Tannenbaum’s biggest issue

Mike Tannenbaum made a lot of solid moves during this time as Jets GM, but one quirky strategy of his, came back to bite him . . .

All these people making Mike Tannenbaum a victim now, you might want to reconsider.

Hey, I don’t like to see anybody get fired, but Mike didn’t help his cause the last few years.

I keep hearing that Rex had his fingerprints on a lot of personnel decisions, some that didn’t work out that well.

Well, you know what, that’s on Mike.

If you are a strong GM, and you have final say, you tell the coach, “We’re not picking that guy – I’m sorry.”

Tannenbaum needed to draw a line in the sand – not appease his coach.

But here is bigger problem that I saw with Tannenbaum’s strategy – he seemed to view things through the lens of his own survival.

What do I mean by that?

It often seemed like tried to make major personnel decisions work, come hell or high water, even if it would hurt the team.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he wanted to hurt the team, but he did.

I’ll give you several examples.

He made the blockbuster trade for Mark Sanchez in 2009 – trading up with Cleveland to grab that USC quarterback.

He traded draft picks and a bunch of players.

It turned out to be a mistake, Sanchez isn’t a first round quarterback. In retrospect, we are looking at a middle-late round quarterback.

There was some team success in Sanchez first two years, and let me reiterate – team success. He was on two teams that went to the AFC Championship game twice, he didn’t lead them there.

But then when things headed south for the quarterback in 2011, Mike doubled-down on him, with a contract extension that might have led to his firing.

It’s almost like he was trying to will Sanchez to success by showing more faith in him. Then the team stayed with him too long this year, to the detriment of the club.

This backfired on Tannenbaum.

Then you have Santonio Holmes. The contract he got with $24.5 million in guaranteed money was preposterous. The Jets were bidding against themselves.

Holmes has a poor attitude, and that truly manifested itself when he was tossed out of the huddle in Miami at the end of the 2011 season.

In the off-season that followed, the Jets had a chance to get out of the deal, and recoup some money, but Mike didn’t do it. If the Jets had cut Holmes by February 8, 2012, they could have saved a big chunk of his 2013 guaranteed salary.

I would have done it. He’s bad news. You haven’t hear the half of it. Cut your losses.

But there is no way Mike would do that. It would be admitting a mistake.

Third example was forcing the coaches to platoon Vlad Ducasse with Matt Slauson at left guard this year.

Look, I think Ducasse can be okay. He did a decent job in many games this year, playing every third series.

But the offensive coaches wanted nothing to do with this (Guge admitted as much at his famous presser this year).

But once again, it was almost like Mike had to show Woody that the Ducasse pick was working out.

So I think you understand better now what I mean by “viewing things through the lens of his own survival.”

So in a strange way – the Jets continually forced players on the field, under Tannenbaum the last few years, almost like they tried to make major investments or high draft picks work out, even if it hurt the team.

You could throw in Kyle Wilson, Kenrick Ellis, and even include Vernon Gholston from a few years ago.

This makes no sense, and is something Bill Belichick would NEVER do.

I’m sorry Mike, while you made a lot of good moves during your time with the Jets, this mindset of trying to make big decisions workout, perhaps to look good to the owner, was often counterproductive to winning.

January 2, 2013

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