Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Doing things his own way
The Gase method: Show players the money, and they’ll win for you
Let’s be honest. If Adam Gase wanted a new office, the Miami Dolphins would ask how big. If he wanted to helicopter to work, they’d build a pad outside his front door.
What Gase wanted after his opening, winning season was his unsigned players back. And so most were brought back this past week. They returned happy and fulfilled and, above all, rich in a manner similar Dolphins players haven’t been in recent years.
This is Gase’s team now. He proved his on-field ideas work. And this off-field idea shows how he wants to this team built. Everyone knows the traditional, threestep blueprint to win in the NFL: 1. Put a good system in place. 2. Find players to fit that system. 3. Keep them together. To that, you can add a fourth, interesting step in the modern NFL, at least as Gase sees it.
4. Follow me, and I’ll get you
paid.
And so while in previous years the Dolphins discarded their young (Lamar Miller, Rishard Matthews, Olivier Vernon …) and paid inflated prices for outsiders (Ndamukong Suh, Branden Albert …) , this past week showed a U-turn in that idea.
They paid inflated prices to keep their own.
And, make no mistake, that’s what the Dolphins did in some form. Kenny Stills, a third receiver off a career-best year, for $20 million guaranteed? Andre Branch, who had 5.5 sacks last season, for $8 million a year?
Safety Reshad Jones was the best player re-signed and the most interesting case. He’s 29. He’s coming off a season-ending shoulder injury. His importance is obvious, though he’s only been to one Pro Bowl.
Jones was under contract for one more season, too. So if the Dolphins weren’t extending a friends-and-family philosophy, they could have let him start next season to re-judge his health and play.
If they wanted to play hardball in the way many NFL teams do, they could have let Jones play out his contract. They could have then franchise-tagged him for around $14 million. They could even have done that a second year when Jones was 31.
Instead, they gave Jones a new five-year deal for $60 million. It’s smart in the short run as they’ve got a happy camper loyal to Gase. Is it long-term smart? Stay tuned.
You know this is Gase’s working idea, too. He’s the only change at the top with vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum and general manager Chris Grier.
Tannenbaum and Grier are doing what front offices typically do: Giving the coach the kind of players he wants. It’s just done in a different manner now in this Dolphins offseason.
They also smartly made important moves to fill gaps and prepare for the draft — a low-budget guard (Ted Larsen) and blocking tight end (Anthony Fasano) and mediumpriced linebacker Lawrence Timmons.
So far, the plan is meshing. It’s not the way winning teams like Green Bay, Pittsburgh or New England do business. It’s more in line with the upbeat manner of Seattle coach Pete Carroll than the harder-edged way Bill Belichick does things.
The risks? Well, coaches generally have myopic views of players. Take another sport. Heat coach Erik Spoelstra loves Dion Waiters, James Johnson and Wayne Ellington. They’ve helped turn this fun Heat season around.
Do you think team president Pat Riley wants to invest in all of them this offseason considering the salary-cap implications?
Not every Dolphins player was re-signed. Jarvis Landry’s deal hasn’t been reworked (he has another year on his contract). Tight end Dion Sims got a big deal in Chicago meaning he got paid. Besides, the Dolphins got tight end Julius Thomas, who was Gase’s guy in Denver.
Gase wants to keep his own. He showed that this week in a way that resonated across the roster. Production, he showed, will be rewarded even in a sport where bodies age like dog years. The key remains for these players to pay them back on the field.