In addressing his mindset toward training camp, he arrived on his meeting with Curry and the future Hall of Famer’s tireless work ethic.

“The practice today with various constraints at certain specific positions, we had to frontload with our full-speed reps and we kind of have to have an in-between walkthrough and light practice, jog-through at the tail end of it,” McDaniel said. “That’s something that you guys aren’t used to seeing all the time, but that’s an adjustment to protect the way we train our fundamentals and technique, which if you want to be a good football team or the best football team or anything that falls in the bucket of where we’re trying to go, you have to train those, much like I was talking to the team today about Steph Curry.”

Another all-time great once coined the phrase, “to be the man, you gotta beat the man.”

It doesn’t hurt to emulate the best, either, as it seems McDaniel is doing with Curry.

As for how McDaniel was received by Curry, the Dolphins head coach said the three-point sharpshooter recognized him – something McDaniel is still trying to get a grasp on.

“He did know who I was, which made no sense, much like every person in public that – people identify me a lot and it never gets normal,” McDaniel said. “It’s always – maybe I’m delusional, I don’t know, I just don’t ever expect it.”

After back-to-back playoff trips with one-and-done conclusions, McDaniel is expecting 2024 to be the year the Dolphins take their shot at becoming a part of the NFL’s elite.