Inside: Examining the struggles of Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll, and special treatment for announcer/owner Tom Brady. Plus: Mike Sando digs into the new-look Chargers.

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After the 2022 hiring cycle, Mike McDaniel and Brian Daboll were known as coveted offensive minds who offered the Dolphins and Giants fresh starts.

Both apprenticed under coaching giants -- McDaniel spent years with Kyle Shanahan, and Daboll did the same with Bill Belichick -- but entered 2022 without a snap of head coaching experience.

No matter, it seemed. Success was immediate. The Dolphins and Giants were undefeated entering Week 3 of those debut seasons, and both McDaniel and Daboll took their respective teams to the playoffs that year.

It's been mostly downhill since, and both seem to be accelerating toward the end of the road amid 0-2 starts.

In Miami, McDaniel and general manager Chris Grier sports a 28-25 record, but are yet to win a playoff game despite spending the league's second-most cash since 2022.

They've watched as talented linemen have left for paydays elsewhere, choosing instead to spend nearly 40 percent of their cash on Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. That might work if you're the 2024 Eagles, but three middling draft classes left the Dolphins devoid of talent on rookie contracts.

In New York, Daboll arrived alongside general manager Joe Schoen, both hired in part due to Josh Allen's dramatic improvement. Two Saquon Barkley touchdowns helped the pair win a playoff game in 2022, but they've overseen a Giants team that is technically on pace to keep winning three fewer games per season (nine in 2022, six in 2023, three in 2024 and so far zero in 2025). Daboll and Schoen are now 18-34-1 in New York.

What happens to Dart if the Giants land the upcoming draft's top pick? Their Vegas win total is tied for the league's lowest, after all, and there are plenty of quarterbacks to draft in 2026.

In the NFL, time is a luxury afforded to winners (and owners). McDaniel and Daboll are unlikely to be either this week: The Dolphins are 12.5-point underdogs in Buffalo tomorrow night, while the Giants are expected to lose by six to the similarly desperate (for different reasons) 0-2 Chiefs, per BetMGM's odds.

If the 42-year-old McDaniel survives this week, the Dolphins' schedule gets easier. Tomorrow's game is followed by matchups against the Jets, Panthers, Chargers and Browns, after which Miami needs to be a palatable 3-4 or so, given their subsequent four-game gauntlet of the Falcons, Ravens, Bills and Commanders.

Daboll, now 50, isn't as lucky. Even if the Chiefs game goes well, four of the Giants' next five opponents were also playoff teams last season. A must-win against the Saints on Oct. 5 is the only game likely to spare New York from an 0-8 start.

As the 2026 hiring cycle approaches, it might not be long before McDaniel and Daboll -- themselves once harbingers of promising futures -- are on the receiving end of fresh starts.

I'll pass it over to Mike Sando, who has more on a coach with much better job security.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh is a Michigan man whose vision for offense traces to Bo Schembechler, the iconic former UM coach who famously said three things can happen when a team passes, and two of them are bad.

Harbaugh's offensive coordinator, Greg Roman, has implemented some of the most creative run-based offenses in recent NFL memory, including in Buffalo and Baltimore while Harbaugh was coaching at Michigan. What would it all mean for Justin Herbert, the Chargers' undeniably talented passer?

It's been refreshing to see the Harbaugh-coached, Roman-coordinated Chargers offense taking its cues from a very different legendary former coach this season.

Don Coryell's old Chargers teams attempted 38 passes per game from 1979 to '85. That was 23 percent above the average (31) for other teams. It would even rank first in the NFL from 2022 to present, to show just how far ahead of his time Coryell actually was.

The current Chargers team has attempted only 61 passes through two games, which ranks 23rd, but the rate of passing stands out.

Back to you, Jacob.

Imagine if Tom Brady owned a minority stake in Robert Kraft's Patriots, consulted management on roster decisions, spoke with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels regularly and joined the team's coaching booth during games, headset and all.

Would Brady also be allowed to speak regularly with the other 31 teams, and their coaches and players?

The league's relaxed restrictions grant Brady access to virtual production meetings with players and coaches, which he was barred from last year. As our media reporter Richard Deitsch explained in his review of whether this access gives Brady an advantage, these production meetings allow announcers to understand what might happen during the game.

"John Madden would start broadcast production meetings by handing a head coach or coordinator a depth chart and then going through everything, from the starters and backups to injury concerns, to where players would line up based on down and distance."

Because the "Deflategate" and "Spygate" scandals happened over 2,800 miles from Vegas, it's fine for Brady's Fox broadcasting career to grant the Raiders' heavily involved minority owner access to opposing teams?

This is an uber-competitive former player who, as The Athletic's Steve Buckley wrote in his critical column on this subject, "would rip your lungs out if it could yield an extra half-inch on a sneak."

For their part, the NFL deleted the below social media post, which had mirrored ESPN's Peter Schrager's sideline reporting that:

"[Raiders offensive coordinator] Chip Kelly told us he talks to Brady two to three times per week. They go through film. They go through the game plan. Brady is a luxury for the coaches."

Pete Carroll denied that report postgame, although he admitted he and Kelly regularly have conversations with Brady.

The expectation is that media members won't share pre-game information with other teams, that their role is strictly to use their access to improve the broadcast.

Granted, if you're losing a game because your coach or players are oversharing on a virtual call, that online meeting isn't the problem.

Still, the margins in football are small enough that it might matter. Would the Commanders, set to face the Raiders this Sunday, ever have allowed a New England-based Tom Brady to meet with their coaches and key players, learning the minutiae of their roster, ahead of an upcoming game?

Brady, who called the Commanders game in Week 1, can't unlearn whatever intel he heard from Washington. If the Raiders win an upset this week, a possibility given Jayden Daniels' injury, questions over Brady's dual role will grow.

Do you care? Does this matter? Share your perspective via our new polling tool, here.

⏰ Backup time. How will the Bengals fare with Jake Browning? The Vikings with Carson Wentz? The Athletic's beat reporters explain how five teams will adapt to their new quarterback this week.

🎯 Drake Maye is locked in. One of my favorite film-watchers, Derrik Klassen, breaks down the Patriots quarterback's career day in his first 2025 edition of Quick Outs.

🎙 Hear from a Bears fan. "The Athletic Football Show" shares a voicemail from a dejected Chicagoite, who blames himself for the Bears' failure.

▶️ Yesterday's most-clicked: Why J.J. McCarthy will miss the Vikings' next game ... convenient timing for a quarterback who needs a reset.

Scary paths for two hot-seat coaches, plus vote on Tom Brady's special access