On Friday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers completed an interview for their open offensive coordinator position with former Miami Dolphins Head Coach Mike McDaniel. The meeting took place in person in the afternoon at the AdventHealth Training Center.
McDaniel was the Dolphins' head coach from 2022-25 after previously serving as an offensive coordinator on Kyle Shanahan's staff with the San Francisco 49ers, and he was Miami's offensive play-caller during his tenure at the helm. During those four combined seasons, the Dolphins ranked eighth in the NFL in both net yards per game (348.0) and passing yards per game (232.8), while also recording the sixth-best yards per carry average (4.54) and the 12th-most points scored per game (23.3).
McDaniels inherited a Miami offense that had finished 25th in the NFL in 2021 and got it up to the sixth spot in his first season in 2022. The Dolphins' attack peaked in 2023, when it led the NFL with 401.3 points per game and finished second with 29.2 points per outing. That Dolphins squad also finished first in both passing yards per game (265.5) and yards per carry (5.06). The 2023 season included an historic 70-20 win over Denver in which the Dolphins became the first team in the Super Bowl era to score 70-plus points in a game and, with 726 net yards of offense, the first to surpass 700 yards in a game since 1951.
McDaniel spent five seasons on Shanahan's staff in San Francisco, including four (2017-2020) as the run game coordinator before his promotion to offensive coordinator in 2021. Shanahan brought McDaniel aboard when he first landed the 49ers' job in 2017, as the two had previously worked alongside each other on NFL coaching staffs in Houston, Washington, Cleveland and Atlanta. McDaniel's entry into the NFL came with the Denver Broncos, for whom he was a coaching intern in 2005. He was then an offensive assistant for the Texans from 2006-08 before joining the Detroit Lions as running backs coach in 2009 and 2010. Stops in Washington (2011-13), Cleveland (2014) and Atlanta (2015-16) followed.
The Buccaneers have now interviewed seven candidates for their offensive coordinator position after parting ways with Josh Grizzard on January 8. The team previously met with Baltimore Ravens Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken, New York Giants Interim Head Coach Mike Kafka, former Tennessee Head Coach Brian Callahan, Detroit Passing Game Coordinator David Shaw, Arizona Quarterbacks Coach Israel Woolfork and Atlanta Offensive Coordinator Zac Robinson.
