Offensive line coach Frank Smith is pictured on the sideline throughout an NFL preseason soccer recreation towards the Seattle Seahawks, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021, in Seattle. The Seahawks received 27-0. (AP Picture/Stephen Brashear) (Stephen Brashear, AP)
The Miami Dolphins discovered their offensive coordinator beneath first-time head coach Mike McDaniel.
Los Angeles Chargers run-game coordinator and offensive line coach Frank Smith landed the job on Monday, a league supply confirmed to the South Florida Solar Sentinel. The information was first reported by NFL Community.
Smith interviewed for the job on Saturday and was the third identified candidate after different experiences named Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London and New Orleans Saints broad receivers coach Curtis Johnson, who had a earlier decade-long stint in the identical function with the Miami Hurricanes, as these up for the offensive coordinator emptiness.
McDaniel, who involves Miami after holding the function of offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers, stated at his introductory press convention with the Dolphins on Thursday that he plans on calling performs, like 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan did in San Francisco. Earlier than turning into offensive coordinator in 2021, McDaniel was a run-game coordinator himself with the 49ers.
Smith simply accomplished his first season in that function for the Chargers and is basically credited for turning round a line that struggled in 2020 earlier than he arrived.
Smith additionally has a background in growing tight ends. He was tight ends coach for the Oakland and Las Vegas Raiders from 2018 to 2020, working with one of many league’s finest on the place in Darren Waller. He held the identical function with the Chicago Bears from 2015 to 2017. Smith’s first NFL job got here beneath former New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, as assistant offensive line coach from 2010 to 2014.
Smith, a Miami (Ohio) grad, was a university coach earlier than that, holding the function of offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at Butler from 2007 to 2009 and main the road within the 2006 season. He was a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2004 and 2005.
Whereas McDaniel didn’t name offensive performs with the 49ers, it seems he'll go together with the same coach/offensive coordinator relationship as he had beneath Shanahan. McDaniel can be a first-time play-caller after Shanahan did in San Francisco, and Smith can be instrumental in growing the offensive recreation plan.
Smith enters the offensive coordinator function after main a workforce’s run recreation, much like the transition McDaniel made forward of the 2021 season. His background might help repair two main points the Dolphins had final season between growing the run recreation and the workforce’s offensive line, complementing the reported rent of Matt Applebaum from Boston Faculty as offensive line coach.
With the 38-year-old McDaniel being a younger, first-time head coach, some believed he may go for a extra veteran presence at one of many coordinator positions. Smith is 40, and defensive coordinator Josh Boyer, who McDaniel is retaining in that function from earlier coach Brian Flores’ employees, is 45.
McDaniel is constructing what is usually a younger teaching employees, however he may also get these older, extra skilled voices from tight ends coach Jon Embree, whom he brings from the 49ers, operating backs coach Eric Studesville and particular groups coordinator Danny Crossman, who stay in Miami. Embree may even be assistant head coach whereas Studesville will maintain the title of affiliate head coach.
Smith turns into offensive coordinator after Flores, final yr, went with co-coordinators of Studesville and George Godsey, who was the first play-caller for many of the 2021 season. Each additionally led their place teams as Godsey doubled as tight ends coach. Godsey has since grow to be tight ends coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
McDaniel practically has a full teaching employees however nonetheless has a gap offensively for a quarterbacks coach. On protection, he has vacancies for a defensive backs coach and outdoors linebackers coach. These roles had been held by Gerald Alexander and Rob Leonard, respectively, beneath Flores.