A welcome glimpse of early Miami Mike McDaniel resurfaced last week when he — perhaps not so coincidentally — drove right past the Buffalo Bills’ watch party in the wake of their upset loss to his Dolphins.
It had served as one of the shock results of the NFL season so far, and one of the few bright spots amid a dismal campaign for Miami. McDaniel insisted he was just driving home. This is not the McDaniel football knows.
His lovable sense of humor had become a prominent theme as he unleashed his offensive wizardry by orchestrating one of the league’s most explosive attacks during his first few years in charge. That much has since understandably faded as he deals with the wounds of a team already preparing for 2026.
On Sunday it was apparently back. Whether he wants to admit it or not.
“Man, Coach Mike is the little king,” Dolphins linebacker Bradley Chubb told Sky Sports.
“He showed it right then and there, man. He said he was on his way home. I don’t know what he said, it was that he was on his way home. He just came by.
“So I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but he’s definitely the little king.”
A little can go a long way, and between a bump to Buffalo’s AFC East game and McDaniel’s not-so-subtle jibe, the Dolphins were finally able to revel in the long-lost spark that had previously fueled a playoff contender.
Chubb, McDaniel and Miami know it can’t stop there, because so much of the frustration stems from a knowledge and belief inside the locker room of what the Dolphins could accomplish.
McDaniel’s team has won two of its last three after starting the season 1-6 and staring at the prospect of a wasted season. Their next stop is Madrid, where they host the Washington Commanders at the iconic Bernabeu Stadium in the NFL’s first ever regular season game in Spain.
“I’d say it was rocky at first, man. Because we had such high expectations going into the season,” Chubb said. “The whole season we talked about how to block out the noise and just focus on us. The mantra we used: they talk, we do. And at the beginning of the season, man, when you’re looking at it and you get hit in the mouth, it’s like, okay, stop it.
“We have to reinvent everything. In a way, everybody felt that way. But we just kept at it. Everybody stayed the course, kept working hard.
“And I feel like now we’re in a position where we’re finally playing complementary team football on all sides, on all cylinders. We’ve got to continue to do that and trust each other, go out and play not to make your plays, but what the team needs you to do.”
Few outside the Dolphins building could have envisioned victory over a Bills team just bossed around by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. De’Von Achane was an unstoppable, field-flipping X Factor on the ground, while a scrutinized defense locked down both Josh Allen and James Cook in style.
At 3-7, it may prove to be too little too late, but Chubb considers that progress as they pitch in Spain.
“I use it as a catalyst,” he said. “We saw what happens when we play complementary football in all three phases. I feel we just have to use that as a catalyst. There’s no going back from that.
“If we don’t play up to that standard, we know if we weren’t going to lose a game, why we wouldn’t lose a game. So it’s going to be fun to see how we respond to that. Like you said, a whole new country, a whole new environment. I feel like that’s adversity in itself.
“We’ve been building for it all season. We’ve been through it all season. So I feel like it’s a great outcome for us.”
Chubb described the Dolphins locker room as “delusional” following their win over the Bills, his point being that the team’s mindset or confidence had not changed despite their struggles during the first half of the season.
“I called it that because people from the outside look in, if we say, ‘hey, we’re going to win eight games in a row and make the playoffs,’ then people are like, ‘come on, be honest with yourself’. But you have to have that mentality to go out there and do it,” he explained.
“If you don’t have that mentality, you’re not going to do it. So in a sense, to the outside world, it’s delusional. But to us, it’s all faith and all we know we can do.”
“We just continue to lean into each other. JB, linebacker Jordyn Brooks, he always says ‘a house divided cannot stand.’ So being able to be a unit every single week, I feel like that’s how we’re going to continue to move forward.”
Chubb, who had been a trade rumor prior to the Nov. 4 deadline, missed the entire 2024 campaign due to injury after posting 11 sacks and a league-high six forced fumbles in his first full campaign with the Dolphins in 2023. He leads the team with five sacks this season.
“I didn’t play all year, was out with a knee injury and had to come back from that. And a couple of years ago I had another knee injury. And after that year I made my first Pro Bowl, so personally I’ve been through adversity and come out on the other side of it in a positive light,” he continued.
“I kind of take that same mantra to the locker room. And we have a lot of leaders that have been through adverse situations.
“This is just another page in the journey for us. We’re just sticking together and making sure we run it the way we want to see it run.
“No one has given up in a way. We all approach each and every practice with full deliberation.”
The Miami Dolphins take on the Washington Commanders at the iconic Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid, live on Sky Sports NFL from 14 (kick-off at 14.30). Get Sky Sports or stream without a contract on NOW.