Read the full transcript from Head Coach Mike McDaniel's press conference on December 31, 2025.
Q: Was there a point earlier this year before you made the change that you considered replacing QB Tua Tagovailoa with either QB Quinn Ewers or QB Zach Wilson?
"No. I was very candid about the whole process. When I thought that someone else gives us a better chance to win, I see it as my absolute – that's what I have to do. That's my position, that's my decision to make. When I got there, that's when I made the decision, but we were working through whatever during the season trying to win football games. When it became clear that there was another available player that I thought gave us a better chance, that's when I thought about it and did it."
Q: Obviously it's a cold business, you have a humanity about you that I think we all appreciate. So from an emotional standpoint, did it create sadness for you to have to move on from a quarterback you were very close with, had invested a lot of time in this year? Were you sad for you, were you sad for QB Tua Tagovailoa? What your general emotions were, I don't think we've asked you that.
"I have a steadfast agreement with myself that when it comes to obligations that the organization, the fan base, that fall under my job responsibilities, I turn into a robot that has no emotions. It's irrelevant, erroneous. I'm sure those thoughts really reflecting will come at some point, but my feelings don't help anyone. That's my role; I'm the big helper with all things. It's my job to be able to make tough decisions. Getting personal about decisions that have a lot of consequences for individuals in the collective whole, I take my job too serious to really allow myself to go there. I think it's important that my head coaching decisions are based concretely in fact and the expertise that I have to have to have this job and then I operate accordingly. Generally the tough things, that's what I signed up for and that's what people are counting on me to be able to do."
Q: How does a quarterback go from being the most accurate in the NFL a year ago based on completion percentage to possibly the least accurate based on interceptions this year? It's hard for me to recall a drop like that so rapidly and so stark. What do you attribute that to?
"I think there's compounding variables at large that I tried to have the answer for – that's my job is to try to fix stuff, so if I had that answer, I would've employed it. There's certain times, that's one of the reasons I said it might be better for all parties to have him as the emergency third. Each and every day I think he's at work trying to figure out how to play his game the way he wants to. For me, I try to provide solutions – I'll go to the end of the earth for that. I think if I had that answer, this situation wouldn't be the way it played out. In the whole process, I think he's gotten a chance to really show people who he is. Although he has his personal feelings and I'm sure he could talk at length about, he's also very understanding of the captain leadership role and that other people – that Quinn (Ewers) is getting an opportunity that he's worked very hard for. He's not just thinking about his own experience, he's trying to assist and help all parties and be a good teammate. I think he's shown his true supporting colors. The situation is not easy for anybody I don't think, specifically him. He's taking advantage of the adversity opportunity that has been bestowed in front of him."
Q: What gives you optimism about the ability to close the gap with the Patriots in the near future?
"I think we actually play the Patriots this week. Football is a game of collective body of people working together. You just have to play collective football in three phases and as a team. What does that look like and how do you do that? You continually do the next best thing available to you and you build. So much of football and team sports, your best things are created as a result of failure. I think Michael Jordan talks about it at length – you could probably look it up – you don't have success without failure. An arbitrary solution is that you have to make good decisions and have the right people and coach and play. We get the opportunity to do that this Sunday, and then when that game is over, then you assess and make decisions. You compound good decision after good decision and things take a turn. I think the confidence that I have is of just really the people that are part of the solutions, the resiliency within this team comes from somewhere. Does it mean everything is concretely right? Well this season we have seven wins and nine loses, but we have one more game to play against that very opponent and we'll see how that shakes out. But beyond that opponent this week, I think maybe some of your questions you're kind of directing will be better answered next week when my mind is firmly on that. Right now it's Patriots, Gillette Stadium, Sunday at 4:25 (p.m.)"
Q: I wanted to ask you since we were having the QB Tua Tagovailoa conversation, have you seen throughout your career a quarterback lose velocity and then regain it on his throws?
"I think that is something that I've been around in terms of players going through various things, whether that be injury or technique adjustment. There's a lot of stuff that guys do in the offseason and I've seen – you can't just assume but you put in the work and they do things the right way with the right intentionality, and I've seen ten yards and whatever the metric that you'd use for velocity, whether it's pronation or straight velocity, I've seen it change drastically in one offseason, over time. There's a lot of biomechanics into throwing and it's ground up and it involves your whole body, not just your arms. That is a formula that's unique to each player but is definitely not steadfast. One guy that I just thought of was, we had a quarterback by the name of Nick Mullins who came in undrafted and he probably gained 10 yards in distance and velocity was substantially greater after one offseason in particular – I think it was from 2018-19 or 2017-18, I can't remember. But that's something why they have throwing coaches and personal trainers and things, that is something that guys work at and it does fluctuate throughout their career."
Q: A question about the offense you will take to New England on Sunday. Is this a more sustainable offense than the offense that you have with WR Tyreek Hill on the field? Has it led to you being a more creative playcaller because you don't maybe feel the need to get the ball to Tyreek all the time? For example, this year you're 7-3 when you rush for over 100 yards, last year you were 2-6 when you rushed for over 100 yards, so is this offense more sustainable? Is it better do you think?
"I think realistically you're trying to problem solve with your available assets and you're constantly working on things that – also people have gotten better at doing what we're asking them to do. Quite honestly, every play caller in the league would run the ball 100 percent of the time if you can get first downs and score points, it's the least risk. The development of our young offensive line has been huge, what our guys have been able to do at the point of attack between Julian Hill and Dan Brunskill and Greg (Dulcich) now and then Alec Ingold. You get six inches better on your combination blocks in terms of displacing the defensive end, that's a big difference for a runner and gives you an extra evolution where you can press the line of scrimmage into the second level. It's harder for defenses to fit. I think to be good at anything, it takes work. You need to have the appropriate lesson plan if you will, the appropriate scheme and you have to have the appropriate teachers and then you have to have the right people that work on it diligently, so that essentially you have to be able to execute things that people know that are coming. The art of the NFL is there's always production that you can get on an opponent with some surprise, but as the season progresses and you get into December and January, there's not that many secrets. You can get a couple secrets a game, but overall production goes back to what you're working on day in, day out, the level of buy in, the level of commitment by each and every player and then a group of people going out and executing a plan with cohesion. I think we've been more consistent based upon the players really going after it, owning it and believing in what we're doing and they have the will for it. This group of people really likes the feeling of when they're controlling the line of scrimmage. Year in, year out, usually you're going to have more success than failure when you're executing those types of things."
Q: What makes 2025 RB De'Von Achane better than years past?
"I think his confidence based on ownership of the small details which allow him to play that much faster. Every time he shows up against an opponent, top of their agenda is to stop him and he can feel that the guys are trying to tattoo him and tackle him with aggression. When you're able to combat that with successful, definitive, decisive action, his contact balance has improved. His weight has still pretty much stayed the same but his contact balance, there's confidence in there where he's taking on defenders a little bit more, being able to shed them. I think it all plays together where you have a little more conviction and you make one or two defenders miss that you maybe wouldn't have the game before, the season before and that just builds confidence on top of itself. That and I think guys are really bought in to just leaving one defender for him and taking care of everybody else. They're getting a lot of return on investment with him having a high percentage of make-you-miss rate with that one defender, and that's where the explosives and the points come from."
Q: On the other side of the QB Tua Tagovailoa talk, what have you learned about QB Quinn Ewers that gives you optimism and confidence in his future?
"I think you don't know, you have a feeling, a gut. Like I said, I thought he gave us the best chance to win, but then observing someone handle what it is to be a starting quarterback in the NFL season, I know exactly what that is. I've seen guys perform very well in practice and things change a little bit with the heat of game play. To see how natural playing the position of quarterback is to him, I see some of his best throws and plays in game, gives you a chance. I think the way he sees the field and how he fearlessly lives in the pocket, I think that's the bar for NFL quarterback play. You have to be able to see the field and be able to stand in there and make plays from the pocket, but then when nothing is there, kind of like he did at the end of the game on the third-and-3, you've got to be able to take off and convert a first down. I think those things, the bottom line measurables that end up attributing success or failure to all quarterbacks each and every year, I know those things in particular are hard to come by, hard to do and give you a chance to continue to improve and have your best football ahead of you, not behind you."
Q: If someone asked you, like for example if Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner Stephen Ross asked you, do you think QB Quinn Ewers can be a long-term good NFL starting quarterback, would you have an answer yet or can you simply not have any idea after only two games?
"I think he has the ability to lead this team with coordinated and cohesion play from his teammates, I think he can lead this team to victory against the opponent in front of us. I think his game continues to grow – it's two-for-two, so we're trying to see three-for-three. I think everybody will have essentially 33 percent more information on how he plays the position."
