Dolphins Make Odd Choice at Offensive Coordinator

By Matt Schauf | Updated on Sat, Jan 24 2026 8:57 PM UTC

NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reports that the Dolphins are hiring Bobby Slowik to be their new OC. Really, though, it appears to be more of a promotion, because Slowik spent 2025 as Miami's senior pass-game coordinator. Before that, he spent two years as Houston's OC and six years on Kyle Shanahan's staff in San Francisco. Slowik started his career as a defensive assistant but shifted to offense in the third year of his 49ers run. He spent his final year there (2022) as passing-game coordinator. His first three coaching seasons came as a defensive assistant in Washington, where Mike Shanahan served as HC and Kyle as OC.

What They're Saying

Rapoport: "The former Texans OC helped CJ Stroud to his stellar rookie season. Now, he's back as a play-caller in Miami."

Fantasy Football Impact

Ian -- as he tends to do -- conveniently overlooks that Slowik also "helped" the Houston offense fall from 13th in scoring and 12th in total yards in 2023 to 19th and 22nd, respectively, in 2024. Stroud slipped from a 4.6% TD rate and league-best 1.0% INT rate in 2023 to 3.8% and 2.3% in 2024.

The Texans fired Slowik after that year.

What makes this an odd choice -- and note that I didn't say "wrong" -- is that Slowik most recently worked as Mike McDaniel's pass-game coordinator.

So the Dolphins -- within the same month -- have flushed McDaniel's offensive system and then tapped one of his deputies to create the next one. And Slowik didn't merely cross paths in 2025. Those aforementioned Shanahan years all represent the same garden that grew McDaniel.

Frankly, that's probably a good thing. The Shanahans -- and McDaniel -- have put forth plenty of good offensive results in the NFL. Slowik's profile to date includes one good year and one rough year of Texans offense.

So we'll see about his Miami impact. And before we project further, we'll have to see who he gets at QB.

Matt Schauf, Editor

Matt has earned two Fantasy Pros accuracy awards for IDP rankings and won thousands of dollars as a player across best ball, dynasty, and high-stakes fantasy formats. He has been creating fantasy football content for more than 20 years, with work featured by Sporting News, Rotoworld, Athlon, Sirius XM, and others. He's been with Draft Sharks since 2011.