Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has a completely new staff of assistants as he enters his third season in Miami. In all, he hired 11 guys.
It should go without saying that’s a significant change in staff. Of the newcomers to McDaniel’s staff, seven are on defense with four on the Dolphins offense. The top hire is defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver, who replaced Vic Fangio. (You can find the complete list here).
Weaver definitely has credibility with his players. After all, he used to be one of them. He starred at Notre Dame, with the Ravens selecting him in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Weaver’s NFL career lasted seven seasons. He spent time with both the Ravens and Texans. Weaver, 43, left Baltimore, where he was a defensive line coach, to be Miami’s defensive coordinator.
McDaniel recently discussed his hiring philosophy with reporters who cover the Dolphins. He mentioned Weaver first. The two have known each other for a decade.
“You start with who you hire as the coordinator,” McDaniel said. “And then moving forward … for me, if I’m expecting to have the appropriate relationship with the defensive coordinator, immediately we are talking about how are we empowering him with assistant coaches. And that conversation for ‘Weave’ and I … He can understand what I would mean or what I would be alluding to and knows kind of my framework of belief systems.”
He conceded that making so many changes, at least initially, can be jarring and uncomfortable.
“It’s a challenge that you don’t like having and you prefer not having every year,” said the Dolphins head coach. “But it’s one that is welcomed and embraced if you’re able to find the right people and put the right people together to facilitate the individual and team dream that we’re all shooting for.
“Because there are so many new people on the staff, you do have an inherent, heightened awareness of the relationships of the position coaches,” McDaniel said. “One of the reasons that I’m happy about this offseason is because I can see the facilitation of the relationships in practice. I can see someone make a mistake in period one, and then in period five have it corrected and executing it the way we corrected. Those are manifestations of relationships that you either have or you don’t.
“They have to be earned and I think our coaching staff has really hit it out of the park.” McDaniel said. “I’ve never been as happy with our position coaches and coaching staff in general as I have been this offseason. And I’ve been looking very closely at it, which is why I know it to be true.”
The Dolphins are in the middle of a break after finishing minicamp early last month. Rookies will report to training camp, July 16. Then the veterans report a week later.