We may have a player account of Mike McDaniel’s final moments as coach of the Miami Dolphins.
Tight end Darren Waller revealed he was in the middle of his exit interview with McDaniel to wrap up their 2025 season together before owner Steve Ross entered the ex-Dolphins coach’s office to break him the bad news.
“I think I was the last person that saw him before he got fired,” Waller told former Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel on the Glory Daze podcast.
“My exit meeting was that Thursday morning, and he’s like, ‘Definitely want you back next year.’ We’re just reflecting on the year.”
It was at that moment that Ross interrupted, in possibly slightly less dramatic fashion than how Waller explained.
“Stephen Ross kicks the door in,” Waller continued. “He comes in, we start talking, reflecting on the year. Then, the conversation kind of hits a lull. And I’m sitting across the desk from Mike. Stephen Ross is just standing there, and he’s kind of looking at me like (nods his head).”
Manziel responds: “It’s time for you to get the hell out.”
“I look at Mike, and he was like, ‘We’ll finish this conversation later,’” Waller continued. “I know they had the GM search in full flow. I know they had big business to talk about.”
Waller said he left the meeting to get a massage, and by the time he left his massage and checked his phone, he saw the news that McDaniel had been fired.
McDaniel, at the conclusion of his fourth season as Miami’s coach, held his normal end-of-season news conference the Monday afternoon, Jan. 5, following the Dolphins’ season-ending loss at the New England Patriots on Jan. 4. He’d usually be flanked by ex-GM Chris Grier, but he was fired Oct. 31.
McDaniel said that day he’s coaching the Dolphins until he’s told otherwise and spoke about the following season’s outlook as if he was bound to return. He even said he would be involved in the team’s search for its next GM.
As for Waller, 33, he said on locker cleanout day, he will consider going back into retirement and wants to make a decision within January, so he has time to train for the coming season if he does return.
His account of his conversation with McDaniel make it clear Miami’s previous regime would’ve welcomed him back, but new GM Jon-Eric Sullivan was hired the following day and the team is currently seeking McDaniel’s replacement.