The Miami Dolphins are hiring Mike Tannenbaum, who is formerly the GM of the New York Jets and was until yesterday an agent for coaches, to become their Executive Vice President for Football Operations.

And that begs more questions than we have answers at the moment.

"Why?" one Dolphins player texted me seconds after the news leaked on social media. "I don't understand."

And that is a legitimate question.

Why?

Owner Stephen Ross just pulled the rug out from under general manager Dennis Hickey. Hickey will report to Tannenbaum after serving as an autonomous GM for only one year -- one free agency period and one draft, in which Hickey did well, by most accounts.

At the same time Ross also is keeping Tannenbaum from have authority over head coach Joe Philbin.

So a team that had bitter in-fighting between the coach and general manager in 2013 now kneecapped the new general manager by hiring someone who has authority over personnel but no authority over the coach who decides which players play.

Awesome!

And the new VP is a former agent who represents head coach candidates. (I am assuming Tannenbaum will resign those duties eventually but his ties are his ties to the guys he represents.)

Tannenbaum won't take over until Feb. 1. So is the Dolphins incoming VP going to negotiate on behalf of Dan Quinn with, say, the New York Jets or Buffalo Bills before he reports for work in Miami?

"What could possibly go wrong," an agent monitoring the news just texted me.

And what does Dan Marino think about this? I reported weeks ago Marino and Tannenbaum had the ear of the Miami owner. Well, it seems Tannenbaum has more of that ear than the former Dolphins quarterback who was around the team all of last year -- in practices, meetings, games.

This is a curious move, folks.

It creates more questions than it offers answers.