Ndamukong Suh – June 14, 2016
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Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Defensive Tackle Ndamukong Suh
(On the offseason workouts) – “I’m just out here working hard. Defensively – the defensive line – we have to focus on our technique, and that’s where we’re at. We don’t have pads on, so it’s all about technique and fundamentals and footwork.”
(On how Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph’s scheme fits his skillset) – “I haven’t even looked at things like that. Out there, I’m just trying to understand what my job is and what I have to understand. Like I said, (it is about) going back and focusing on technique and the task that we have to do.”
(On whether he had any input on the hiring of Senior Defensive Assistant/Pass Rush Specialist Jim Washburn) – “No, I didn’t.”
(On attending voluntary offseason practices) – “First of all, this is a mandatory minicamp, so I’m always here. If you ever watch my track record, I always come to OTAs. I never come to offseason true workouts (and) stuff like that. History is all that tells everything.”
(On Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph) – “Great coach. Great personality. (I) enjoy being around him (and) love talking to him. I’m learning a lot from what he has and brings to the table.”
(On his relationship with Head Coach Adam Gase) – “I have a lot of interaction with (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase. I have a lot of fun with him. At the same time, I’m learning a lot from him. I love competing against him. He gives me a hard time; I give him a hard time. It’s a good mixture of him coaching me and being critical, as well as giving me constructive criticism (and) at the same time being competitive.”
(On whether the Wide 9 defense will suit the unit) – “I’m an interior lineman. That’s more (of a question) for the d-ends.”
(On whether the Wide 9 defense will suit the front seven) “I enjoy it. I enjoy that attack-style defense. It has suited me well. (I have) broken records with it. If you’ve had success with something, why not go back to it?”
(On working out with comedian Kevin Hart) – “Kevin Hart is good people. I’ve been in movies with him before. He’s a part of the Nike family, as well as myself. It’s really (like) hanging out with a buddy and enjoying, having some fun. It was great to get a workout on Saturday, which I was going to do anyway (and) now making it a little (more) fun.”
(On whether he will play some football with Kevin Hart) – “We talked about it a little bit. I don’t know. We have to figure out his position first.”
(On what position Kevin Hart could play) – “You’ve got to ask him that. (laughter) But he has a chance. He’s got some skills.”
Adam Gase – June 14, 2016
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Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On DE Cam Wake’s progress) – “It seems like things have been going well for him. We keep trying to give him more and more reps. A lot of the great work that he’s getting is in those individual periods. We spent a lot of minutes on that. How they go about their business, it’s impressive to watch, because these guys go hard. Every rep is valuable, because they’re getting game-like situations as far as coming off the edge and some of the run game stuff that they work on. Obviously, not shorting my M.D. credits, but from what the trainers tell me, things look good and we just want to make sure he’s in good shape for when we hit training camp.”
(On whether there have any talks about joint training camp practices) – “Those talks start so early. It starts in the February-March area. We reached out to a couple guys that I know. I know (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier) also reached out to some teams. But we couldn’t find anything that really matched up (to) where we were playing a team, and it worked out as far as getting the preseason scheduled. It’s something that I’ve enjoyed in the past. I’ve been able to do it the past couple years. I always thought it was great work, because it breaks up camp as far as you get to go against somebody different. I think players like it. It’s just you have to find the right match for what you’re doing in the preseason.”
(On what the depth chart means in minicamp) – “I don’t even think we really have a depth chart right now. I think I’ve said this before: I’ll walk in the o-line room and every day they got a different lineup as far as what they’re going with as far as the ones, twos and threes. We’re trying to mix everybody in, give them opportunities. They’ll look at what we have scripted sometimes and say, ‘Maybe Billy (Turner) hasn’t got enough front side of a wide zone,’ or, ‘Somebody hasn’t experienced the gap scheme enough.’ They’re looking at the script at the same time. Obviously, we got a decent group of guys where we say, ‘These seven or eight guys are rotating in with that first group.’ But for the most part, we’re rotating these guys around and trying to give them all the work that they need and the looks that they need to see.”
(On S Reshad Jones’ absence from mandatory minicamp) – “When you’re an NFL player, part of your job is you learn playbooks. When a guy is not here – whether it be Phase I, Phase II or OTAs or minicamp – and they haven’t been exposed to … Cover 3 is Cover 3. Maybe there’s a different term for it for every team, but guys like that who have experience, they understand defense. As far as him being able to learn the playbook, that would be zero concern for me.”
(On the last time he spoke with S Reshad Jones) – “When I saw him at Fins Weekend.”
(On what he said to S Reshad Jones) – “It was just a casual conversation. I didn’t talk about anything football.”
(On his conversation with S Reshad Jones) – “Our discussion right now is … We’re going to keep that stuff in house. I’m not trying to make public statements about anything right now.”
(On whether there is something about DT Ndamukong Suh that surprised him) “I guess I had never been around him before for practice, and I was really curious. I had heard things about how in the offseason, with no pads, you have to slow him down. It was even one of those things where you watch the tape and you could see early in OTAs and stuff, plays were getting blown up, and he was playing really physical. I was interested to see live how that looked, because when you see him on tape … For me, if I was looking at another offense and they’re playing Detroit – at the time – and watching him penetrate and get after the quarterback and stuff, man, I’m glad we don’t have to deal with that. When you watch him practice out there and the way he does things in individual and the way that he does things in team periods and how disruptive he is, he’s working a craft there. He has got it almost down to a science now to where he understands how he needs to practice, what he needs to work on without pads. It’s tough sometimes for a d-lineman, because when you’re trying to be disruptive, it gets physical and all of a sudden you get bodies all over the place. I think he has found that right niche as far as, ‘How do I practice without putting the other guy in harm’s way but still getting the work I need to get?’”
(On TE Thomas Duarte) – “It’s tough. I guess it would be different if it was a third-, fourth-year player. When you’re a rookie and all of a sudden you come in and we’re on install 11 that has got to be a little overwhelming. But he’s a smart kid. He looks good. His weight was really good. I think he was in that zone of, ‘What was I going to be?’ Because a lot of teams were looking at him as a wide out (and) we were looking at him as a tight end. I think he was trying to make sure he was at a right weight to where he could go up or down. Obviously, we want him to be a tight end. We like his skill set as a receiver. We’ll see what he does when we get pads on in training camp as far as (him being) a run blocker and pass protector.”
(On K Andrew Franks) – “Right now, it’s going to be one of these things we’re just evaluating to see … We’re trying to put our specialists in pressure situations. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing as far as kicking a lot of field goals. We’re trying to give both our guys a lot of experience and reps and try to put pressure on guys and try to make them game-like situations.”
(On the absence of DE Mario Williams and DE Jason Jones from mandatory minicamp) – “Those two guys are excused from this minicamp, and it’s for personal reasons.”
(On CB Xavien Howard) – “He’s a tough guy to go against. When I look at all three of those guys, being as long as they are and the fact that all three of them love challenging the wide receivers, it makes it hard on the guys on offense. They have to be good on the releases. They have to make sure that when they win on a route, it’s still going to be tight. I’ve seen plenty of times where … Whether all three of them, really, when you think that a receiver got behind them, and then all of a sudden they throw a hand up and they still a hand on the ball. Just seeing him today, his ball skills are really impressive. I think he picked one off today where I was surprised that he came down with it, because it was a tough position for him to be in and to catch the ball. That just shows you he has got really good ball skills.”
(On WR DeVante Parker) – “I kind of screwed that up today, because he should’ve went through individual today. He was cleared to do individual, and I think I’m just being a little cautious. My thought process was, ‘If I can get him out there the next couple days and get him in individual – maybe get him in a little bit of team period situations – that’ll help him.’ My mindset keeps being of, ‘I want him to be able to train for the next five weeks.’ The last thing I want to do is put him in a situation where he has one little setback and now he’s in the training room for two to three weeks or something, and we have a setback and now I’m going, ‘What did I do that for?’ Where(as) he could’ve been training for five weeks. I guess I’m being overly cautious about this. I probably need to let him roll.”
(On what WR DeVante Parker should have done in practice today) – “What he should have done today was he should have been in individual today. And then tomorrow, he should’ve done a little bit in practice. And then the next day we should’ve had him do a little bit more in practice. Basically, I got soft and kept him out of practice today.”
(On whether he will hold WR DeVante Parker out of practice tomorrow) – “No. He wanted to go today, and I held it off. The trainers cleared him to go, and I botched that one.”
(On if there was hesitation in letter CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu go to today – “Once again, we’re trying to be smart and the biggest thing is, I want to give these guys a great opportunity to be able to train this summer and be ready to go in training camp. I know he’s really itching to do more, do more, do more. I just keep thinking, ‘Hey, we’re at the back end of this thing.’ If guys are good to go then I want them to go but if we’re close to being not sure, then I want to make sure they can train this summer.”
(On what he’s learned about LB Koa Misi’s game from this offseason program) – “I guess for me, I remember playing against him. I guess I didn’t remember … When I came in here it was kind of like ‘Well, he’s a 3-4 outside linebacker and then he’s played inside and he’s kind of played in multiple positions.’ But seeing him work in the role that we have him working, he really understands what we’re doing schematic-wise and he’s able to be flexible as far as what he plays, whether it be a linebacker … With that rush experience he has, it gives us some depth if something would happen to where he could come off the edge. But I think his knowledge of what we’re doing … I never hear our defensive coaches say anything about, ‘Well, he didn’t do this right.’ It seems like he’s always doing the right thing and he’s put himself in good position. He’s one of those guys that is constantly … He’s just been consistent day in and day out and when you see that in the spring, you’re feeling really good about it going into that training camp. Now it’s like, ‘How much better can we get from this point through training camp to the regular season?’”
(On when he can get excited about the d-line) – “I guess at the end of the season … that’s when you get excited. You never know what’s going to happen between tomorrow, who knows what happens and the next day, who knows. You don’t know what’s going to happen in training camp and it’s all about how do we get it to where we have a good group that’s working well together and then they can stay on the field. We can have those guys up every week. If you have that full group stay healthy, and they’re doing what they keep showing that they’ve been doing in OTAs and minicamp and carry that over to training camp … Then yeah, I’m always going to feel good about that group, because we have very talented players; but you can’t just sit here and be like ‘Oh, I feel great about this certain position.’ You want those guys to come out, work every day and just keep getting better.”
(On how tough it is to judge the front seven’s performance against the run without pads on) – “Yeah it’s tough (with) no pads. You’re trying to figure out, it’s a fine line between running the ball in the spring and seeing how the (offensive) line’s doing compared to the d-line. It’s just, with no pads on, it’s almost like unrealistic … whether it be holes or how things are closed. That’s why we try to do a lot of periods emphasizing certain things. You almost try to trick the defense a little bit like thinking we’re going to throw it every down and then you pop some runs in there, and just see, ‘Hey, are they playing the right technique on the runs?’ That’s really what you’re looking for. It’s just tough like training camp, when we’re in pads, that is when we got to get our work. That’s where we got to find out where we’re really at and then when you get to the preseason games, you’re hoping you play some teams that are looking to run the ball because now you’ll find out where you’re at.”
