In his nine-year NFL career, Dolphins tight end Darren Waller had never really experienced a head coach firing first hand — until now.
In an appearance on Johnny Manziel’s podcast, “Glory Daze,” on Thursday, the former Giants player revealed that he “was at the scene of the crime” when head coach Mike McDaniel was fired from his job in Miami.
“My exit meeting was that Thursday morning from 9:30-10,” Waller recalls in a clip shared on X/Twitter. “So I get there for my exit meeting, and we’re talking for like 10 minutes and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I definitley want you back for next year.’”
The meeting had the feel of routine business — a loose conversation about the season and what might change next year — until Dolphins owner Stephen Ross abruptly entered the room mid-discussion.
What had been a forward-looking talk quickly shifted after Ross joined. An uneasy pause followed, the kind that signals something unspoken, and the meeting ended abruptly, with the understanding that the conversation would be picked up later.
”So I get out of the meeting, I go downstairs and get a message, check my phone, he’s fired,” Waller said. “I’m like, ‘Damn, this s— cold, for real.’”
McDaniel’s four-season tenure as head coach of the Dolphins (2022–2025) was defined by early offensive brilliance and historic milestones, followed by a decline that led to his eventual firing on Jan. 8.
In 2023, the Giants traded a third-round pick to the Las Vegas Raiders for Waller. In 12 games, he caught 52 passes for 552 yards and a touchdown, a down season by his standard.
Waller elected to retire and sat out the entire 2024 season before deciding to make a comeback. In August, the Giants traded Waller and a conditional 2027 seventh-round pick to the Dolphins for a 2026 sixth-round pick.
He made his debut against the Jets in Week 4 and went on to have a decent season. In nine games (three starts), Waller completed 24 receptions for 283 yards, leading the team’s tight ends with six touchdowns.
