Mike Tannenbaum head of football operations?!

That's bull****. I think it's a good hire because of what it will do for this franchise. Mike Tannenbaum is here to as CK so smartly said.. "drag this franchise into the 21st century". This kind of move to an analytics and data driven sports team is being done with great success already, in Seattle and many teams in the EPL in Europe. It's a huge undertaking to do it correctly. I'm very much behind this move because I see what it does for our future. You have to move past thinking he's here to do what he did in NY. tannenbaum has done a ton since he left there.

 

Pretty good, I prefer grape or cherry. How's it feel to drown in your own ignorance?

 

Ross hired Philbin and informed him that he was stuck with Ireland as the teams GM. Next Ross fires Ireland and hires Hickey and informs Hickey that he is stuck with Philbin as the head coach.

Now Ross hires Tannebaum to run football operations. Tannebaum is hired to be the Czar over football operations, but he is told that he must keep Hickey and Philbin. Hickey will report to this Czar, but Philbin will continue to bypass Tannebaum and report directly to Ross.

Does this actually appear to be someone who is trying to learn how to run an NFL football team? To me, it appears to be a man with far too much money who doesn't have a clue what he is doing as the owner of an NFL team.

 

I said maybe and that he's trying not that he was any good at it lol.

 

The flow chart...doesn't flow

 

This is a neutral move imo. Calm down people.

 

And in Philadelphia, under Chip Kelly.

 

Just look at his last 5 first round picks as the Jets GM
then stay away from anything sharp with a point

 

For the same reason people think Rex Ryan is a good coach

 

Wow, this is your čaše that hes not bad.... A handful of solid 1st rounders over a decade. But using the aformentioned reasons that he is bad ....would be "silly"..... Talk about hypocritical...and what does "hes not our GM " mean ? our GM will report to him. Hellooo ?

 

and was 100% built by Eric Mangini

 

His "misses" aren't that bad. Sanchez didn't pan out but I wouldn't call his time in NY a miserable failure either. Shonne greene too. Slauson also. None of these guys are pro bowlers but they contributed to long playoff runs. The move for Holmes looked awesome for two years. Made the mistake of paying him though

Tannenbaums real issue was sanchez and Holmes extensions.

 

Was it really his drafts? Honest question.

 

Why do people think Ireland is bad ?
He drafted Jake Long, Mike Pouncey, Vontae Davis, Jared Odrick, Ryan Tannehill, discovered Can Wake, lol. We think Tannenbaum is bad because jets fans feel about him how most us felt about Ireland. Hell, Tannenbaum even admitted hed done poorly !

 

This is exactly what is happening. Tannenbaum has been retained to replace Hickey next year when Hickey leaves with Philbin.

The search for a new coach has already begun. Ross will be well informed next year if he has to drop the ax.

 

And losing Revis, not replacing him.... bringing in overpaid journeyman with egos. (Scott,Pace,Cromartie,Landry,Holmes,Braylon,Winslow, LaDanian,Chris Johnson, Tebow..just a terrible philosiphy for team building. Gave away guys like Woodhead.

 

Because our oline was/is trash due in large part to him. Dallas thomas, incognito, jon martin, John jerry, Tyson clabo, there's a few more failures I can't recall.

 

What on earth does his work as the GM in NY have to do with his new position? We don't have any indication his job has anything to do with player acquisition. As long as Ross is now completely out of the football side of the organization, I see the hire as a positive.

 

This is the first step in a different direction when were supposed to be maintaining course. Tannenbaum has no repore with our staff, but will determine their fate 11 months into the job.

 

He wasn't there for c. Johnson. Also Cromartie, pace, scott, Edwards aND Holmes were huge contributters to an almost super bowl team.

 

I'm pretty neutral on this hire right now, but I will admit I liked the interview on the Finsiders, seemed like he is going to bring in a lot of new, refreshing ideas. I think we might be pleasantly surprised by him, much like we were by Hickey in his first offseason.

 

I think anyone freaking out is being totally irrational. Your making huge assumptions based on his time in NY without actually looking into what he has been doing since then and the reasons why Ross hired him. But hey, you wanna run around like lemmings.. Knock yourself out

 

My point was anyone can find good playerd in the first round it's not proof theyre a good talent evaluator. It was silly reasoning on that posters part so i made an example using Ireland. But snips if you really think Tannenbaums main misš step was extending Sanchez,Holmes than you missed a lot. I mean hes responsible for more first round busts than almost any other TWO Teams and the free agency history i mentioned earlier. Terrible Resume.

 

- He worked with Aponte in the past
- Formerly Dan Quinn's agent

Just a few nuggets, but from a business standpoint, I am not sure I disagree with the hire.....

 

He has been a consultant for the team all year.

 

Not agreeing with the signing would be percieved freaking out to someone with blinders on...... You obviously don't know much about Tannenbaum and assume no one else does either. No clue what you mean about what hes been doing since leaving the jets, or what that matters. His history is documented for you, and hes been quoted in the last few months admitting to his responsibilities as to the jets woes. Anyone beating the company drum with no need for facts should gently remove cranium from own buttocks ! Theres plenty good reason not to be excited by this hire.

 

I actually have no idea what this hiring means.

If it is a step closer to us becoming a complete dumpster fire, and restarting the organization,
IM FOR IT!

 

in laymans terms, Im really into this sports performance doctor stuff, these athletes are machines, the machines need to run at optimum levels, to achieve that you need intellect and foresight into advanced exercise science and nutrition, education and implementation..

Im happy he's going to do all this stuff for our franchise, I've listened to him talk for three hours now and he is a smart guy with a presence about him that will not embarrass himself when he's in the room with other smart men who have strong presences.

I just want my guy who's gonna be in charge of personal to yes listen to the info provided and streamline your workload, but please, do your work and make your final decisions on personnell in the film room..

I believe it doesn't take some law degree to be an excellent talent evaluator, and it doesn't matter to me that hickey cannot grasp and implement certain concepts, but if he's a good talent evaluator then he's worth keeping..

I loved Brandon Albert..absolutely loved Moreno..Delmas was a decent signing..Loved Billy turner coming out...Chris Mccain flashed hard..Juice...James..Tripp..Fede..I like the talent he brought to the table.

I feel ok about this Baum guy, I think maybe he will at least give the guy one more year to prove himself, and if he doesn't get it done, then he's got no excuses..kick his *** and the coach to the curb and hire your GM and coach next year.

 

Tannebaum is not the person you want restarting any organization.

 

i haven't read the whole thread so this is probably been said but hickey has it written in his contract that he has final say, and there is now confirmation of that by Baum..

Sick..step off the ledge, this may work out..this guy can handle himself in a room full of smart people, if he's stays out of personnell this might be a really good thing.

 

were completely gutting our morgue of a venue to actually help the fans get closer to the field and were putting a roof on that mother..who cares about another 8 and 8 season..all good here man.

 

having a proper sports performance team in place like some teams already do may of kept the meatheads that are employed by the dolphins from making dion jordan get u to 290.

 

nah come on man, don't get all serious on me man..

 

You don't think Tannenbaum is an upgrade over Ross. That's weird.

 

In my opinion this is somewhere between a "good" hire and a "brilliant" hire. Let me explain.

1. Mike Tannenbaum had a good reputation as an executive and then ran afoul of some bad choices. It's been brought up by Stringer that some of the more desperate looking moves were probably made specifically with the intention of selling the PSLs during the upcoming PSL sale. And it is absolutely 100% true that Woody Johnson is known as a guy who meddles in personnel. It's no coincidence we've seen two GM candidates refuse to interview there. Just as it's no coincidence we saw GM candidate run away from Miami screaming last year (more on that later). A stretch of bad picks happens. It happens to everyone. Personnel selection teeters on a knife point. You come millimeters away from making a choice that would make you a laughing stock, and instead you choose a guy that makes you look brilliant. That happens. Bad stretches are going to happen to any talent picker. But Tannenbaum has a good background under some smart football people (among them Belichick, Parcells, etc).

2. What did Tannenbaum do when he got fired? This interests me greatly. He didn't take the easy route and go do television. He did some but it was moonlighting work. He didn't just go off and try and start or join an independent scouting service like we've seen with some other guys, like Carl Peterson's boy I already forget his name, the guy that was supposed to come to Miami and be Ray Farmer's assistant GM. Tannenbaum went into representing coaches from the NFL, NBA and other leagues, and he also went into consulting on the implementation of sports science, technology and analytics into sports management. He exposed himself to different teams, different leagues, found all the ways that they have innovated over the years, and took the smart ideas he came across and implemented them into his consulting business. That shows commitment to sports science and technology as well as analytics. He chose to do that job.

3. Anything that puts up a buffer between Steve Ross and the management of football operations is a GOOD thing. Steve Ross is all but an absentee owner. He works in New York City and comes to see games. He's still heavily involved in his real estate businesses. He doesn't do anything day to day with the Dolphins yet he organized a structure full of department heads with him as the overseer. In other words, with nobody overseeing them until sh-t hits the fan. This is a bad model. I'm not saying Ross needed to be separated from the flow chart because he's dumb or whatever the kids are saying nowadays. I'm saying he needed to be separated from it because he's not there and doesn't have the commitment to be there. He needed a head of football operations for a LONG time and he refused to get one. We all sat here and griped about that. We sat here and griped how he's got no head of football ops and just has department heads reporting to him. Well, now he's got one. Hurray? Yes, hurray.

4. Dennis Hickey is not as committed or knowledgeable about sports science or analytics as he tried to let on when he was hired. Watching him talk about analytics was so comical as to be nearly painful. His idea of analytics is to just say the word enthusiastically over and over. When pressed to describe his vision he just kept saying, "Just a tool. Ya know, anything we can do." Everything was politician quality buzz phrases with no substance whatsoever. Problem is I've spoken to people that know him, people that have contact with him now in Miami, people that had contact with him in Tampa, people that specifically know about his involvement with analytics efforts in Tampa. He had nothing to do with analytics in Tampa and in fact was almost openly hostile to the idea of hiring analytics professionals and implementing analytics into the process. He was definitely belittling toward it. Others that have met him and know people who know him have said he's almost comical trying to manage things like smartphones, etc. And in Miami those that have pressed him PRIVATELY about analytics (no microphones or cameras) still couldn't get any substance out of him. He's just in over his head as far as structuring the engine of a billion dollar franchise. He's a head scout. That's what he likes, it's what he wants to do, and it's what he will be now.

5. The most brilliant part of this in my opinion is the AUTHORITY he gave Tannenbaum. It's WHERE he put him on the org chart. We know Tannenbaum is committed to implementing sports science and technology into the Dolphins. We know it's a passion of his because it's what he CHOSE to do after he got fired by the Jets. We also know that he's on good terms with coaches and has been a good schmoozer that way, he WAS a coach's agent after all. If you hire a Tannenbaum as just let's say "Director of Sports Research" and have him report to Dennis Hickey, what is that going to do? Nothing. Because the power still lies in the hands of Dennis Hickey and so the franchise will only change insofar as Dennis Hickey is committed to commissioning changes, implementing them, and managing the results. And if he's just interested in scouting players then nothing ever gets done. So instead of hiring Tannenbaum as some director of yadda and putting him under a guy not committed to the whole idea, he's actually the big boss...and he's almost like a single-issue candidate. So you can damn well bet things on this front will get done.

There is going to be some short term pain, but let's be honest that was already decided when Steve Ross opened his mouth after the Vikings win and said that Joe Philbin will remain Miami's head coach. The short term pain will be in weeding out Dennis Hickey and Joe Philbin. And they will be weeded out, probably within the year. Hickey will not be able to implement Tannenbaum's technologies and systems into the evaluation process because I just don't think he's capable of it, and there will come a point when a contract is just not renewed. Joe Philbin does not report to Tannenbaum but Omar Kelly has stated (and it makes sense) that he can't because it's in Philbin's contract that he reports directly to Ross. Should Philbin pull off a miracle in 2015 and Philbin's contract is renewed or extended, the necessary language will be inserted to place him under Tannenbaum. Otherwise we'll be conducting a new coaching search probably side by side with a GM search and we may even open it up so that the head coach can suggest his personnel guy to be plugged in underneath Tannenbaum.

I mean look at the Dolphins staff directory and then look at a team like Seattle's. The Dolphins have an archaic look and they needed to be brought into the 21st century. That's what Mike Tannenbaum can do because he made himself a specialist that way. So that's what he'll do.

 

I think that's how Ross has to see it in his own mind. I think he's got buyer's remorse for having kept Philbin, but knew he wouldn't be able to lure Harbaugh if he was planning to bring in Tannenbaum as VP of Football Ops and, to him, there wasn't another good coaching candidate. So, this move lines up one of two ways for him:

1) Joe Philbin and Dennis Hickey, with their contracts expiring, deliver a helluva a haul in free agency and the Draft, Hickey's responsibility, and Joe Philbin actually gets a clue and turns out a Jason Garrett type season and Miami makes the playoffs and wins a game. In this scenario, Ross looks like a genius for having stuck by Philbin. I don't think this scenario is likely.

Or...

2) Philbin gonna Philbin and goes somewhere between 6-10 and 8-8 and Dennis Hickey has a second consecutive average offseason and both don't get extensions offered after 2015. Ross gets to make a "splash" hire along with the stadium renovations being completed going into the 2016 season and structure the front office under Mike Tannenbaum.

 

I didn't know Tannebaum was going to be the new owner. That's weird.

 

ck - great post. In two minutes you got me rethinking this. If what you say plays out I can see why you would call this move maybe brilliant. The sports science intrigues me.

 

Nice piece.

I think Tannehill will save most of those jobs. That's why Philbin had him drafted.