< Cover 7 | Monday >
A daily NFL destination that provides in-depth analysis of football’s biggest stories. Each Monday, Mike Sando breaks down the six most impactful takeaways from the week. Just as no one predicted, the NFL season neared its midpoint Sunday with the Minnesota Vikings presenting a game ball to Joshua Dobbs in a locker room packed with people Dobbs barely knew. The NFL, scripted? You can’t script what is beyond comprehension, but with 135 of 272 regular-season games in the books pending the Monday night matchup, the Super Bowl teams from last season, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, do sit atop their respective conferences. It’s a great time to size up the league. The Pick Six column for Week 9 sorts through my midseason choices for Coach of the Year, MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and more. There’s an appreciation for Dobbs and his injured predecessor, Kirk Cousins, plus quick hits on the Giants, Raiders, Seahawks, Eagles, and Cowboys. The full menu:
- Coach of Year: McDaniel, Campbell, Harbaugh?
- MVP race: Quarterback streak in jeopardy
- Defensive Player of the Year and more
- Seven biggest surprises of the season
- Tanking? Dobbs, Vikings deliver memories
- Two-minute drill: Giants and the top pick
Now, on to the awards. Please hold your applause til the end. Mike McDaniel is my Coach of the (Half) Year, edging out Dan Campbell and John Harbaugh.
My choice:
Mike McDaniel, Miami Dolphins: McDaniel is sure to celebrate his selection here the way he celebrated his team setting an NFL record for yards through five games. “Mission accomplished,” McDaniel joked then. “We had the whole time, the whole off-season, that was our goal, was output after five games.” The Dolphins are 0-3 against the only contenders they’ve faced, falling 48-20 to Buffalo, 31-17 to Philadelphia and 21-14 to Kansas City on Sunday. That doesn’t disqualify McDaniel here because he’s done such a great job leveraging his personnel to get record-setting production from an accurate but limited quarterback. “The offensive numbers and production speak for themselves,” a defensive coach from another team said. “He is calling the offense, he is designing the offense, he’s creating the motions we haven’t seen in the NFL before. They look Canadian to us.” The Dolphins have great speed at wide receiver, but without McDaniel scheming open those players with creative motions, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa would have a harder time delivering the ball on time. Tagovailoa’s limitations become obvious when opponents disrupt that timing. That is why coaches and execs voted Tagovailoa into Tier 3 before the season. “Mike does an outstanding job in terms of schematics and looks and optics of things,” another defensive coach said. “It allows Tua to play fast, and Tyreek has space to run his routes. People can’t just roll to him all the time. He doesn’t just have to be a vertical guy or catch shallows and catch-and-runs. He can do it all. The offense showcases all that for him.” McDaniel’s humility serves him well. Hiring senior assistants can feel threatening for younger coaches, but not McDaniel. He embraced adding defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who was calling defensive plays before McDaniel was born. “To me, McDaniel is the smartest man in the room, but won’t let you think he thinks it,” an exec said.
Close behind:
Dan Campbell, Detroit Lions: The Lions are playing with expectations for the first time and are living up to them. The team and city have embraced Campbell’s leadership, reviving a dormant franchise. The Lions are minus-1,000 favorites to win the NFC North and return to the playoffs, a major accomplishment for the franchise. “Campbell gets credit for overcoming the perception of him from ‘Hard Knocks’ a year ago and believing in his methods,” a team exec said. Campbell’s candidacy is a continuation from last season when he overcame a 1-6 start. His staff management over the past couple seasons — promoting Ben Johnson to offensive coordinator, staying the course with Aaron Glenn on defense, making an in-season change of the defensive backs coach — seem to have been the right ones. “These were great moves,” a rival coach said. “He makes sure his vision for playing style is fulfilled, but he is not just old-school Bill Parcells. They are one of the more aggressive fourth-down teams, for example. It’s a nice combination.”