Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gase likes his team — now he needs to win with it in Year 3
DAVIE — Professional sports at their core are heartless businesses, corporations of violence and bottom-line results, and so it’s no wonder leaders of American industry seek tips from old prophets like Heat president Pat Riley or new champions like Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pedersen.
But it works the other way, too. An NFL executive discussing the Dolphins recently passed along the wisdom of Doug Conant, the former CEO of Campbell’s Soup, who inherited a losing corporation that he turned around. Conant’s timeline for new regimes runs like so:
Year 1: It’s the other guy’s fault — or your total success.
Year 2: You’re still implementing what needs to be done.
Year 3: You own it. You better win.
It’s Year 3 for this Dolphins regime. Coach Adam Gase, vice president of football Mike Tannenbaum and general manager Chris Grier are at the time they’ve seen everything they need to see, changed the dire parts of the operation and have everything on a positive trajectory. Or they should.
Now they need to win starting with Sunday’s opener. They’re sure they will, too. It blurs the line between confidence and smugness at times. But Gase has a healthy swagger back that losing eroded off him last year, and every few days will give some version of his, “I love this team,” answer.
The question might start about the offense, or about something bigpicture about the roster moves, but it really involves asking about his thoughts on this team. Gase, Tannenbaum and Grier gambled on bigpicture culture over big-name talent, on team-oriented professionalism over ego-driven performance and say the results will bear that out.
Gase has been out front on this gamble, too. In June, he talked about having, “a bunch of grinders, guys who love to work,” by August he was saying, “This is a great bunch — just the kind of guys I like to be around,” and just this week he was saying on his TV show how self-motivated these players were in offseason workouts and extra time.
It’s not just the roster that had a final makeover before Year 3. It’s the coaching staff. Headlines aren’t made when a handful of assistants who work behind the scenes are replaced by others who remain behind the scenes. But four new coaches are here representing the final touch on Gase’s staff.
None of this demands you buy into it or surrender your hard-earned right to be skeptical. I have the scars of hard-earned skepticism. I think all coaches love their teams right before the kickoff (what choice do they have)?
I think this roster looks too old in key places and too young in others. I think they have four quarterbacks on the roster without having a trustworthy No. 2. I think 7-9 this year.
That’s not the point here, though. It’s that Gase, Tannenbaum and Grier have spent careers preparing for and long hours doing precisely what they wanted to this offseason. They got a lot of pieces to play — Albert Wilson, Danny Amendola, Josh Sitton, Frank Gore — at the cost of a couple of expensive ones in Jarvis Landry and Ndamukong Suh.
It’s Year 3, after all. And you don’t need a Fortune 500 CEO to lay out his timeline. Just look at Dolphins coaches this millennium as the face of their regimes. Dave Wannstedt was sinking after Year 3 and never recovered. Nick Saban didn’t even try a
Year 3 when he didn’t like what he saw.
Tony Sparano, like Wannstedt, was sinking after Year 3 and didn’t make it to the end of the next season. Joe Philbin did everything to be fired after three seasons but survived four games into his fourth season.
This regime needs to win this year. Gase is the face of that. He’s an engaging and passionate football coach, the kind players can rally around — if they’re the right players. He says he has them now. Yes, all coaches say that on the eve of a season. But in
Year 3 it needs to be less hope and more results.