Mike McDaniel has officially been fired as Miami Dolphins head coach. The Washington Commanders should have been on the phone with his agent within five minutes of hearing the news.
Or he may have had head coach Dan Quinn put in a direct call.
As was well documented before the Commanders played the Dolphins in Spain this season, the two coaches have a very close personal relationship dating back to McDaniel’s days as an offensive assistant under Quinn with the Atlanta Falcons.
McDaniel was quoted at the time as being “forever indebted” to the Commanders’ current head coach for helping him achieve sobriety. Quinn never gave up on him and never stopped believing. His faith was repaid.
Commanders should do everything in their power to hire Mike McDaniel
The timing could not be more fortuitous. Washington announced the departure of offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury earlier this week. Now, just a few days later, one of the most highly respected offensive minds in the NFL is looking for a job.
He has a history with the head coach and the organization. McDaniel coached under Mike Shanahan in Washington from 2011-2013. Seems like a match made in heaven, no?
Not so fast.
Literally within minutes of the McDaniel news breaking, half a dozen teams were rumored to be interested in the elite play caller. At the top of the list is the Detroit Lions, who have already reached out. The Atlanta Falcons are another hot name on the rumor mill.
Both those clubs have plenty of offensive talent, though the lack of an established quarterback in Atlanta could be off-putting to a man with choices.
Fans of both the Tennessee Titans and the Arizona Cardinals were immediately talking about McDaniel not merely as a coordinator but as a head coach. The Las Vegas Raiders? They’d hire anyone.
Many of those rumors are completely unfounded, and that doesn’t really matter. We can be pretty sure that at least one team besides Washington will want to talk to McDaniel. If that team is indeed Detroit, Peters will need to make him an offer he can't refuse.
That’s exactly what he should do.
Washington has an elite young quarterback in Jayden Daniels. Developing him is the No. 1 on-field goal of the franchise. Though McDaniel has never served as a quarterbacks coach and indeed had trouble advancing Tua Tagovailoa’s career in Miami, he is as good a designer of offenses and play caller as there is in the league.
He is one of the very few legitimate candidates for the job who might actually be an upgrade over Kingsbury.
Peters and Quinn can try to sell McDaniel on an evolving offensive line with several good young talents and a rock-solid veteran left tackle. They can sell him on Terry McLaurin and perhaps a returning Deebo Samuel Sr., whom he worked with on the San Francisco 49ers. They can explain the plans to use ample salary cap space to add younger, faster talent to the offense.
And of course, Daniels will be Exhibit A in their pitch.
Then, they will have to hash out philosophical principles, which apparently caused friction with Kingsbury over time. Assuming all that can be worked out, they then have to spend big for the best option out there.
There is no salary cap on coaching staffs in the NFL. Owner Josh Harris should be making sure Peters remembers that as they begin what promises to be a fast-moving, intense period of negotiation that could result in a very exciting Commanders’ offense in 2026.