Mike McDaniel gets second coaching interview after disastrous Dolphins ending

Mike McDaniel will return to Cleveland, where he worked as a wide receivers coach early in his career, to interview for the vacant head coaching position with the Browns. 

McDaniel, 42, will be at the team facility on Monday to interview for the job, according to Cleveland.com. 

It comes just four days after McDaniel was fired by the Dolphins following a four-year run in Miami, where he went 35-34 and failed to win a playoff game.

Miami missed out on the postseason in McDaniel’s last two seasons, including a 7-10 mark in the most recent campaign that included the benching of starting quarterback Tua Tagovalioa for the final three games.

It also comes a week after the Browns fired Kevin Stefanski, whose name has come up quite a bit in relation to the Giants’ coaching vacancy. 

McDaniel was the Browns’ receivers coach in 2014 under then-offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan and head coach Mike Pettine. 

The Titans are also expected to interview McDaniel on Wednesday.

The Browns have been busy in their coaching search, with McDaniel being the sixth candidate the organization has brought in for an interview. 

Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees, defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Seahawks DC Aden Durde, Bengals OC Dan Pitcher and Revens offensive coordinator Todd Monken have also interviewed for the job. 

The Browns, like just about every team with a coaching vacancy, is also interested in ex-Ravens coach John Harbaugh. 

Cleveland.com reported that Harbaugh could be brought in to interview for the job in the near future, and the Browns were one of the seven teams that called him less than an hour after he was fired by Baltimore. 

Whoever gets the Browns job will be responsible for turning around a franchise that went 8-24 the past two seasons — and figure out the quarterback position with rookies Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel splitting much of the time under center this past season.

McDaniel spent one season in Cleveland and then followed Shanahan to Atlanta in 2015 when he took over as offensive coordinator there. 

McDaniel would later go to San Francisco to be part of the 49ers’ coaching staff, starting as a run game coordinator and eventually working up to offensive coordinator. 

He took over as the Dolphins’ head coach in 2022.