There’s something eating away at the Miami Dolphins from the inside, something rotten. There’s something sucking all of the team’s resources dry and making life in the front office far more difficult than it needs to be. That something is Mike Tannenbaum. Since Mike Tannenbaum was hired as the team’s VP of Football Operations in January of 2015, the salary cap situation for the Dolphins has been an absolute disaster. Sadly however, the Dolphins aren’t the first victims of Tannenbaum’s mismanagement of the salary cap.
Mike Tannebaum served as the General Manager of the New York Jets from 2006 through 2013. During his time there, he made numerous bad moves that left the Jets financially hamstrung, even for a few years after he was gone. The first came soon after his arrival in 2006 when he signed cornerback Andre Dyson to a five year deal and Dyson failed to produce in New York. One of the worst moves that Tannenbaum made with the Jets came in 2008 when he drafted Ohio State linebacker Vernon Gholston with the sixth overall pick. Gholston went on to become one of the biggest draft busts in Jets history. Another bad move came in 2009 when he traded for cornerback Lito Sheppard and then paid him $27.2 million to be the NUMBER TWO corner, opposite Darrelle Revis. These among other moves led to Tannenbaum being fired by the Jets, but also left the cupboard in New York pretty bare for a few years after his departure. And then it was on to Miami.
Tannenbaum was essentially given the keys to the kingdom in Miami in January of 2015 when he was named the Vice President of Football Operations and charged with handling the team’s salary cap. He began to bungle this task almost immediately when he signed Ndamukong Suh and essentially gave quarterback money to a defensive tackle. That was a stupid move in itself, but the long term consequences only made matters worse. Every offseason, the Dolphins were in salary cap trouble and would make two moves to put a band-aid on the problem, but make it worse down the line. Those two moves were always to shake down Cameron Wake and get him to take a pay cut and to push some of Suh’s money back to the next year. Pushing Suh’s money back two years in a row created a HUGE salary cap issue in 2018 and led to Suh being released in March. However, the effects of that contract are still being felt and will continue to be felt in 2019 in the form of $13 million dollars of dead money against the salary cap. That was just Tannenbaum’s FIRST off-season in control of the Dolphins.
There were more bad contracts to come by way of Mike Tannenbaum’s office. Giving Jay Cutler $10 million last year was definitely a mistake, as was the contract that was given to Tight End Julius Thomas, who was pretty much on vacation for his entire stay in Miami. Another bad move that will continue to haunt the team moving forward was how much money was committed to Ryan Tannehill long term. The contract was questionable when it was signed in 2015, but is an even bigger problem after the team had to push back some of the guaranteed money in that contract this year to create more cap space. Because of that move, the team is still financially committed to Tannehill after this year. In order to move on from Ryan Tannehill after 2018, the team would either have to trade him, or cut him which creates EVEN MORE dead money against the salary cap.
The mistakes that are being made by Mike Tannenbaum are hurting the team right now and the results are showing on Sunday. Obviously, the team should have signed some quality backups along the offensive line and moved on from offensive tackle Sam Young. The team also should’ve signed a starting caliber cornerback to put opposite of Xavien Howard when they had the chance and there were a couple of those on the free agent market. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen because thanks to TannenBUM, the team couldn’t afford to make those moves. It is BEYOND time for Mike Tannenbaum to go. His financially stupid decisions have been and still are coming back this team in the backside. The salary cap situation in south Florida will never improve if this guy is allowed to remain with the team, and thus given license to continue mismanaging the money.
