INDIANAPOLIS — Mike McDaniel is taking his experience with Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch with him to South Beach.
The newly anointed Miami Dolphins head coach spoke while at the NFL Scouting Combine expressing appreciation for what he learned from the 49ers' top figureheads. McDaniel and the head coach first worked together in 2006 when they were on the staff of the Houston Texans.
“I’ve used the analogy specifically with Kyle, how do you describe a house without a foundation?” McDaniel said on Tuesday. “Abstractly, it’s kind of hard for me to quantify or qualify exactly how much Kyle has meant to my career because it set my foundation when I was truly learning how to become a coach.”
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Outside of a stint coaching in the United Football League as a running backs coach with the Sacramento Mountain Lions, McDaniel has worked with Shanahan in some fashion through five different franchises.
The Dolphins head coach shared how Shanahan’s accountability has helped prepare him for the role with his new team. McDaniel, who was a specialist in the 49ers' run game strategy will be calling the offensive plays for the Dolphins which will be a new responsibility. McDaniel previously would send play options to Shanahan who would make the final call.
“We were talking about plays constantly,” McDaniel said. “For years, I have been putting myself in that position in terms of mentally how to call a game. So that once I got this opportunity that I wouldn't be freaked out. And lose all my hair and turn grey. So I'm excited about it. It's going to be awesome.”
McDaniel cited the open work relationship between Shanahan and Lynch as a barometer for how communication should look between a head coach and general manager. McDaniel is paired with long-time Dolphins executive Chris Grier who has been with the organization since 2007 and general manager since 2016.
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Kyle isn’t the only Shanahan to have influenced the new head coach. Mike, Kyle’s father was the head coach and VP of Player Personnel with the Denver Broncos when McDaniel was first hired as an intern with the club in 2005.
The retired head coach left a lasting impression on McDaniel who, in 2005, was adjusting to his first NFL job. The elder Shanahan’s message, however, was not realized until several seasons later as McDaniel explained in a story.
“It's a huge one for me,” McDaniel said. “I think he really influenced how I look at leadership from a head coaching position. I remember like it was yesterday. I was convinced that we were winning the Super Bowl.
“His bravado and his conviction and his how he set people's ambition. We were winning the Super Bowl. We were that good. And we went to the AFC Championship Game and lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But about five or six years down the road, as I had a better scope of the National Football League in general, I looked player by player at that roster. I was like wow, we were a much better team than we were individually.
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“That idea of raising people's ambition and just a vision, I don't know, perspective but also just a clean way of handling yourself on a day to day basis and powering people with confidence. That will be forever lasting for me as a coach and really as I walked the hallways in Miami Gardens these past couple of weeks, it just resonated with me, those days.”
McDaniel will have a challenging road ahead trying to lead a franchise that has not won a playoff game since the Wildcard round in 2000. The Dolphins beat the Indianapolis Colts to move ahead to the divisional round only to be shut out by the Raiders 27-0 the following week.