49ers OC Mike McDaniel receives praise from Kyle Shanahan and Jimmy Garoppolo

San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel has been one of many names in the organization who has emerged as a candidate for a promotion elsewhere. According to a report by MMQB senior NFL reporter Albert Breer, McDaniel will interview with the Miami Dolphins for their open head coaching job Wednesday afternoon. Roughly 24 hours before his interview, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo complimented McDaniel in their weekly media availability.

San Francisco’s defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans (Vikings), assistant general manager Adam Peters (Giants), and director of player personnel Ran Carthon (Giants) have also already received interview inquiries from other NFL teams.

McDaniel played football at Yale before beginning his coaching career as an intern with the Denver Broncos under Mike Shanahan in 2005. He followed Kyle Shanahan to the Houston Texans the following season, where he worked as an offensive assistant from 2006-2008. Then, McDaniel worked as the running backs coach for the Sacramento Mountain Lions of the United Football League from 2009-2010 before rejoining the Shanahans in Washington from 2011-2013.

Since rejoining Kyle in Washington, McDaniel has been an assistant coach on every one of Shanahan’s offensive staffs since. He served as a wide receivers coach for the Cleveland Browns in 2014 and offensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons from 2015-2016 before following Shanahan to the 49ers, where he was officially the team’s run-game coordinator before becoming offensive coordinator this season.

Shanahan was asked about McDaniel’s dry humor and joked that it’s “an acquired taste.” However, he circled back to discuss McDaniel’s ability as a football mind, calling him “one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around.”

Here are Shanahan’s comments on McDaniel’s coaching ability:

“Mike [McDaniel]’s a good dude. He’s really good at what he does. He’s himself. He’s one of the smartest coaches I’ve been around and he’s been huge to our team and huge for me throughout my entire career.”

Garoppolo credited McDaniel for coming up with creative new ideas for the offense. Garoppolo admitted, “He’s a lot smarter than most of us,” but credited McDaniel for being able to communicate well with his players.

Here are Garoppolo’s full comments on McDaniel:

“Mike [McDaniel]’s awesome. He really is... I don’t want to say he’s the mastermind behind everything, but he’s kind of that guy in the background that doesn’t say a whole ton to a lot of people, but his mind is always moving. The ideas he comes up with are so fresh and new. [He’s] a cool guy to have on the staff. He’s a lot smarter than most of us. He dumbs it down for us and kind of gets us all on the same page and it’s just a good combination with him and all the rest of the coaches.”