The job status — more precisely job security — of head coach Mike McDaniel remains the biggest issue involving the Miami Dolphins as they head into their bye this weekend.
McDaniel remains on the job some three weeks after the team parted ways with General Manager Chris Grier after a 2-7 start that came in the aftermath of owner Stephen Ross' January edict that the status quo would not be acceptable.
Since then, national media reports have suggested there exists the possibility, maybe even a strong one, that McDaniel could be back in 2026 unless the team falls apart in the final month and a half of the 2025 regular season.
But what will happen if the team finishes, say, 8-9 for a second consecutive season, which would be the epitome of status quo?
Only Ross really knows the answer to that question, but McDaniel would not exactly have NFL history on his side if the Dolphins don't manage to win more than four of their final six games to produce a third winning record in four years for the head coach.
Given that the Dolphins almost certainly will be betting underdogs against three of their final six opponents — the Pittsburgh Steelers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New England Patriots — and possibly also against the Cincinnati Bengals, chances are the Dolphins are going to finish with a losing record.
That would be two in a row for the Dolphins under McDaniel.
And that would make him the 21st head coach since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger to have a losing record in both his third and fourth full seasons with a team.
Of those 21, four of them (19 percent) were brought back for a fifth season.
Those four included David Shula — yes, the son of late, great Don Shula — with the Cincinnati Bengals in the 1990s, Dan Reeves with the Atlanta Falcons in the late 1990s, Steve Mariucci with the San Francisco 49ers also in the late 1990s, and most recently Jeff Fisher of the Los Angeles Rams.
Of those four, Shula and Fisher didn't make it through their fifth season.
The closest comparison here for McDaniel, though, might be Mariucci, but with a caveat.
Mariucci is the only one of the four coaches who produced a winning record in each of his first two seasons before losing records in Years 3-4. The caveat is that Mariucci took over as head coach after the 49ers had 14 consecutive double-digit-win seasons, whereas the Dolphins had two winning seasons (10-6 and 9-8) before McDaniel took over.
As we've indicated before, McDaniel is looking right now to simply become the first Dolphins head coach to be on the job for at least four full seasons since Dave Wannstedt, who took over in 2000 and lasted until he was fired after nine games in the 2004 season.
The only other Dolphins coaches with at least four full seasons were Jimmy Johnson, Don Shula and original head coach George Wilson. Wilson had a losing record in each of his four seasons, but those were the first four years in franchise history and the Dolphins also played in the AFL before Shula arrived in 1970.
For the record, the 17 coaches who were let go after a losing record in their third and fourth full seasons were:
Jim Dooley with the Chicago Bears (1971)
Dan Devine with the Green Bay Packers (1974)
Neill Armstrong with the Chicago Bears (1981)
Dan Henning with the Atlanta Falcons (1986)
Forrest Gregg with the Green Bay Packers (1987)
Lindy Infante with the Green Bay Packers (1991)
Joe Bugel with the Arizona Cardinals (1993)
Jerry Glanville with the Atlanta Falcons (1993)
Sam Wyche with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1995)
Dan Reeves with the New York Giants (1996)
Ray Rhodes with the Philadelphia Eagles (1998)
Dom Capers with the Carolina Panthers (1998)
Dom Capers with the Houston Texans (2005)
Mike McCoy with the San Diego Chargers (2016)
Todd Bowles with the New York Jets (last season in 2018)
Anthony Lynn with the L.A. Chargers (2020)
Doug Marrone with the Jacksonville Jaguars (2020)
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