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Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel 'needs to go' following their calamitous start to the season, Stephen A. Smith has brutally claimed.
The Los Angeles Chargers condemned Miami to their fifth defeat in six games on Sunday, with their 29-27 victory at Hard Rock Stadium piling even more pressure on the under-fire McDaniel.
After going 1-5, starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa blamed their struggles on the team's 'leadership' in an explosive press conference after the game, despite tossing three interceptions himself in the loss.
And while he feels Tagovailoa should also take some accountability, Smith has urged the Dolphins to part company with McDaniel after insisting he is 'not a leader of men.'
The ESPN star said on Monday's edition of First Take: 'Mike McDaniel needs to go. The coach of the Miami Dolphins needs to go, needs to be gone as the head coach of the franchise.
'He's not a leader of men. That's what this comes down to.'
Stephen A. Smith has told the Miami Dolphins that head coach Mike McDaniel 'needs to go'
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa took aim at the team's leadership after going 1-5 this year
Tagovailoa, who has the third most interceptions in the league this season with seven, also fired shots at his teammates for showing up late to meetings amid their on-field issues.
'There's a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory? Do we not have to make this mandatory? It's a lot of things of that nature that we got to get cleaned up. It starts with the little things like that,' he fumed.
Smith stressed that the 27-year-old must also take his share of the blame for Miami's nightmare opening six games. However, he added that Tagovailoa was also highlighting the faults in McDaniel's leadership.
'Tua Tagovailoa is not being absolved here by any stretch of the imagination,' the sports analyst continued. 'Over the last several weeks, in terms of a lack of leadership and pointing the finger, tacitly or otherwise alluding to certain things... he's the quarterback. He's got eight turnovers on the season, 11 touchdowns, he is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes.
'But in the end what it comes down to, as you see the Miami Dolphins disintegrating before our very eyes, they're not even treading water anymore they're sinking and drowning, and Tua to me, that statement he was making, he was calling it out.
'He was basically saying, "We tried everything else and clearly we don't have the leadership that we need here."'
McDaniel is under serious pressure to keep his job after Sunday's defeat to the LA Chargers
McDaniel is 29-28 through more than three seasons as Dolphins head coach, and his torrid run of five defeats in six has left him on the verge of a firing.
'I think it's pretty simple, it sucks,' he said after the loss to the Chargers.
'Bottom line is it’s frustrating because there’s a lot of talking and we need to major in doing. And I don’t think anybody wants to hear me talk about it as much as I don’t feel like saying it.
'It doesn’t change the steadfast reality that is you have to get better at things or you’ll continue having these same results.'
