Just One Game Into 2025, Open Season Has Been Declared on Mike McDaniel

Kevin Sabitus. Getty Images.

This didn't take long. One of the strangest career trajectories of recent vintage in the NFL seems to have reached terminal velocity and bracing for impact. 

Why, it was only a couple of years ago when Mike McDaniel was a media darling, charming the pleated khaki trousers off the football Journos press conference by quirky, eccentric press conference. He was America's "It Coach." The new face of the generation who grew up in a post-Moneyball, analytics world, with game controllers in their hands and hookup apps, in case they ever desired human companionship. He was going to reinvent NFL coaching for the second quarter of the 21st century. 

Until he didn't. Starting last December:

His offense was No. 1 in the league in yards and No. 2 in points in 2023 before falling to 22nd and 18th last year. Now, after a dismal start to 2025, it's 31st and 30th. By Pro Football Focus grading, it's 29th overall. His passing offense, though positively loaded with weapons, is 30th in passer rating, ahead of only Tennessee and Carolina. 

Sure, you can argue that everything I'm saying is correct because I'm a handsome, desirable genius, but that this is only after one game. So maybe I could slow my roll when it comes to this. After all every team can get off to a garbage start to the season. 

A few things about that. First, thanks for the nice compliments. Two, the Patriots are going to Miami and I want all this to be true. And third, don't go by me. Listen to everybody else:

Yahoo Sports -  After two seasons with the Miami Dolphins, Jalen Ramsey's time with the team ended with a divorce. …

 While no explicit reason for Ramsey's desire to play elsewhere was ever voiced, reports said he had an "irreparably broken" relationship with Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel and the cornerback's social media suggested the same.

Earlier this week, Ramsey seemed to continue to throw subtle shade at McDaniel when discussing the trade with Fred Taylor on "The Pivot" podcast.

"I do appreciate the Dolphins and them working with me," Ramsey said. "… Let's go to a team that's going to be able to compete. Let's go to a team where there's a lot of respect for the head coach."

If even a small percentage of this is true, if McDaniel really has begun losing his players, they really are unprepared and uncommitted, if Rex Ryan is justified in calling him "Nerd Boy," his story would be the very definition of a "meteoric" rise and fall. From one season as the 49ers offensive coordinator to the prototype of the next generation of head coach, to fawning coverage across all media, to out of work before the end of his fourth year in Miami. To quote Julian Edelman when his team was down 28-3, it'd "be a hell of a story." 

Of course I want the Patriots to go down to the haunted Scooby-Doo amusement park that is whatever the hell the Dolphins stadium is called this week, and hasten McDaniel's demise. But at the same time, if things in Miami really are as bad as they're being made out to be, I'd like to prop this guy up for as long as possible. We wasted no time getting rid of our guy who was coaching to save his job. I wouldn't hate if a division rival kept theirs around a little while longer.