NFL footballs (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) 

The Miami Dolphins had a great 2023 NFL season, all things considered. It was a rough January for the Miami Dolphins as they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.

Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is known for doing whatever he can to get through to his team, even if that means shedding some tears through a grueling NFL season.

Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead, who considered retiring this offseason, recently spoke to Rich Eisen on his show and explained why his teammates love their head coach so much.

One of those reasons is McDaniel isn’t afraid to get emotional.

Terron Armstead revealed that McDaniel tends to ‘cry’ a lot to motivate his team.

“It’s a blast playing football,” Armstead said this week on The Rich Eisen Show. “It’s fun. It’s fun playing this game. We’re grown men playing a kid sport, you know, but it’s serious. There’s a lot of seriousness that goes into it.

There’s a lot of mental and emotional tolls aside from all the things as physical, so, yeah, it can be it can be a weight just going through the grind of meetings and then the seriousness of game day. So to have a coach like Mike is it’s refreshing, it’s rejuvenating, energetic and he creates an environment that is you look forward to going to work.”

“You can instantly see it is coming from a genuine place,” Armstead said. “It’s true. It’s organic. And I love the fact that that’s Mike’s approach, because it’s not necessarily his job description to develop us as men outside of football and to build these relationships. It’s not his job to build off-the-field relationships and lifelong friendships with his guys, his teammates, his peers, his coaches, and his players. His job is to win games.

“Call the offense, win games. But he takes it personal and the media sees Mike a lot for his jokes, and his always calm and in-control demeanor in interviews. He’s an emotional guy. Mike cries a lot.

He’s very passionate about anything. He takes things very serious. And we’re coming off a loss and he felt like he didn’t call a game well and didn’t put us in the best position, he really wears it. And you want to play for a guy like that. You know what I mean? He’s accountable. He’s trustworthy. He’ll put full losses on himself when that’s never the case in football. It’s a collective game.”

 

Last season, the Miami Dolphins had a chance to win the AFC East for the first time since 2008 but lost three of their final five regular-season games to drop the division crown. The team lost to the Buffalo Bills in the final regular season game, and that promptly sent them to Kansas City for their NFL Wild Card game, which was one of the coldest games of the year.

As for Armstead, the 32-year-old NFL standout left tackle informed the club in March that he intended to return for a 12th season. That was good news since the team lost starters Christian Wilkins, Robert Hunt, and Jerome Baker to free agency this offseason.

However, they did manage to sign Shaq Barrett, Jordan Poyer, and Kendall Fuller to contracts this offseason.

Miami Dolphins Hoping To Change Their NFL Fortunes

Mike McDaniel (Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images) 

Since Dan Marino retired, the Miami Dolphins have been less than mediocre and have just six playoff appearances since 2000, two division titles, and one playoff win, according to SportsIllustrated.com.

Since the Detroit Lions have finally broken through, the Dolphins have the longest postseason win drought in the NFL.