Monday Dolphins Notebook: McDaniel Nuggets, Fuller Resurfaces, Flores Update, More

The Dolphins hired McDaniel on Sunday to become the 11th full-time head coach in team history. He replaces Brian Flores, who was fired Jan. 10 after finishing his third season with the team.

McDaniel's introductory press conference had not been scheduled as of early Monday evening.

FLORES' FINAL SHOT FOR 2022 OVER

Flores' best shot of being a head coach again in 2022 likely vanished Monday when the Houston Texans promoted associate head coach Lovie Smith to replace David Culley, who they fired after only one year on the job and then disappeared altogether when the New Orleans Saints hired Dennis Allen to succeed Sean Payton as head coach.

The interesting part about the Houston hiring is that before Sunday afternoon the two finalists were reported to be Josh McCown and Flores after Jonathan Gannon reportedly was told he wasn't getting the position. This certainly smells like the Texans turned to Smith to avoid hiring somebody without any prior coaching experience (McCown) or somebody suing the NFL, three teams specifically and possibly the other 29 teams (Flores).

Flores said he was prepared for the possibility that his coaching career could take a hit after filing his lawsuit in New York last week, and it certainly appears he was right — at least in the short term.

ASSISTANT COACH CHATTER

For the Dolphins, Flores not having a job in 2022 eliminates the possibility he would have taken some assistants with him. That means McDaniel will be able to retain any 2021 Dolphins assistant, and remember that reports indicated the team wanted its new head coach to keep most of the defensive assistants. 

On the flip side, one name that had been mentioned as a possibility to become offensive coordinator for the Dolphins was Pep Hamilton, but he's no longer available after being promoted to that position by the Texans.

Hamilton, like McDaniel, interviewed for the Dolphins offensive coordinator position last year before Flores named George Godsey and Eric Studesville co-OCs.

FULLER UPDATE

Wide receiver Will Fuller V resurfaced on social media Monday after not being seen or heard for four months.

Fuller posted an Instagram story showing his hand heavily bandaged with the caption, "dang finger man" alongside the "furious" emoji.

Fuller, of course, didn't play after sustaining a finger injury in the Oct. 4 game against Indianapolis and his status became a constant subject of speculation and questions for Flores until he said Dec. 20 that Fuller had had some setbacks in his rehabilitation and wouldn't come during the 2021 season.

After signing a one-year contract as a free agent, Fuller ended up playing only two games for the Dolphins after missing the opener while serving the final game of a league suspension he incurred while with Houston in 2020 and missing the home opener against Buffalo after leaving the team for a few days to deal with a personal matter.

Fuller is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent again in March.