Tannenbaum on keeping his free agents: 'We'll see ... No decisions'

The Miami Dolphins are at the Indianapolis Combine and so are 1,400 media covering the event. Today club executive vice president for football operations Mike Tannenbaum spoke with reporters and basically accomplished his mission by revealing ... not much.

What did he reveal?

You judge.

Tannenbaum was asked about re-signing defensive end Olivier Vernon, the team's signature player scheduled to hit free agency. Will the team keep him?

"We'll see what happens," Tannenbaum said. "He's earned the right to be a free agent so he has options. We have options. We're going to keep assessing those."

The franchise tag, which would cost the Dolphins $15 million guaranteed for 2016 and goes on the cap in one lump sum, is an option for MIami. The team has until 4 p.m. on March 1 to designate a player with a franchise or transition tag. Are the Dolphins going to use it?

"We have options. We'll see," Tannenbaum said. "We haven't made any decisions. We have a deadline coming up in another handful of days so we'll see. We haven't made any decision so we're looking at a couple of different options."

The Dolphins will meet with Vernon agent David Canter before they leave Indy. At or soon after that meeting, presumably, there will emerge clarity which direction this is headed. The Dolphins made Vernon an offer last August but not since. Both the team and the agent have been waiting for the other to come up with a contract number they can begin negotiating off of.

Running back Lamar Miller is also a free agent and the Dolphins will talk to agent Drew Rosenhaus at the combine as well.

Is Tannenbaum optimistic he can keep Miller?

"I'm an optimistic person by nature," Tannenbaum said. "We'll see what happens. We've done a lot of deals with his agent over the years and Lamar is a homegrown talent. Great guy off the field and we'll see what happens."

The direction of the Miller negotiation and talks with receiver Rishard Matthews may determine how much offense the Dolphins address in what is expected to be their defensive-minded draft in a couple of months.

"If we re-sign Lamar, if we're fortunate enough to do that, we're probably not going to draft another running back," Tannenbaum said. "If we lose Lamar, drafting a running back becomes more important. We'll get all those decisions over the next several months, knowing that we're not going to be able to keep all these players. We all know that. And then who else can we sign and what are the value signs and what can we do in the draft? We're sitting there with the eighth pick. Do we maybe move up, move back. All these decisions depend on one another.

"If we would lose Rishard Matthews and Lamar Miller that would affect our thinking. There's a lot of talent in this draft, some positions more than in others. We have to see what happens over the next six weeks before we set our strategy going into the draft."