Miami Dolphins executive vice president Mike Tannenbaum is pleased with the team's offseason so far, and he isn't trying to stay in lockstep with the Patriots after years of trying do so with the Jets.
"Look, all you can do is control your own team," Tannenbaum said, via the team's official site. "We've got 31 other teams that are competitors, obviously. New England has done a tremendous job for a long time. They're in our division. But we're trying to build the best program for us. And that's all we can control.
"That's enough on our plate. To worry about what we can do. To put the best team out there for the foreseeable future. We'll play them twice in the fall and we'll go from there. But we can't just sit there and say, 'hey, you know they made Move A, so we've got to do Move B.' We've got to build and do what we feel is in our best interest."
This is a bit of a departure for Tannenbaum. From 2009-13, he had the yeoman's task of fueling Rex Ryan's death feud against New England. This often meant acquiring high-profile talent (LaDainian Tomlinson, Bart Scott, Jason Taylor, Plaxico Burress, Antonio Cromartie) and pushing the Jets to their salary-cap limits.
While the Dolphins haven't exactly been thrifty in free agency since Tannenbaum arrived in Miami, they have definitely taken a less emotional and explosive approach to team building.
While it's hard to say after just one season, this might be thanks to head coach Adam Gase, who has already been credited with turning around the mood within the organization. A stable coach can negate the need to make rash decisions, which Miami has been known to do before the arrival of both Tannenbaum and Gase.
