Walking away from the bitter-cold sting of an AFC Wild Card loss last season to the Kansas City Chiefs, Mike McDaniel and the Miami Dolphins extended a dubious run of postseason futility for the franchise.
Not since the first season of this century have the Dolphins won a playoff game.
For any coaches or players unaware of how long it's been since Miami has had a postseason result to celebrate, McDaniel is making sure to hammer the history home: It's been 24 long, fruitless years.
"You get what you emphasize," McDaniel said Thursday, via team transcript. "Well, why not find ways to emphasize finishing in everything you do? Obsess about it. Why not have for half the offseason, you're trying to have staff meetings at different times during the day. I had every staff meeting I put at like 7:24 or 3:24 or 5:24 -- the number 24. To you guys, it means nothing. That's how many years it's been since the organization has won a playoff game. We are going to hear about that come playoff time. You think? So to me, you do that to empower guys to know what's coming. To understand it, to not run from it."
Having arrived in Miami ahead of the 2022 season, McDaniel has provided a splashy offense that's piled up yards and points and buoyed the Fins to back-to-back playoff trips. The team's 2022 berth stopped a five-season streak of failing to make the playoffs. However, the Dolphins have been handed opening-round losses in each of the last two seasons and the franchise's last five playoff trips overall, underscoring a lack of success even making the postseason and absolutely none after punching their ticket to the dance.
With a starry roster that includes talents such as Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jalen Ramsey and many more, there's no guessing on what the onus is. Getting back to the playoffs isn't enough, it's time to make a run.
McDaniel isn't shying away from that reality.
As the 2024 season beckons, he is going to remind his squad just what time it is: time to snap another streak of futility. And he knows his players will be reminded of it by the media and fans, anyway, so might as well get out of the blocks first.
"Narratives are based upon past and hedging opinions moving forward," McDaniel said. "So, to me, I think it's important to get in front of that and know what's coming for players that are going to experience it directly and then leaning into that. I think it's hilarious to say, 'Now that you have pressure on you,' in this business for the reason of, are you blindfolded with earplugs in? Like dude, it's achieve now or watch out. Well, it's the same thing in regards to, 'Hey, things have happened.' Those two things -- the last two seasons – the seasons have ended a certain way, and about 30 to 40 percent of the team were part of it. The other portion of the team wasn't. But what can we learn from all of this and how do we adjust what we do now to hedge our bet then and little things? You take -- whether it's a game or we need to finish the season better."
Saddled with the narrative that they come up small in big games, the Dolphins went 11-6 in 2023 -- their most wins since 2008 -- prior to losing to the Chiefs, 26-7. They were eliminated in a 34-31 nail-biter against the rival Buffalo Bills a season prior in similar cold conditions on the road.
McDaniel isn't going to wait until another cold December to broach the topic. He's hitting it this spring.
"Let's go attack it and let's go achieve something together," McDaniel said. "That's the reason why I bring it up, just because I know no matter how much I tell people to not listen, it's impossible not to hear the noise coming. There's always going to be noise. Whatever, just address it and let's do our jobs deliberately and with a mindfulness today that can be applied in the future."
Of course, the Fins' playoff woes extend far before McDaniel arrived in South Beach.
Dave Wannstedt was the Dolphins head coach when they last won a playoff game and the coach on the sidelines when the futile postseason run began.
Wannstedt's 2001 Dolphins were one and done. So too were Tony Sparano's 2008 Dolphins. Then Adam Gase's 2016 squad. And now, McDaniel's first two teams.
As much as it's an issue long troubling the franchise, McDaniel isn't skirting an individual emphasis entering Year 3.
"When I got hired, I said it in like my first team meeting -- it was 22 years at the time," McDaniel said. "Just because yeah, you don't hire someone for moderate success or failure or anything. You hire them to win and I know we have to do that. Nothing has really changed. I don't feel pressure that way, because I feel way enough pressure having the job in general.
"I don't need any -- there's not any more to. You're hired for a reason and you understand that, and you're trying to help be a part, facilitate and be a part of a team that can succeed in the failures of the previous 22 or 24 seasons. I knew what I was signing up for with this job."
