Mike McDaniel has a reputation for being something of a satirical genius. I don’t mean McDaniel is offensive or harmful in any way, either. No, no. This is a guy at the helm of a revolutionary Miami Dolphins offense who knows he’s brilliant and refreshingly refuses to take a lot of things seriously.
Take the Dolphins’ red-hot 4-1 start, for example.
They have the best offense in professional football in most relevant metrics and are on pace to break various records. Through five games, Miami has the most total offensive yards in NFL history, with 2568. That’s no small feat and should be celebrated — even if it hasn’t won the Dolphins anything meaningful.
When asked about the Dolphins’ blistering statistical output, McDaniel was at his best. He had a delightful deadpan answer for an “achievement” he clearly doesn’t care much about:
Dolphins have more yards than ANY TEAM in NFL history through 5 games.
“Mission accomplished,” Mike McDaniel said. “Our whole goal this entire off-season was statistical output through five games.” pic.twitter.com/AhoSuulrFY
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) October 8, 2023
Classic. I can just feel the sarcasm dripping off McDaniel’s comment. “Why yes, our Dolphins had no other aspirations aside from statistics in over a month of play, why do you ask?” How can you not laugh at that?!
Responses like this make it clear we haven’t had a successful, colorful character like McDaniel in the NFL in a long time.