Mike McDaniel's reaction to Quinn Ewers all but sealed his Dolphins fate

As many Miami Dolphins fans have hoped for quite some time, head coach Mike McDaniel benched the egregiously paid $212 million man, Tua Tagovailoa, on Sunday in Week 7 after a brutally dismal performance in an eventual loss to the Cleveland Browns. Rather than the backup for most of the season, Zach Wilson, coming into the game, however, it was seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers that took the field at the end of a blowout.

While some could look at that as a turning of the page at quarterback in Miami — and it may well be sooner rather than later — McDaniel's reaction to Ewers' first series proved wholly that more than just a quarterback change is needed to save the Dolphins.

Now, to be clear, the first regular-season snaps for Ewers weren't all that pretty as he came in midway through the fourth quarter following the third interception of the day for Tua. The rookie's first pass fell incomplete, his next throw was a short one that went for a loss of two yards, and then he botched the snap on third down, but did gain a yard after recovering the fumble.

But as he jogged to the sidelines, rather than getting a pep talk or advice from his offensive mastermind head coach, McDaniel instead stone-walled him, effectively giving him no reaction and the cold shoulder, which felt exceptionally unwarranted, especially for a rookie taking his first snaps in the NFL.

Ewers did still get one more drive, going 4-of-6 for 55 yards on that drive, though he did take two sacks, before a turnover on downs. However, no matter what you think of the rookie signal-caller, what happened after that first drive should be the final straw that costs McDaniel his job.

Mike McDaniel's reaction to Quinn Ewers is why he absolutely has to go

There's no question, especially based on recent years, that McDaniel's moniker as an offensive guru is earned in many cases. At the same time, his bonafides as a head coach should also come into question.

He came to Miami as the quirky, joking coach that seemed to be a player's coach and a breath of fresh air. As things have started to deteriorate with the Dolphins, though, it's appeared that he's tried to become harder on his team and players, but also apparently without the respect of his players. And when you see something like his interaction (or lack thereof) with Ewers after the first driver of his career, it's not hard to see why.

It's never been more obvious that a coach has lost his team. There is no trust. There is no fire. It all looks like going through the motions, even on the part of McDaniel. That's a problem and a firable offense in itself, but when it comes at the expense of a potential future piece like Ewers who needs to be developed and cultivated, that amplifies those feelings tenfold.

Things have been crumbling in Miami for weeks at this point, and the fact that the Dolphins haven't already canned McDaniel might be a miracle. However, this can't go on any further. This isn't acceptable from almost any head coach, but especially the one in charge of this team and who helped lead things to this situation.

Quinn Ewers should start the rest of the season over Tua Tagovailoa

No matter if the Dolphins finally wise up and send McDaniel his pink slip or not, though, the glimpse at Ewers, even if imperfect in an awful weather game in Cleveland, is the opening of Pandora's Box for the Dolphins. The fan base turned on Tua quite some time ago and they no longer care about the contract. Everyone is ready to turn the page, and Ewers has to be part of that plan as the starter for the rest of the season.

While Miami is likely tied to Tagovailoa, at minimum, for one more season after this one, the truth of the matter is that this experiment has run its course. Tua and any success he's had to this point is inextricably tied to McDaniel, and the same is true of their current drastic failures. No one who tunes in every Sunday for the Dolphins wants to see any part of this continue, and that includes Tagovailoa.

This isn't to say that Ewers is the solution. However, it is to say that there is at least a chance that the seventh-round rookie could be part of the eventual solution, while there's a warranted lack of faith that Tua can say the same at this point in his career.

If you're the Dolphins, how could you not want to get the best look at Ewers as possible for the rest of the year? This team is 1-6 and does not have the roster to really improve upon that. They're almost surely beelining toward a Top 5 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. With quarterbacks like Ty Simpson, Fernando Mendoza and Dante Moore Jr., among others, emerging in college football this season, Miami needs to have full certainty that they need to draft Tua's successor and don't already have him on the roster on a substantially cheaper rookie contract.

In a post-McDaniel (and hopefully post-Chris Grier) world, the Dolphins have a ton of holes to fill. It would be malpractice for the organization to not get the best look possible at Ewers to ascertain whether they have something they can build toward a new future with or not. That can't happen if he's still left backing up Tagovailoa, and if wholesale changes are going to be made to the coaching and front office regimes as they should, then that should include starting to move on at quarterback as well.