‘Call me when it’s a 13-game season’
McDaniel not content with being No. 1 in AFC through Week 13
MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins, Miami Dolphins; Miami Dolphins No. 1.
It’s a familiar fight song chorus for Dolphins fans, but now actually true in the AFC.
The Miami Dolphins hold the No. 1 seed through 13 weeks of the NFL season. After their win Sunday against the Washington Commanders, losses by the Kansas City Chiefs and Jacksonville Jaguars and a Baltimore Ravens bye, they leapfrogged all in the standings from fourth in the conference to first.
The Dolphins (9-3) control their fate to earn a first-round bye in the postseason, which would make the path to the Super Bowl in the AFC run through Hard Rock Stadium.
But the team refuses to get ahead of itself with five games remaining in the regular season.
“Call me when it’s a 13-game season,” coach Mike McDaniel said Tuesday, signaling that his Dolphins would not change their approach or mindset in any way. “The only reason we’re 9-3 is because we haven’t penciled in any of the wins that people have told us to pencil in.”
And now, the Dolphins face another pair of such games at home against two of the bottom three teams in the AFC, which both are 4-8: the Tennessee Titans on Monday night and then the New York Jets.
After that, it’s the final three-game gauntlet that should really determine Miami’s playoff seeding: vs. Dallas Cowboys, at Baltimore Ravens, vs. Buffalo Bills.
“You get to about five games, four games left and that becomes a lot of the conversation,” McDaniel said. “And it does take a lot of execution to get there, but it’s kind of one of those tricky things. There’s a lot of distraction, like, ‘Look over here while this is going on,’ that you have to battle to be successful in the National Football League. The only thing that really matters is how we continue our development of mastering each and every day.”
The mindset transcends the coach to his players.
“It’s a good start,” fullback Alec Ingold said. “I think it really just is encouraging to stay focused and locked in on your process and what you can do today because the wins and the losses from this past weekend or next week or the week after that doesn’t change the approach that you carried into December, saying, ‘It’s time to improve; it’s time to get better; it’s time to start clicking on all cylinders.’
“If you carry that mindset, you can look back and say how cool the seeding all played out or how the playoffs went, but it really is a challenge to stay in that microscope every single day.”
While national pundits may criticize the Dolphins for only beating the teams they should on paper, their mentality hasn’t allowed them to slip up in any such games.
“There’s a lot of teams that are below .500 that are getting wins against teams that are above .500,” McDaniel noted. “I’m happy for the fan base to get that excitement, and that’s all nice, but we have a job to do today.”
McDaniel also had a humorous reaction to the number of backup quarterbacks that have had to play across the league in 2023, while Miami starter Tua Tagovailoa has stayed healthy a year after the Dolphins used three quarterbacks to get through the past season.
“To me, it feels like the healthiest year for quarterbacks ever,” he quipped. “For the Miami Dolphins, this is the year of quarterback health.”
McDaniel confirmed Tuesday that inside linebacker Jerome Baker has an MCL injury that won’t require surgery and the team is monitoring week to week. The coach added that Baker will not go on injured reserve,
which would put him out a minimum of four weeks.
Left tackle Terron Armstead is “going to do everything he can” to play Monday night against the Titans, McDaniel said, after Sunday’s game added an ankle injury to his already ailing quadriceps and knee.
McDaniel said the time off from sitting out Sunday’s game at Washington helped safety Jevon Holland as he recovers from injuries to both knees.
Right guard Robert Hunt aggravated his hamstring injury on an abnormal movement he had to make on a block in the win over the Commanders. McDaniel said the team will go back to a conservative approach with him.
Community impact
Ingold, on Tuesday, was named the Dolphins’ nominee for the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award, which acknowledges players who excel on the field while demonstrating a passion for making a positive impact in their communities.
“Everything you do on and off the field is not for the recognition, but then you get recognized for it, is kind of a catch-22,” Ingold said. “It’s never about the recognition or the award. It’s really about what you do with it or how you use it for some good in the world.”
Said general manager Chris Grier in a statement: “Alec demonstrates excellence on the field on a daily basis, but his leadership and positive influence on others off the field is even more exemplary.”
All 32 nominees will be recognized during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. The winner will be announced during NFL Honors, the league’s awards special on Feb. 8.