Adam Gase – September 7, 2016
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Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On if he was encouraged by LB Jelani Jenkins today) – “Yes. The fact that he was out there participating, that’s big for us. We felt pretty good leading up to today and knowing there was a lot of time left for us before we head out there and have a few more practices. I know he was really working hard since the injury and just to see him feeling better and moving around better, that was good.”
(On what makes Seattle’s empty set on offense work) – “I think just a lot of it is concept based but also the players executing it and Russell (Wilson) does such a good job of getting the ball off fast. He knows where to go with it. He can identify the coverage. Obviously they’re very smart in how they do it. He has quick identification. He understands the indicators that he’s getting pre-snap and when the quarterback knows exactly where he’s going with the ball before the ball is even snapped, that’s a huge advantage.”
(On if has made a determination on having game-by-game captains or season-long captains) – “Our players voted and then we came up with two offensive captains, two defense and then one special teams. Mike Thomas was the special teams (captain). Then we had Reshad (Jones) and ‘Cam’ (Cameron Wake) with the defense and then Ryan (Tannehill) and (Mike) Pouncey with the offense.”
(On the threat of the run still with Russell Wilson) – “That’s a big-time issue because when you have a guy that is basically just going to stand back there and throw it, you can rush certain ways. There are a lot of things you can do. But when you have a guy that not only can throw it but can break the pocket if you take the wrong rush lanes, he can just go right up the middle and no one’s really looking for it. It’s a tough, tough thing to defend and it has obviously been a very valuable weapon for them.”
(On if the captain votes went the way he figured it would) – “You just never know. You never know how the voting’s going to go because you think the guys that you interact with a lot of the times kind of assert themselves as leaders but sometimes you’re not really sure what guys gravitate to who. So the fact that there were – you know we did have a good variety of who people voted for, which is encouraging because that means a lot of guys look up to different guys besides just those five – but I think those five guys, at least in my experience here, so far they stood out as leaders for me. Those are the guys that were always either approaching me or you could always see them working with younger guys. I guess I wasn’t really surprised by who was voted in.”
(On how he would describe his relationship with QB Ryan Tannehill) – “I think it’s been, obviously with the rules in place, you go through that spring and you’re kind of limited in time; but as training camp comes around, and now that we’re in game-planning mode, we’re around each other a lot more as far as off the field. When I think about some of the things that he’s done really well, the fact that he’s open and that he makes suggestions and then if he doesn’t like something, he tells me. That kind of communication is critical because the last thing I want to do is put him in a position to where he doesn’t like what I’m calling but he doesn’t say anything. But I haven’t seen that because he’s been pretty forward about things he doesn’t like and sometimes it hurts you when you’re calling plays because you really like something and then he crosses off and you’re like, ‘Ah!’ You know you felt like you really loved that play; but that’s what you need. You need that kind of dynamic because at least you know every play that’s being called, he’s basically checked his box of, ‘I’m good with it. I understand what I’m supposed to do.’ And when a guy is invested in the process, he wants to make a lot of the things really work well, especially when he gets his type of plays in there.”
(On what has he seen out of QB Ryan Tannehill’s accuracy since becoming the head coach) – “I haven’t seen an issue with that since the beginning. He’s been accurate. I know we’ve worked on some ball placement things occasionally. Sometimes what happens is just getting your feet right when you’re getting pushed in the pocket to get aligned with your throw, so every once in a while, we’ll have a missed throw. You try not to go over the top at practice, because you just want to see what happens. When you get some pressure sometimes and you have to slide, you may not be aligned. The one thing I’ve noticed with him, and I think everyone knows this, is that he’s not afraid to hang in there. He’ll have someone barreling down on him and he just stands in there and throws it. Sometimes that can cause inaccuracy. You can’t follow through; there are a lot of things that can happen. But for the most part, he hits the receiver. I know there are little things that he likes to work on that makes his ball placement better sometimes, but for the most part, I’ve seen a guy that hits his target a high percentage of the time.”
(On C Mike Pouncey and WR DeVante Parker not participating in practice and if there is a concern they won’t play Sunday) – “There’s a possibility that it could go either way still. We’ll see, obviously traveling, we’ll see how they feel when we get there. That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to go out there a day early, just to make sure our guys – when we go to practice Friday, that’s still an up tempo practice us. We’ll have a good gauge on where everybody’s at – if we have everybody available (or) if we have somebody that can’t go, we’ll have a better idea then.”
(On if QB Ryan Tannehill is to the point where he trusts him to make calls on the field like Seattle QB Russell Wilson) – “I think he’s about as good as I personally can ask for, for how fast we had to go on this. The longer you play in this league, it really slows down for you one, but then you start to recognize what the defense is doing – sometimes by alignment, sometimes by formation, and sometimes guys have to read it on the run. He’s obviously been able to do that. You’re going into your fifth year and you’ve seen a lot of different defenses, especially in this league. You rotate these divisions around and you start seeing some of these exotic teams, you start to get used to it. In this division – especially when you play a team like Buffalo, New England and the Jets – Those guys do a great job on the back end as far as not letting you figure out what they are doing until the ball’s snapped. He’s got plenty of experience having to do that on the run.”
(On should the offensive line be the strength of the team since they have four No. 1 picks) – “Yes, The No. 1 pick thing, you can throw that out the window in the second year. It doesn’t matter how you got here, as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t matter to me, I want the best guys out there and I want guys that can execute.”
(On what makes a good road team to him) – “Being able to handle adversity, that’s the hardest thing to do. When things don’t go right, how do you respond? The good teams I’ve been on before … We were in some interesting situations in Denver and you never saw anybody really waver. Guys just kept going back out there every series. You saw offense, defense and special teams always working together, trying to figure out how we get over the hump. It was more solution-based than complaining. When you get a group of guys that do it that way, that gives you the best chance. That doesn’t mean that you’re always going to win. It’s tough. The percentages say if you go on the road in the NFL, it’s hard to win. No matter how good you are, wherever you’re ranked, it doesn’t matter. Every stadium you go into, it’s tough to play on the road. When you do get a win on the road, it’s a big win, no matter where it’s at.”
(On if WR DeVante Parker can’t play and the snaps have to go elsewhere, if he thinks WR Justin Hunter, WR Leonte Carroo and WR Jakeem Grant have stood out in practice this week) – “We’ve been rolling them all in there. The good thing is having three days to go still. It’s going to give us a better chance to keep talking about it and thinking about what’s the best plan for us, if (Parker doesn’t play). If it is the best thing for us to put Jordan (Cameron) and Dion (Sims) out there and just roll with those guys, we’re going to keep looking at our options. The good thing is we’ve got some time.”
(On if WR Justin Hunter will be able to learn the offense fast enough to be effective on Sunday) – “The good thing about where he came from is that some of the terminology is close (and) obviously, being with (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn (Jefferson) before. Sometimes when you can translate something to where it hits his brain, that’s an advantage for us because now it kind of speeds up that process. Some of the terms are the same, but he can say ‘Hey, this is this,’ and he’s got it. You hit that a couple of times and you will remember.”
(On if he will keep the team on Eastern time in Washington or will he change to local time) – “We’re going to change. The hardest thing is when we get back. We’ve been doing our research on when we do get back, how we’re going to get back on east coast time.”
