There were a number of Miami Dolphin fans calling for changes after the team finished 8-8 for the second straight season in 2014. I’m not sure promoting Mike Tannenbaum were the type of changes the fans had in mind.
On Tuesday, Tannenbaum was named Dolphins Executive Vice President of Football Operations. He will start his new role on February 1. Last August, Tannenbaum joined the Dolphins as a consultant.
In his new role, Tannenbaum will handle football administration and will report directly to owner Stephen Ross. Dolphins General Manager Dennis Hickey will report directly to Tannenbaum, but continue to have control over the 53-man roster and lead the personnel and scouting department.
“I am excited that Mike Tannenbaum has joined the organization full time,” Ross said. “He is an experienced executive and leader that understands all facets of the sports landscape. During his time as a consultant this past season, I was able to see his impact first hand through his commitment and passion for innovation and using every possible avenue to find competitive edges.”
While Tannenbaum has had front office experience before, he wasn’t necessarily eyeing this position until Ross brought it up to him.
“I talked to Steve (Ross) all of the time, Matt Higgins, Tom Garfinkel, there are a lot of people that obviously I’ve gotten to know,” said Tannenbaum. “The conversations were just really over the last couple of weeks. We didn’t get anything finalized until recently. It was a hard decision from a standpoint that my business is going really well. I built it with some really great people, but football is in my blood.”
Prior to joining the Dolphins as a consultant, Tannenbaum spent 16 seasons (1997-2012) with the New York Jets in various roles. During his last seven years in New York (2006-12), Tannenbaum served as the team’s Executive Vice President and General Manager. During his time as General Manager, the Jets went to two AFC Championship games (2009 and 2010).
Tannenbaum joins a Dolphins’ front office that’s trying to lead their team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2008. When asked about the roster, Tannenbaum really liked the moves that Hickey made last year.
“The cupboard is not bare by any stretch,” said Tannenbaum. “You look at Dennis’ draft, Jarvis Landry and Ja’Wuan James, Branden Albert was a really good signing until obviously he got hurt. Going into the last two weeks of the season, the team was right in the middle of a playoff run. They have a really good young quarterback that got better this year with (offensive coordinator) Bill Lazor. I think it’s really critical that we have our self-evaluation of where the roster is, it starts with that. I think to have sustainable success, you really have to know your roster well. That’s a combination of the draft, trades and free agency. We’ll put a good plan together, working together.”
According to sources, the Dolphins coaching staff is not expected to be effected by the Tannenbaum hire. The move was more or less made because of the lack of faith Ross has in Hickey as a general manager.
It remains to be seen how this move will affect the Dolphins moving forward. The chain of command seems to be very confusing as the Dolphins could have too many cooks in the kitchen.
Miami will have the same format as they did from 2007-2010, when Jeff Ireland reported to Bill Parcells. We all know how that worked out.
