Everything You Need To Know About McDaniel’s Week 8 Presser
Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images
The Miami Dolphins are hoping to put their 2-4 start in the rearview mirror with the return of Tua Tagovailoa. It’s a long road ahead, but they’re getting a winnable matchup in Week 8 against a 3-4 Arizona Cardinals squad.
Mike McDaniel gave his press conference ahead of Week 8 to talk Tua, Sunday’s game, and more. Here’s everything you need to know.
Putting Tua On the IR Was the Right Choice
The first question McDaniel took was why the Dolphins put the star quarterback on the IR, given that Tua recently said that he was symptom-free from his Week 2 concussion the day after the hit occurred. Theoretically, he could have been cleared to play sooner, but McDaniel insisted that allowing him five weeks of recovery time was the right call then, and remains the right call today.
“We maximize the amount of experts that their expertise is in the brain and the head, and then we do everything we can to make sure that all of those things are available. Our training staff works with players 100 percent of the time to do right by them, and so as you’re acquiring the information and as you’re working through it, it’s pretty simple when the medical experts are advising you to do one thing. The whole issue was that it needed time to rest for that injury.
“And so then that makes it pretty cut and dry when I’m not going to enter into anything outside of – especially with people’s careers and with the organization, we’re trying to do right. Then you’re trying to establish a timeframe, you don’t know how things are going to look whenever so you make that decision based upon the medical experts.
“I think it would be incredibly irresponsible if I made a decision based upon, however many weeks removed, a casual statement of symptom-free. I can’t explain any more concrete, with no BS, very simple – experts tell me. We handle business with these human beings that are not just whatever, they are human beings that we have relationships with. You do right by people and the organization by not anything other than seeking the expert medical advice and moving forward with that.”
Tua Will Unlock the Dolphins Offense… Slowly
It’s clear that the Dolphins didn’t just miss the skills that Tagovailoa brought to the table. Tyler Huntley isn’t an untalented quarterback. What Miami missed most might have been Tua’s understanding of McDaniel’s offense, which had to be pared back in recent weeks to make up for a lack of familiarity with the playbook (Huntley) or raw talent (Skylar Thompson, Tim Boyle). How quickly is McDaniel going to re-implement his full offense with Tua back?
“Every decision of every play, which to break it down where everyone’s aligned relative to the field position, who’s in, what direction, what type of play, all those things, every single thing that has to do with any portion of a play is an intentional decision. You’re trying to look through, ‘OK, well how can I get Tua to be best part of the team in the way he needs to be,’ which is he needs to be the captain, he needs to be the leader of this team, and he needs to feel complete ownership of his game.
“So knowing all of that, staying in literally daily conversations for the last five weeks and staying into gameplans, being able to share with him why we’re doing one thing here and adjust this a little from the way we do it from when you’re quarterback and doing various things – a lot of schematic football conversations that you don’t always have time to have based upon him being an available resource and me being available to him and talking through those things. You’re trying to build on what the team is doing right now and then utilize his strengths because the objective is that everyone is playing their most comfortable for the first time since Week 1.
“You don’t go and ride the Tour de France on the first time you’ve picked the bike back up, you know? So that’s kind of the way we’re approaching it and excited to see him start the process.”
Tua the Leader Is As Crucial As Tua the Quarterback
Not having their top quarterback has been rough for the Dolphins, but losing Tua as a player for Miami to feed off his energy has also been a major loss for the Dolphins. McDaniel doesn’t just expect Tua to contribute with his arm, but he’s trusting his team to rally around their field general.
“He’s the captain and leader of this franchise. The franchise QB that without question when the players are voting for the captains, he has the most votes. That to me is the best way to establish an indicator of who they feel is their leader. He had tremendous growth each year, particularly this year, in terms of that and being a leader and what that means and growing into that. I think during this stretch where he hasn’t been on the field, he’s at even a more powerful place with the team just based upon his feet on the ground and not just saying but showing his love for the team and his teammates is stronger than his individual circumstance. He signed up to play, not coach on the sidelines in the white. I think that overall the team will be very excited to have their quarterback back.”
The Dolphins Won’t Abandon Their Run Game
Miami’s identity last season centered around Tagovailoa’s connection to Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, arguably the NFL’s best 1-2 punch at wide receiver. Without Tua, Miami’s shifted to a much more run-oriented offensive attack than last season. What happens when Tua steps back onto the field? Will their identity revert to last season’s?
McDaniel made clear his belief that the team’s identity will be whatever is necessary to score more points than their opponent in a given week.
“You try to have a football team that is able to do whatever it takes to win the game. Now we have some very good players involved in the pass game, some of the best players in the league. So you get them involved, but does that change your ratio of things? Not if – the one thing I’m not going to do is do something that isn’t motivated by winning the football game. The important thing is that what we have in the midst of something that nobody is fired up about, which is losing three out of four and being at 2-4. Nobody wants that, that sucks.
“The bottom line is we have found the ability to run the ball with the way we kind of forecasted our evolution into Year 3. That’s hugely important when you’re talking about down the stretch, matchups and when you have a game that it’s win or go home, which invariably everyone does. You don’t get to pick, ‘Well we like passing the ball.’ Is your advantage running it? Well you better be able to run the ball that game because their pass rushers are unbelievable and if you put yourself in known passing situations, you’re going to have four turnovers.
“To me, you need your team to be able to do whatever it takes to win and the silver lining is finding the pieces of growth in the midst of us not getting the desired results and losing. In that, two things can be true; you can lose and you can develop. At some point, that development has to turn into wins or it can’t be real development. That piece, there is several positivities within the team that what were unknowns could appear to be strengths, and I think that only helps us and we’ll do whatever to win a game.”
Don’t Expect Much More Injury Relief
There are five players who went on injured reserve that are eligible to return this week: Bradley Chubb, River Cracraft, Cameron Goode, Patrick McMorris, and Isaiah Wynn. Are any of them ready to get back in on Sunday?
“It’s not out of the complete question, but I don’t foresee – this week wasn’t really where my timeline was. I’m looking at each day and I can’t at least forecast it this week, but beyond that, I don’t anticipate anything this week.”
The Backup QB Is Up In the Air For Week 8
Who’s backing up for Tua? Huntley left last week’s game with an arm injury, and the Dolphins signed C.J. Beathard to their practice squad this week.
“That’ll be dependent upon – I just want to see how guys play this week. ‘Snoop’ (Huntley), I don’t think is going to be available this week, so based upon how I see Skylar operate and how I see Tim, how I see C.J., we’ll make a decision based upon that. So in our current situation, there’s not any predetermined ‘I have the right answer.’ I’ll watch and adjust, but right now, we’re assessing, and we’ll do that on the practice field today.”
However, it’s clear that McDaniel is intrigued by Beathard.
“C.J. was a third-round draft pick in the first year I was in San Francisco as an assistant coach. I was the run game coordinator and then offensive coordinator there. I worked pretty hands-on with him, so I know a lot about C.J. What I like about him is his competitive drive, his arm talent and his toughness. I think he’s a competitor through and through, and somebody we’re excited to have the opportunity. I reached out to him right after he had his injury settlement with Jacksonville. He let us know when he was fully healthy, and excited that we had the opportunity to add him.”
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