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(Andy Cohen In the Morning – AC in the AM – will appear on Dolphins.com every Monday through Friday through training camp and the regular season. The columns will be posted at 6 a.m. You can also follow AC in the AM by twitter at @acohenfins).
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Mike Tannenbaum sits in his second floor office at Dolphins training camp and he seems so comfortable, so at ease with everything that is happening around him. This is his second season running the football operation. His fingerprints are all over this team, from the head coach, to a promising draft class to all those other offseason moves.
Why the comfort? Because Tannenbaum now sees many of the pieces in place – not all the pieces, but many of them -- and because he relishes his working relationship with Coach Adam Gase and General Manager Chris Grier and because, well it’s the first day of August and he’s gets to spend each morning watching the fruits of his labor unfold on the practice field only a few hundred yards from where he is sitting.
“Ready to roll,” he says with a warm smile. “I feel good about where we’re heading. We have to have a good training camp. That’s the first step.”
Tannenbaum leans back in his chair and thinks about what a busy offseason it was. “Strategic,” he said. “That’s the best word to sum it up. We had a good plan. We executed that plan.”
Nothing was more important than finding the right head coach and, even at this early date, Tannenbaum talks with certainty about Adam Gase, going as far as calling the impact he will have on this team as “incalculable.” Then he told a story that says much about Gase’s internal make-up.
“There was a player that had a bump in the road with Adam and rubbed him the wrong way,” Tannenbaum said. “He was doing some things that might have been construed as inappropriate. I asked Adam how he handled it.
"Adam said to me: 'As much as I wanted to scream at him, I didn’t feel that was the best way to get the most out of him. So I approached him in a way to get the response we needed, but to still keep the player engaged and get his performance maximized.' There was such genius to that. It was subtle, but effective. He has such a high IQ when it comes to things like that.”
Then there was the fortuitous availability of offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil
in the first round of the draft and even today Tannenbaum still vividly remembers the look of disbelief on everyone’s faces in that room.
“Of course, there was some luck,” Tannenbaum says. “But it also comes down to attention to detail. We were sitting there on a snowy, 30-degree night in Indianapolis, staying in a small hotel and wanting to get out there. We had a list of guys we still had to meet with and Tunsil was on that list. We rolled our eyes for a minute, figuring he would never fall to us.
“But we did the interview and we completed a total work-up on Tunsil and, as he kept falling, we were so glad we did our homework. He’ll be a Dolphin for a long time.”
What you need to understand about the new structure of the Dolphins’ football operation is that Tannenbaum may have the loftiest title, but it is combining his skills with Gase and Grier that really makes it work. They meet every day. Sometimes two or three times a day. They don’t always agree, but they usually leave each meeting on the same page, or very close to it. This trust and mutual respect is so refreshing to see, so important to see.
Asked to define his relationship with Gase and Grier, Tannenbaum responds: “Authentic.” And that really tells you everything you need to know.
As comfortable as Tannenbaum feels, he knows there is much more work ahead of him. He is proud of the pre-training camp signing of Arian Foster and figures there may very well be “one or two” more significant additions as the summer unfolds.
“It’s a continuous process,” he says. “Unexpected opportunities always present themselves. We’ll be prepared.”
For a moment, Tannenbaum lets his mind wander. He knows all about expectations, all about the tradition of this franchise. He sees it when he walks into the building each day. In some ways, he even feels the presence of those Super Bowls and The Undefeated Team.
“An incredible standard has been set here,” he says. “I’m energized by it. We have been given every resource to be successful here. If we fall short, which I don’t expect us to do, then it’s on us.”
Which led me to the question that I’m sure you wanted me to ask: Will the Dolphins get back to the Super Bowl on his watch?
Tannenbaum didn’t hesitate. “We will,” he said, “or we’ll die trying.”
And with that, Tannenbaum was off to another meeting, his goals well-defined, his commitment beyond reproach and a very telling summer now hitting full stride.
# # #
Mike Tannenbaum sits in his second floor office at Dolphins training camp and he seems so comfortable, so at ease with everything that is happening around him. This is his second season running the football operation. His fingerprints are all over this team, from the head coach, to a promising draft class to all those other offseason moves.
Why the comfort? Because Tannenbaum now sees many of the pieces in place – not all the pieces, but many of them -- and because he relishes his working relationship with Coach Adam Gase and General Manager Chris Grier and because, well it’s the first day of August and he’s gets to spend each morning watching the fruits of his labor unfold on the practice field only a few hundred yards from where he is sitting.
“Ready to roll,” he says with a warm smile. “I feel good about where we’re heading. We have to have a good training camp. That’s the first step.”
Tannenbaum leans back in his chair and thinks about what a busy offseason it was. “Strategic,” he said. “That’s the best word to sum it up. We had a good plan. We executed that plan.”
Nothing was more important than finding the right head coach and, even at this early date, Tannenbaum talks with certainty about Adam Gase, going as far as calling the impact he will have on this team as “incalculable.” Then he told a story that says much about Gase’s internal make-up.
“There was a player that had a bump in the road with Adam and rubbed him the wrong way,” Tannenbaum said. “He was doing some things that might have been construed as inappropriate. I asked Adam how he handled it.
"Adam said to me: 'As much as I wanted to scream at him, I didn’t feel that was the best way to get the most out of him. So I approached him in a way to get the response we needed, but to still keep the player engaged and get his performance maximized.' There was such genius to that. It was subtle, but effective. He has such a high IQ when it comes to things like that.”
Then there was the fortuitous availability of offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil
in the first round of the draft and even today Tannenbaum still vividly remembers the look of disbelief on everyone’s faces in that room. “Of course, there was some luck,” Tannenbaum says. “But it also comes down to attention to detail. We were sitting there on a snowy, 30-degree night in Indianapolis, staying in a small hotel and wanting to get out there. We had a list of guys we still had to meet with and Tunsil was on that list. We rolled our eyes for a minute, figuring he would never fall to us.
“But we did the interview and we completed a total work-up on Tunsil and, as he kept falling, we were so glad we did our homework. He’ll be a Dolphin for a long time.”
What you need to understand about the new structure of the Dolphins’ football operation is that Tannenbaum may have the loftiest title, but it is combining his skills with Gase and Grier that really makes it work. They meet every day. Sometimes two or three times a day. They don’t always agree, but they usually leave each meeting on the same page, or very close to it. This trust and mutual respect is so refreshing to see, so important to see.
Asked to define his relationship with Gase and Grier, Tannenbaum responds: “Authentic.” And that really tells you everything you need to know.
As comfortable as Tannenbaum feels, he knows there is much more work ahead of him. He is proud of the pre-training camp signing of Arian Foster
and figures there may very well be “one or two” more significant additions as the summer unfolds. “It’s a continuous process,” he says. “Unexpected opportunities always present themselves. We’ll be prepared.”
For a moment, Tannenbaum lets his mind wander. He knows all about expectations, all about the tradition of this franchise. He sees it when he walks into the building each day. In some ways, he even feels the presence of those Super Bowls and The Undefeated Team.
“An incredible standard has been set here,” he says. “I’m energized by it. We have been given every resource to be successful here. If we fall short, which I don’t expect us to do, then it’s on us.”
Which led me to the question that I’m sure you wanted me to ask: Will the Dolphins get back to the Super Bowl on his watch?
Tannenbaum didn’t hesitate. “We will,” he said, “or we’ll die trying.”
And with that, Tannenbaum was off to another meeting, his goals well-defined, his commitment beyond reproach and a very telling summer now hitting full stride.
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