Things keep getting worse for the Miami Dolphins as the preseason approaches. After trading Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers, they have two glaring holes on the roster, which was already not so great. While it’s very likely that general manager Chris Grier will make some additions before the start of the season, former NFL scout John Middlekauff believes the team has a high chance of having a terrible season.
Middlekauff sees the head coach, Mike McDaniel, getting fired at the end of the season and floated one of the top college football coaches as his potential replacement.
Middlekauff Believes Dolphins Could Lose Every Single Game in 2025
Last season, Tua Tagovailoa’s injury 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.
While Tagovailoa is set to be back for the next season, Middlekauff believes if the quarterback suffers another injury, the Dolphins could lose every single game and potentially replace McDaniels with Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart.
“I think they are gonna be terrible,” he said on The Colin Cowherd Podcast. “I think they got a chance to be really, really bad. I mean, they are one Tua injury away from losing every single game. Like, yeah, you could fire him. But what’s the owner gonna do? Go after Kirby Smart, cause he’s gonna want some sexy name.”
Cowherd chipped in, suggesting the Dolphins had hired McDaniel as head coach just because Sean McVay was successful with the Los Angeles Rams.
“These younger guys get the job, but they don’t necessarily have impressive track records, and McVay didn’t,” he said. “It’s a copycat league.”
McDaniel was hired as the head coach in the 2022 season after McVay led the Rams to the Super Bowl, but he is yet to lead Miami to a single playoff win. However, Middlekauff didn’t put the entire blame on McDaniel and said that general manager Grier had also let the 42-year-old down.
“Let’s face it, he looks a lot different than basically every head coach, and he’s not a tough guy. You can never fake toughness…I think Mike is kind of lost in no man’s land, and listen his GM, I mean their roster is not great, not helping him, you have to have the right type of players at the line of scrimmage.”
The Dolphins ranked 27th in PFSN’s OL+ metrics, and with more departures than additions this offseason, their situation has only gotten worse. They haven’t won a playoff game since 2000, and with every loss in the coming season, the calls for Gier and McDaniel’s firing will only get louder.
As for McDaniel’s replacement, Smart is unlikely to leave the Bulldogs or college football, for that matter. Barring a season with the Dolphins in 2006, Smart has been coaching college football for his entire life and has never shown any interest in coaching the pros.
However, it’s worth noting that Middlekauff named Jon Gruden, who led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win in 2003, as one of the top options for Miami’s head coach position if McDaniel is indeed fired during an earlier interview.
