Mike McDaniel was an offensive assistant with the 2015 and 2016 Atlanta Falcons, which meant he was part of the coaching staff that helped pilot the team to the Super Bowl while Matt Ryan enjoyed an MVP season. Now, there’s at least a possibility that McDaniel will be working for Ryan as the next head coach of the Falcons.
Per NFL insider Tom Pelissero, Atlanta is one of the many teams McDaniel will be interviewing with after the Dolphins fired him last week. He had gone 35-33 in the regular season
with Miami and 0-2 in the playoffs, with a brutal meltdown season from Tua Tagovailoa and the availability of coaches like John Harbaugh ultimately dooming him there.
McDaniel is intriguing both for the connections to Atlanta and his offensive planning, at the core of which is a great game run game that would presumably be even easier to set up with Bijan Robinson in the fold. McDaniel spent time as a running backs coach and wide receivers coach before his stint with the Falcons, and after that he was San Francisco’s run game coordinator and ultimately offensive coordinator under Kyle Shanahan. The adaptability and ground game focus that Shanahan is so famous for show up with McDaniel, but he’s obviously A) not quite the wizard Shanahan is and B) built an offense that was tailored to Tua’s strengths, but ultimately Tua’s weaknesses were great enough that the whole thing fell down. The Dolphins were 9-8 in 2022, 11-6 in 2024, 8-9 in 2024, and 7-10 in 2025 under McDaniel.
With McDaniel as head coach, you’d need an excellent defensive coordinator hire—presumably Anthony Weaver would follow him wherever he goes if he doesn’t get a head coaching job of his own—and would ideally have coaches to assist with game management. Like so many coaches who have come through Atlanta, especially the trio after Mike Smith, McDaniel’s clock handling, late down situational play calling, and chock full o’ill-timed penalties teams would be a concern for the Falcons or any other team that hired him; hotly disputed reports about his loose grip on the locker room may be a concern for some but seem overblown. What isn’t really in question is that he’s a bright offensive mind and would be a strong hire to give Michael Penix Jr. a fighting chance and turn a ground game Zac Robinson did well with into something potentially even better, though the Falcons may well lose Tyler Allgeier this offseason.
He’s an intriguing possibility for a team that should have been much better offensively in 2025, in other words, even if I’m wary about how sloppy his Dolphins teams could be . If Matt Ryan has been following his career closely and remembers their shared time in Atlanta fondly, and McDaniel is interested in Atlanta’s opening in turn, perhaps we’ll get a reunion.
