{"id":262104,"date":"2026-01-08T11:18:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=262104"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:18:51","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T16:18:51","slug":"breaking-miami-dolphins-fire-head-coach-mike-mcdaniel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/01\/08\/breaking-miami-dolphins-fire-head-coach-mike-mcdaniel\/","title":{"rendered":"BREAKING: Miami Dolphins Fire Head Coach Mike McDaniel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Miami Dolphins have today announced the decision to fire head coach Mike McDaniel after four seasons in charge.<\/p>\n

McDaniel joined the Dolphins ahead of the 2022 season after holding different roles with multiple teams around the NFL.<\/p>\n

Immediately prior to joining the Dolphins, he had been the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. Before that, he had been the team’s run game coordinator and was on the coaching staff when the team went to Super Bowl LIV.<\/p>\n

The now-42-year-old joined the Dolphins looking to inject creativity into the offense, which saw the team make the playoffs in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023, while finishing second in the AFC East for three consecutive seasons.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, back-to-back losing seasons have seen McDaniel let go. This coincides with the team making a final four list of general manager candidates, with the search having kick-started earlier this week.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Oct 12, 2025; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel leaves the field at the end of a game against the Los Angeles Chargers at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rich Storry-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Miami Dolphins Shock With McDaniel Firing<\/h3>\n

The announcement by the team<\/a> may have come as a surprise to many fans, with McDaniel’s post-season press conference earlier this week suggesting that he was likely to remain as head coach for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

McDaniel himself even commented that he would be involved in the team’s search for a new GM, but that proved to be incorrect after the list of interviewees was announced alongside reports of the people who would be participating in the interview process – including ESPN analyst Troy Aikman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the Miami Dolphins had slipped to a disappointing 7-10 record, results had improved after the departure of GM Chris Grier ahead of this season’s trade deadline.<\/p>\n

With the team unlikely to turn things around immediately, with Tua Tagovailoa’s contract still hanging over the team’s cap, 2026 looked set to be more of a transition season, which further strengthened McDaniel’s case for remaining in place.<\/p>\n

However, owner Stephen Ross has made the decision that a serious overhaul needs to be made within the organization, which could lead to a completely new-look team for the 2026 season and beyond.<\/p>\n

McDaniel leaves the Dolphins with a 35-33 record in the regular season and a 0-2 record in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

John Harbaugh to the Miami Dolphins?<\/h3>\n

One factor that appears likely to have had a genuine impact is the availability of Super Bowl-winning John Harbaugh, who was relieved of his duties by the Baltimore Ravens after 18 seasons in charge.<\/p>\n

The Dolphins have flirted with the Harbaugh family previously, with interest in Jim Harbaugh widely reported, despite the team still having an incumbent head coach in place.<\/p>\n

This time, Ross has decided to do things properly and seemingly seek out John Harbaugh with a completely open position on offer, potentially strengthening the Dolphins’ chances of landing him as Mike McDaniel’s successor.<\/p>\n

Harbaugh would bring a wealth of experience and change the outlook of the Dolphins, assuming whoever comes in as general manager can build a team in his image and provide him with the right tools to be successful.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles Chargers assistant general manager Chad Alexander is one of the final four candidates for the Dolphins’ job, and he has a long history of working with Harbaugh during his time in Baltimore.<\/p>\n

If the Dolphins bring in Alexander, it could be another thing that entices Harbaugh to take his talents to South Florida and work at building a new legacy with a different team in the NFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miami Dolphins have today announced the decision to fire head coach Mike McDaniel after four seasons in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2529,"featured_media":247529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,2,4],"tags":[7777,8908],"class_list":["post-262104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-featured","category-dolphins","tag-miami-dolphins-news","tag-mike-mcdaniel"],"modified_by":"Drew Crabtree","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2529"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262104"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262121,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262104\/revisions\/262121"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}