Dolphins fire Mike McDaniel, the quirky, inventive coach who they once viewed as their future

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Mike McDaniel has run out of luster in Miami.

The Dolphins fired the dry-witted, wunderkind coach who they once viewed as the future of the franchise on Thursday, ending his four-year tenure that was defined by soaring — and unfulfilled — expectations.

McDaniel fell out of favor following a 7-10 season in which Miami missed the playoffs for a second straight year.

“After careful evaluation and extensive discussions since the season ended, I have made the decision that our organization is in need of comprehensive change,” Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said in a statement. “I informed Mike McDaniel this morning that he has been relieved of his duties as head coach.”

The Dolphins went 35-33 under McDaniel, reaching the playoffs in his first two seasons but losing in the first round each time. Miami missed the postseason in 2024 after being eliminated by the Jets in the regular-season finale. This year, their postseason hopes ended with a loss to Pittsburgh in Week 15, ensuring that their 25-year playoff-win drought would continue.

“When I took this job, I had a vision of a team that was bonded together and played with passion and energy on the path to winning championships,” McDaniel said in a statement. "I gave everything I had for that goal. I'm disappointed, especially for the fans, that we did not have better results on the field."

Miami parted ways with longtime general manager Chris Grier on Oct. 31 and began its search for a new general manager this week. But a disjointed finish to the season that saw former first-round pick Tua Tagovailoa get benched proved the final straw for Ross.

“I love Mike and want to thank him for his hard work, commitment, and the energy he brought to our organization," Ross said in his statement. "Mike is an incredibly creative football mind whose passion for the game and his players was evident every day. I wish him and his family the best moving forward.”

McDaniel, 42, arrived in Miami in 2022 after one season as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator. Credited with adding inventive wrinkles to the 49ers’ run game, the first-time head coach was billed as the creative mind who, along with Tagovailoa, was supposed to lift the Dolphins out of years of mediocrity.

Initially, things appeared to be heading that way.

McDaniel won 20 of his first 33 games, including a 3-0 start during his first year with wins over Baltimore, Buffalo and New England. He took the Dolphins to the playoffs that season and nearly beat the Bills with rookie Skylar Thompson starting in place of the concussed Tagovailoa.

His off-the-cuff jokes, idiosyncratic sayings and flashy style were a refreshing deviation from the approach of many other head coaches — but they were also initially met with needed results on the field.

Tagovailoa had credited McDaniel with rebuilding his confidence after former Dolphins coach Brian Flores tore it down as a young quarterback. Tagovailoa said last year that the constant criticism early in his career left him doubting himself. He was the fifth pick in the 2020 draft and won the starting job, but was benched twice as a rookie and faced uncertainty his second year amid speculation the Dolphins were seeking a trade for Deshaun Watson.

“To put it in simplest terms,” Tagovailoa said in a 2024 interview on “The Dan LeBatard Show,” if you woke up every morning and I told you you suck at what you did, that you don’t belong doing what you do, that you shouldn’t be here, that this guy should be here, that you haven’t earned this right. ... And then you have somebody else come in and tell you, ‘Dude, you are the best fit for us, you are accurate, you are the best.’ How would it make you feel listening to one or the other?”

With McDaniel tailoring Miami's offense to his strengths, Tagovailoa led the NFL’s top offense in 2023, throwing for a league-best 4,624 yards and 29 touchdowns. He led the league in 2024 with a 72.9 completion rate.

Since that season, which ended in a 26-7 loss in a frigid wild-card game at Kansas City, the Dolphins have gone 15-19, and appear far from the franchise that just a couple of years ago spoke of contending for a Super Bowl.

They haven’t won a playoff game since 2000, the longest active drought in the NFL. And they have made headlines more for culture issues in the past year than on-field success.

Tyreek Hill, the star receiver who the Dolphins acquired from the Chiefs in 2022, took himself out of last year’s regular-season finale and later told reporters “I’m out,” expressing frustration with not making the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Hill — who suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 4 — later apologized, walked back those comments and stated his commitment to the Dolphins. But his actions seemed to reflect behind the scenes culture issues with the Dolphins in 2024, which included instances of players repeatedly showing up late to meetings.

McDaniel, Grier and veteran players said during the offseason that many of those issues had been addressed, and they commended the new team camaraderie that they hoped would help them get off to a fast start in 2025.

The Dolphins opened the season with a 33-8 drubbing by Indianapolis and ended it with another blowout loss to New England. Now, they head into another offseason of uncertainty.

“Eventually, like everybody else in this league, you’re not entitled to this position,” McDaniel said Monday. “If I’m not able to win regular-season games, playoff games and Super Bowls, eventually the job won’t be mine.”

This story has been corrected to show that McDaniel was 35-33 as Dolphins coach, not 35-32.

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Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel stands on the sideline during the first half of an NFL football game against the New England Patriots in Foxborough, Mass., Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Miami Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s Artemis II astronauts fired their engines and blazed toward the moon Thursday night, breaking free of the chains that have trapped humanity in shallow laps around Earth in the decades since Apollo.

The so-called translunar ignition came 25 hours after liftoff, putting the three Americans and a Canadian on course for a lunar fly-around early next week. Their Orion capsule bolted out of orbit around Earth right on cue and chased after the moon to nearly 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away.

It was the first such engine firing for a space crew since Apollo 17 set out on that era’s final moonshot on Dec. 7, 1972. NASA said that preliminary reports indicate it went well.

NASA had the Artemis II crew stick close to home for a day to test their capsule’s life-support systems before clearing them for lunar departure.

Now committed to the moon, the Artemis II test flight is the opening act for NASA’s grand plans for a moon base and sustained lunar living.

Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen will dash past the moon then hang a U-turn and zip straight home without stopping on land. In the process, they will become the farthest humans have ever traveled from Earth, breaking the Apollo 13 distance record set in 1970. They also may become the fastest during their reentry at flight’s end on April 10.

Glover, Koch and Hansen already have made history as the first Black, the first woman and the first non-U.S. citizen to launch to the moon. Apollo’s 24 lunar travelers were all white men.

To set the mood for the day’s main event, Mission Control woke up the crew with John Legend’s “Green Light” featuring Andre 3000 and a medley of NASA teams cheering them.

“We are ready to go,” Glover said.

Mission Control gave the final go-ahead minutes before the critical engine firing, telling the astronauts that they were embarking on “humanity’s lunar homecoming arc” to bring them back to Earth.

Koch replied: “With this burn to the moon, we do not leave Earth. We choose it.”

The next major milestone will be Monday’s lunar flyby.

Orion will zoom 4,000 miles (6,400 kilometers) beyond the moon before turning back, providing unprecedented and illuminated views of the lunar far side, at least for human eyes. The cosmos will even treat the Artemis II astronauts to a total solar eclipse as the moon temporarily blocks the sun from their perspective.

While awaiting their orbital departure earlier Thursday, the astronauts savored the views of Earth from tens of thousands of miles high. Koch told Mission Control that they can make out the entire coastlines of continents and even the South Pole, her old stomping ground.

“It is just absolutely phenomenal,” radioed Koch, who spent a year at an Antarctic research station before joining NASA.

NASA is counting on the test flight to kickstart the entire Artemis program and lead to a moon landing by two astronauts in 2028. Orion’s toilet may need some design tweaks before that happens.

The so-called lunar loo malfunctioned as soon as the Artemis crew reached orbit Wednesday evening. Mission Control guided astronaut Koch through some plumbing tricks and she finally got it going, but not before having to resort to using contingency urine storage bags.

Controllers also managed to bump up the cabin temperature. It was so cold earlier in the flight that the astronauts had to dig into their suitcases for long-sleeved clothes.

The contingency urine bags came in handy later in the day. Mission Control ordered the crew to fill a bunch of the empty bags with water from the capsule’s dispenser. A valve issue arose with the dispenser following liftoff, and NASA wanted plenty of drinking water on hand for the crew in case the problem worsened. The astronauts used straws and syringes to fill the pouches with more than 2 gallons (7 liters) worth before pivoting to the moon.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

In this photo provided by NASA, a view of the Earth from NASA's Orion spacecraft as it orbits above the planet during the Artemis II test flight, on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (NASA via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, an Artemis program patch floating in the International Space Station's cupola, on March 30, 2026. (Jessica Meir/NASA via AP)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

Spectators view NASA's Artemis II moon rocket launch from the A. Max Brewer Bridge, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Titusville, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

NASA's Artemis II moon rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39-B Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)