the greatest coach of all time from becoming tarnished.

It’s my belief McDaniel is the good head coach we believed him to be when Tagovailoa was healthy — with his unique, outside-the-box methods to his madness.

Here’s hoping McDaniel gets his quarterback back in time to salvage the Dolphins season. Without a quarterback, no coach is anything but just another coach waiting to be fired.