San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has been hired as the Miami Dolphins head coach. Jeff Chui/Associated Press
The Miami Dolphins hired San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel as their head coach Sunday, making him the first minority candidate to get hired so far this offseason.
McDaniel, who is biracial, replaces Brian Flores, who was fired despite posting winning records in the final two of his three seasons in Miami.
Flores sued the NFL, the Dolphins and two other teams last week over alleged racist hiring practices for coaches and general managers, saying the league remains “rife with racism” even as it publicly condemns it.
McDaniel had worked under 49ers Coach Kyle Shanahan for the past 11 seasons and gets his first shot as a head coach after only one year as offensive coordinator.
McDaniel was credited for his role in developing San Francisco’s creative running game that featured receiver Deebo Samuel as a running back at times, along with other wrinkles.
“Mike is awesome,” 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said last month. “He really is. He’s kind of that, I don’t want to say the mastermind behind everything, but he’s kind of that guy in the background that doesn’t say a whole ton to a lot of people, but his mind is always moving. The ideas that he comes up with are so fresh and new that it’s a cool guy to have on the staff. …
“He’s a lot smarter than most of us. So he dumbs it down for us and kind of gets us all on the same page.”
McDaniel could bring some of those wrinkles to Miami to feature playmaking receiver Jaylen Waddle in even more creative ways.
The Dolphins struggled offensively this season despite finishing 9-8 in a roller-coaster campaign that featured a seven-game losing streak followed by a seven-game winning streak.
Second-year quarterback Tua Tagovailoa struggled at times and Miami ranked 22nd in the league in scoring this season.
The 49ers had a much more productive offense despite also having a quarterback with limitations in Garoppolo.
The Yale-educated McDaniel got his coaching start on Mike Shanahan’s staff in Denver in 2005. He worked an offensive assistant in Houston for in 2006-08 when Kyle Shanahan was on that staff. McDaniel then worked in Washington for three years with Mike Shanahan as coach and Kyle Shanahan as offensive coordinator before working under Kyle Shanahan when he was a coordinator in Cleveland and Atlanta.
McDaniel then joined Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco in 2017 as run game coordinator and took over the offensive coordinator role this past season.
The Dolphins’ hiring of McDaniel followed some paths the team has used in the past, most notably how he is yet another first-time NFL head coach.
McDaniel becomes the 10th consecutive hire by the Dolphins to have exactly zero previous games as the person in charge of an NFL sideline, following Jim Bates, Nick Saban, Cam Cameron, Tony Sparano, Todd Bowles, Joe Philbin, Dan Campbell, Adam Gase and Flores. Bates, Bowles and Campbell were all interim hires.
SAINTS: Running back Alvin Kamara was arrested on a battery charge in Las Vegas after being accused of injuring someone at a nightclub on the eve of the Pro Bowl.
After playing and making four catches for 23 yards for the NFC in the Pro Bowl, Kamara was taken into custody and booked at the Clark County Detention Center on charges of battery resulting in substantial bodily harm.
Las Vegas police say they were dispatched to a hospital Saturday where a person had reported a battery at a nightclub. The police said detectives determined the victim was battered by Kamara.
The Saints and Kamara’s agent didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 26-year-old Kamara is one of the top running backs in the NFL. He had 1,337 yards from scrimmage and nine TDs this season on the way to being picked for his fifth Pro Bowl in five seasons as a pro.
BEARS: Chicago hired Richard Hightower as special teams coordinator under new coach Matt Eberflus.
Hightower spent the past five seasons as San Francisco’s special teams coordinator and has 15 years of NFL coaching experience. He replaces Chris Tabor in Chicago, where Hightower was assistant special teams coach on John Fox’s staff in 2016.
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