The Miami Dolphins are undergoing a full-blown identity shift this offseason - and it’s starting to feel like South Florida is turning into Green Bay East. With Jon-Eric Sullivan and Jeff Hafley now in place as general manager and head coach, respectively, the Dolphins have brought a strong Packers flavor to the organization. But while Miami’s front office is pulling from Green Bay, former Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel is doing some recruiting of his own out west.
McDaniel, now officially the offensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Chargers, is bringing familiar faces with him. On Wednesday, the Chargers announced the hiring of Butch Barry as their new offensive line coach - the same role he held under McDaniel in Miami.
Barry spent the last three seasons working to stabilize a Dolphins offensive line that had been in a state of near-constant flux. Before his arrival, Miami cycled through offensive line coaches at an alarming rate, with few lasting more than a season. That kind of turnover rarely leads to cohesion, and the results on the field reflected it.
When Barry was hired in 2023, the move didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Just a year earlier, he’d been let go midseason by the Denver Broncos after a rough campaign that saw Denver’s line give up a league-high 63 sacks. The run game wasn’t much better, and Barry became a casualty of the team’s broader coaching shakeup that included the firing of head coach Nathaniel Hackett.
But Barry had a connection to McDaniel from their time together in San Francisco, and McDaniel clearly believed in what Barry could bring to the table. In their first season together in Miami, the offensive line showed real signs of growth - especially considering the patchwork nature of the roster and the injuries that forced constant adjustments throughout the year.
Despite the adversity, Miami’s offensive line allowed just 31 sacks in 2023 and led the league in fewest quarterback hits allowed. That wasn’t just a testament to Barry’s coaching - it also reflected McDaniel’s scheme and Tua Tagovailoa’s lightning-fast release, which was the quickest in the NFL that season.
Still, the improvement was undeniable. After years of instability, the Dolphins finally had a unit that could protect the quarterback and open up the offense.
The momentum didn’t fully carry over, though. In 2024, Miami’s offensive line regressed slightly, falling into the middle of the pack.
And this past season, the unit took a more significant dip, landing among the league’s bottom five. Still, considering where things stood before Barry’s arrival, his tenure marked one of the more stable and productive stretches the Dolphins have had up front in quite some time.
With Barry now heading to Los Angeles to reunite with McDaniel, the Dolphins wasted no time in naming his replacement. According to reports, Zach Yenser, most recently the assistant offensive line coach for the Houston Texans, will take over the position in Miami.
Yenser brings a solid track record at both the college and pro levels. Before his time in Houston, he led the offensive line unit at the University of Kentucky, and he’s known for his attention to detail and ability to develop young linemen.
While the Texans’ offense struggled this past season, much of the blame fell on quarterback C.J. Stroud, who had a rocky year.
The offensive line, under Yenser’s watch, held its own more often than not.
There’s also a clear connection that likely helped pave the way for this hire: Yenser worked alongside Bobby Slowik in Houston during Slowik’s final season as offensive coordinator. Slowik was recently promoted to the same role in Miami, and bringing in a familiar face to oversee the offensive line makes sense as the Dolphins look to retool their offense under a new regime.
So, while the Dolphins continue to reshape their identity from the top down, the Chargers are quietly building a Miami-West of their own. With McDaniel now calling plays and Barry coaching the trenches in Los Angeles, don’t be surprised if the Chargers’ offense starts to resemble the creative, quick-strike attack we saw in Miami just a couple of years ago.
As for the Dolphins, the Yenser-Slowik pairing offers a fresh start - and potentially a new chapter for a unit that’s long been searching for consistency.