One feature common to many HoF coaches is that they achieved back to back winning seasons/playoff appearances within their first 3 years at a club. With Miami now in the playoffs for 2 consecutive years with Mike McDaniels this is a very good sign that we have found our next Don Shula. Of course there are no guarantees, and there are plenty of coaches who started fast then faded. However, the number of coaches who did not record back to back winning seasons in their first 3 seasons and then went on to a HoF career is very short. Also coach McDaniels has not achieved this through smoke and mirrors. He is doing through increasing the team's rankings in significant categories such as offensive production and defensive production. He isn't achieving his record by pulling out flukey wins or gimmick systems, he's achieving by getting the team to play good football. This approach is historically more likely to be sustained in following seasons (eg Sparano and the wildcat being a 1 year wonder or the Chip Kelly era for the Eagles)
To be fair, Flores also had multiple winning seasons in his 1st three years...and we all know what he started with. I'm not saying that to discredit McDaniel, but it is important to point out that he inherited a team with two winning seasons before he took over. This is our 4th year in a row above .500...that's crazy. Grier gets a ton of credit though, in my opinion anyway.
It’s been fun to watch him. He’s clearly able to get more out of his players than any coach we’ve seen in a long time. Watching basically a back up OL go up against one of the better pass rushers/rushes in the NFL, showed me this guy has all 53 players bought in. If we can keep this collection of talent, with the chemistry they clearly have and maybe add a piece or two, this team is very close to being a SB contender. Or maybe we are and just need to get back to full health.
Statistically Flores wasn't a keeper though. He had 2 winning seasons in his first 3 years, but in point differential (the stat with the highest correlation to win% except for the final score) we were #32, #11 and #21. So at best we were still sub-10 in point differential. It's relatively rare for a SB winner to be sub-10. McDaniel has us at #4 in point differential right now. Last time we had a higher point differential ranking was 1984. Last time we were top 10 in point differential was 2002. We are also #1 in offense and #13 in defense, with the 2nd best QB in passer rating this year. Those are SB winner stats. We haven't been this close to being an elite team in a very long time. McDaniel is a keeper in a way no other coach since Shula has been.
I'm not disagreeing, but Flores started with a team that was fully gutted year one and filled with UFDA's. McDaniel didn't have the same obstacles starting out.
Yeah, but Flores wouldn't have solved the "offense" part of the SB winner equation. He didn't know what to do with Tua, and his offenses ranked #25, #15 and #22 in points scored. It's nearly impossible to win a SB with an average or below average offense. There's no question getting rid of Flores was one of the best (recent) decisions for this franchise. Same with getting rid of Gase, Philbin and Sparano. If you can't build a top level offense, forget it. Get a new coach. We did that, found a coach that's put together an elite offense, and now we're a contender.
