Dolphins Promote Chris Grier, Demote Mike Tannenbaum

Firing Adam Gase wasn’t the only major change the Dolphins made today. The team also announced they were promoting Chris Grier to oversee football operations while demoting Mike Tannebaum from that post, per Cameron Wolfe of ESPN (Twitter link).

Grier had been the GM but didn’t have decision making power and reported to Tannebaum, but those roles will now be reversed. Gase had contractual control over the 53-man roster during his tenure, but the new coach will have far less power. Whoever the new coach is will report to Grier and not to owner Stephen Ross like Gase did, according to Barry Jackson of The Miami Herald (Twitter link).

While the Dolphins building was filled with internal drama and infighting, Albert Breer of SI.com tweets that Grier was the “one who remained above the fray, and could work with anyone”, which in part led to his promotion. Grier came up as a scout in the Patriots’ organization before he was hired by the Dolphins in 2000. He was promoted to the role of director of college scouting in 2007, and then to general manager in 2016.

It was reported last week that Tannebaum was on the way out, so his demotion isn’t a surprise. He’ll remain with the team for now in a lesser role, but it wouldn’t be surprising if he exited soon. With the team set to move on from Ryan Tannehill, Grier will have his hands full with finding a new head coach as well as a new franchise quarterback. It looks like a full-blown rebuild is in store for Miami.

View Comments (2)