The Miami Dolphins are in a precarious position for next season. They’ve invested a ton of resources into their offense and given head coach Mike McDaniel plenty of toys to play with. But the results haven’t come through, whether due to injury or underperformance from their stars.
As a result, one NFL analyst believes the job security for McDaniel, alongside general manager Chris Grier, is quickly running out. In fact, he believes their tenure ends as soon as next season.
Miami Dolphins Could Repeat a Familiar Loop
Last season, the injury to Tua Tagovailoa derailed Miami’s entire season. Despite playing like a top-10 quarterback, per PFSN’s QB+ metric, his absence meant that the Dolphins couldn’t string together consistent production. This unsurprisingly put the defense behind the eight ball and ultimately rendered the offense one-dimensional.
As a result, they had the 11th-ranked defense and 15th-ranked offense, per PFSN’s Defense+ and Offense+ metrics, falling way short of their expectations with a roster boasting names like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
PFSN’s Kyle Soppe, in his bold predictions for the 2025 season for every team, believed that Miami was headed for a familiar loop.
“The Dolphins have been on a repeated cycle ever since the Dan Marino-Jimmy Johnson-Dave Wannstedt era ended in the early 2000s. A new coach comes in, the Dolphins succeed right away with a playoff berth, don’t win in playoffs, and then decline until the coach gets fired,” he explained.
He believes the same fate is about to arrive at McDaniel’s doorstep, given the salary cap and injury situation.
“Now they face an offseason in which they start over the cap by nearly $12 million, have four key defensive players as free agents, and a disgruntled star WR in Tyreek Hill. Not to mention no faith that Tua Tagovailoa can stay healthy for 17 games.”
But, there is one key governing factor that led Soppe to make this prediction. And that is owner Stephen Ross. “While surprising no one in keeping the Dolphins front office intact for another season, owner Stephen Ross did lay out major expectations, mainly that this franchise wins its first postseason game in 25 years.”
It looks pretty unlikely that Miami will break through in an AFC that keeps getting tougher year after year. And Soppe believes Ross will make his decision far earlier the end of an ill-fated season.
“If the Dolphins start off slow again like in 2024, we will see a change before the team makes it back from Spain.”