From Fitzpatrick’s view, McDaniel and Tagovailoa form winning team
So many coaches disregard the real risk of authority. The truth is a team can turn on you if they distrust your intentions or spot a phony. Rule without communication, as Joe Philbin did the Miami Dolphins, and it can crater a full franchise. Rule by fear, as Nick Saban does, and the grown-up veterans won’t buy in.
On the other hand, look at how the Miami Dolphins have embraced Mike McDaniel. Here’s a coach who understands the nuances of authority, starting with the Pygmalion project he performed on Tua Tagovailoa. You know Pygmalion, the artist who brought a sculpture to life, like water to wine, through conversation and belief.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, the former Dolphins quarterback turned Amazon broadcaster, looks at Tagovailoa’s last couple of games and sees the clay being molded, the sculpture coming to life.
“One of the biggest differences from last year is confidence,’’ said Fitzpatrick, who will work Thursday’s Dolphins game in Cincinnati. “I think maybe he way he’s being coached right now and the confidence from interactions is the big thing in his development.”
He added: “I don’t think it hurts having Tyreek Hill.”
But anyone who aspires to lead, who wonders what makes good authority figures, should listen to Fitzpatrick on McDaniel and Tagovailoa. He calls McDaniel the “new-age” coach for this new era of athletes, and the tenor is a fascinating contrast to what came before in Brian Flores.
This isn’t a hard slap at Flores, considering he won in ways his roster shouldn’t have allowed and there are a dozen ways up the mountain. Linebacker Jerome Baker appreciated the “full honesty” Flores talked with, as did other players. The dictator football coach like Flores is the tried and tested way, too. Fitzpatrick saw it up close that 2020 season with Tagovailoa.
“It’s a fine line when dealing with young guys and specifically quarterbacks,’’ he said. “You want to push them, creating stress, manufacturing stress, because you get into situations in games and want them to handle it.
“Tua, from the second he stepped on the field at Alabama, has had more pressure any quarterback ever with the scrutiny and success right away … that doesn’t need to be manufactured for him. He’s played in big games with the weight of an entire team on him, and he’s performed.”
So what was needed? Space? Encouragement? Fitzpatrick remembered starting the opening games of the 2020 season, then being replaced by Tagovailoa, then replacing him
in Denver and against Las Vegas.
“That was kind of an admission by coach Flores there were certain aspects of the game he wasn’t ready for,’’ Fitzpatrick said. “The two-minute drill. He was so talented, it was time to get him on the field. I thought he did a great job with that year.”
But was the tough-love personality the way? Fitzpatrick says he doesn’t want to speak for Tagovailoa.
“I know after I left there were some things that got even rockier with that relationship,’’ he said, referring, perhaps to the halftime shouting match in a loss at Tennessee.
That set the stage for McDaniel and his quirky,
upbeat, optimistic, football-coaches-don’t-actthis-way personality. Don’t read this wrong: A football coach showing impervious, even imperial, resolve on a sideline matters. But what matters, too, are players being receptive of a coach’s methods.
Fitzpatrick read the effect on Tagovailoa from the outside, but through the prism of a 17-year veteran. He hasn’t met McDaniel. But he’s seen the effect he’s had on Tua. The “surprising thing,’’ he said is the downfield throws.
“A lot of discussion is ‘He can’t do this,’ ‘’ he said. “There’s been some coverage busts, but he’s been able to take advantage of them. You have to see it, and you have to be able to throw it
there.”
Accuracy, was never an issue.
Was confidence? Tagovailoa says it wasn’t. But certainly the change from a tough, defensive-minded coach like Flores to an upbeat, offensive-mind like McDaniel has benefited Tagovailoa. Having better surrounding talent matters, too. It’s just three games in, but the past two wins against Baltimore and Buffalo have shown progress.
“They’ve won 11 of their past 12, haven’t they?” Fitzpatrick said, going to back to the 8 of 9 Flores won to finish last season.
He talked of defensive coordinator Josh Boyer’s calling “fearless” blitzes that can turn games. He
talked of Hill — “Every time he touches the ball you hold your breath” — and Jaylen Waddle as receivers. But he talked mostly of what McDaniel and Tagovailoa were creating and the next, necessary step.
“Consistency,’’ he said. “That’s the hardest thing. It’s something I chased for my whole career. I had the ups and I had the downs. .. We’ve seen him do it at the highest level. But the consistency of doing it every week is important.
Two of Fitzpatrick’s former teams, the Dolphins and Bengals, play Thursday. He’ll be talking from the sideline, watching the clay be molded as McDaniel’s unique brand of authority transfers to the Tagovailoa.