Westhoff: Dolphins Fired Philbin Because He Declined to Make 'Assistant Changes'
Could Joe Philbin still be the Miami Dolphins head coach if he had agreed to make changes to his staff?
"I heard from pretty good source that over in London that [Joe] Philbin met with the owner and decided that they would ride it out," Mike Westhoff said on WQAM's Joe Rose Show. "But then Mike Tannenbaum got involved. They wanted to make some assistant changes, which I can understand that. Of course Mike is gonna make changes. Believe me, I know him very well. And then when they got back, they presented that to Philbin and he said no, so they changed him. They went the opposite direction with Dan Campbell, an ex-player, which I thought they would do, and an aggressive guy and gonna be a different approach."
What does he think Tannenbaum will do in Miami long-term?
"Save his own behind, that's what he'll do," Westhoff said. "He's a splash guy, Joe. He likes the big splash. When he was our pro personnel guy back before when I first went to New York, to tell you truth I liked him. I had a great time with him.
"He was involved in everything. I got along great with him. Then when he became General Manager, things changed. He likes to make that splash. Being the big splash guy -- Ndamukong Suh. The big money. Throw the big money out there and then build your team around that. Sometimes I always felt that Mike lost a little bit of touch with who he was bringing in and how he was trying to piece it together. We disagreed very vehemently, it's one of the reasons why I'm out of the business. But you know when you give a guy to hell with your money you better hope he doesn't say to hell with you. Better have the right guy. You better have the right guy. I'm not sure Mike always gets that."
Westhoff did say "this is a good change" going with Dan Campbell.
