Cameron Wake – November 30, 2018
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Friday, November 30, 2018
DE Cameron Wake
(In the last two weeks, you’ve played against Aaron Rodgers and Andrew Luck. Now, you get a rookie quarterback. The team has six interceptions against rookie quarterbacks this year in Sam Darnold. Are there things that you can take advantage of with a rookie that you can’t with a veteran and how will we see that? Is it just in turnovers or looks? How do you do it?) – “I think it’s a double-edged sword. You don’t fear what you don’t know. Rookies get in there and they have no idea what they’re doing and they might throw into double coverage, and ‘who cares what the look is?’ They’re just gunslingers. They can go out there and have a tremendous day. Vice versa, obviously veterans maybe have a little bit more sense of what’s going on in the game and specifically try to attack things. Usually if you let it fly, it can be great or it could be terrible. As a front or as a team, we just have to do what we have to do as far as staying where you’re supposed to be, being on the man you’re supposed to be on. Obviously, he’s in the NFL. He’s a talented player. He’s a competitor, so you don’t want to take anything away from him being a rookie, but you want to take advantage of the areas where you should have an advantage. I’ll say that.”
(We talked to DE Andre Branch on Wednesday. He said he’s going to start pulling a Vlade Divac – flopping to get holding calls.) – “That would be interesting. The game would be very different, I’m sure. I don’t know if it will work. He’s not in here. I’ll tell him to his face.”
(You’ve been held a bit in your career.) – “A bit? You think? It’s every day. (laughter) You just play the play, hope the refs see it and if they don’t, it didn’t happen. You have to move on.”
(It’s not often when it’s the play of the game where it’s egregious and if there’s a hold there, the entire outcome of the game can be different.) – “That happens as well. I feel like I have no investment in that being something that I’m going to get, is a holding call. It’s like a bonus that you weren’t expecting. ‘Oh, okay, well fine, good.’ I would say with the o-linemen – they’re also not here – more often than not, there’s holding. Obviously, it’s not called that way. You just have to go with the mindset that it’s not going to be called and I’m going to do my job anyway.”
(If you were to put a percentage on it every time you pass rush…) – “A lot.”
(60, 70?) – “The goal, because you know it’s going to happen, is to eliminate the possibility of allowing it to happen. A lot of times, my goal is to not let them have a chance, if you get my idea. If I go in there and I was rushing different, they’d probably hold me 80, 90 percent of the time because you’re going to allow them to. Now, if you defeat their hands or power or do other things we do to not give them the chance, which wouldn’t give them the chance to not throw the holding call, it plays in your favor. Don’t even put them in that position to do it because then, now you’re hoping that they’re going to make the right call and that’s probably not going to happen.”
(You treat it as a move then? That’s one of their moves is that they’ll hold you, so you’re treating it almost like a strategy to counteract it.) – “If you’re an o-lineman and you can have a sack or a holding call, which one are you going to do?”
(Holding call. The quarterback doesn’t get destroyed.) – “Exactly. You’re going to lose yards either way. My quarterback doesn’t get hit, maybe fumbles or something.”
(And you have a chance to get away with it.) – “And you have probably an 80 percent chance to get away. I think that’s probably better. Not our line – of course not our offensive line. (laughter) Every other offensive line. It’s risk/reward.”
(Do you sense at all that there’s some momentum going for the defensive line? I know you guys weren’t where you wanted to be as far as sacks and things like that. Do you feel like you’re starting to kind of get the ball rolling?) – “Momentum is a relative term. I don’t really believe in it. I just feel like if you go out there and continue to do what you’re supposed to do, good things will happen. You can’t get discouraged as a pass rusher or a d-lineman or a football player, period. Probably more so as a pass rusher. You have to have a 20-second memory. You got the sack or you didn’t get the sack or whatever the play was, as soon as that play is over and dead, it’s erased. You have to go back out there with the same mindset that this is the play I’m going to get a sack. It could be 500 plays in a row where you don’t. That 501st play, you still have to have that mentality – this is the play, it’s going to happen. That’s kind of how it works. The next play, you get a sack and then you erase it and start all over again. Momentum starts every 20 seconds and then you have to start all over.”
(Rather than momentum, has it been better? The last couple games, have you seen that you guys are making more headway?) – “I think we have had more production. I think that’s not just with us. I think it has a lot of other factors that we spoke before when we weren’t having production, that it’s not just us alone. I’m not a guy who’s like ‘when we’re doing good it’s all us, and when we’re doing bad it’s everyone else.’ When we’re not playing where we want to play, it’s usually a team or a defensive collaboration. When we’re doing well, it’s probably the same thing where we have other players in other positions helping us along and we’re all getting more production.”
(When Jason Taylor played here, he was an incredible player, Hall of Fame player but not a ton of team success. Kind of that script has followed a little bit for you, too.) – “It’s JT’s fault. Tell him I said that. (laughter)”
(Do you worry that that might kind of be your legacy, that you never got to where you wanted to get to?) – “I hope not. I kind of put that in the same vein as what I spoke with per plays. You kind of have to do the same thing season to season, year to year. Every year, reset, work as hard as you can to do your job, do whatever you can to help everyone do theirs and be confident that the other guys are going to do their job as well, and the season will go hopefully in a positive direction.”
(I understand, but that has to be frustrating.) – “Every time you don’t get where you were supposed to get, whether it’s play by play or season by season, it’s frustrating; but the old adage is you control what you can control. If you do everything you possibly can and I can go home at night and look at myself in the mirror and say ‘did you do what you were supposed to do to the best of your ability?’ If I can look myself in the mirror, look my peers in the mirror, look at my teammates, coaches, loved ones, I could live with that for the rest of my life. The hard part is when you didn’t do this, should’ve done that, should’ve went to sleep, should’ve woke up – all the should’ve, could’ve would’ves – that will burn you forever. So far to this day, I can look myself in the mirror knowing that I gave everything I got. I came from where I came from, reached this point. As of now, I’m completely able to look at my production.”
(When you were running scout team early in your NFL career, how much pride did you take in making plays against the starters? Did you take mental notes of that?) – “That actually meant more than anything in my football world. I tell a lot of young guys now, I probably wouldn’t have ever made it to the active roster had I not done the things I did on scout team. I think a lot goes obviously to the guys who play on Sunday and the guys in the bright lights but I was inactive for the first five games of my career, so I was on scout team every play, every rep. I never played on Sundays. It used to be Thursday was my Sunday. That was my game day. I’m playing against, in my mind … It was Vernon Carey at the time. That was my opponent. I have to show – not only my teammates but the coaching staff – that against a quality top-tier offensive lineman, I can make plays. At the same time, hopefully I’m making him better as well. That was what … I loved every minute of it. That, and I hope you can ask them, gave me confidence to say ‘All right, we can put this guy in the game on Sundays.’ It was the only thing that mattered to me. That was my Sunday. They hated it, of course. ‘Slow down! C’mon man! This, that … Scout team player!’ All of the adages but at the same time, I’m trying to make the team. You’ve already made it. You’ve got millions of dollars in the bank. I’m just a guy coming off the street. I took tremendous pride in getting that done.”
(Does anybody stand out through the years that you’ve gone against or that you’ve even observed on scout team, whether it is quarterback, offensive tackle, center, that you said this dude needs a shot?) – “Well, I think you see it every year. It happens. Guys go in and most people don’t know who they are and then all of a sudden you see them pop up on the active roster. Most people don’t understand but for us, we know. We’ve watched him in practice. We’ve seen him going against starters or players who are going to be playing on Sunday making plays and doing things. Then they go in, they get moved up, active roster, and then they end up playing actually in the game on Sundays. We’ve had guys moving up from practice squad to active roster throughout the years and you’ve seen them show up on Sundays and make plays. To single somebody out, I would be missing someone else. But we’ve had guys doing that and I think that’s a tribute to them and it helps us when we go out there on Sunday.”
(You’re closing in on 100 career sacks. What does that milestone mean to you?) – “Right now, it’s not going to mean much. At the end of February after we win the Super Bowl, it’ll be something that I’ll probably take time to look back on and kind of reminisce. During the season, I just take it day by day. Sacks don’t really mean as much as far as numbers; but when the season is over, that’s my time to kind of reminisce back on the year, the accolades, the numbers and things like that. It’ll be something that I can probably enjoy later on down the line; but for now, it’s just another sack.”
Adam Gase – November 30, 2018
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Friday, November 30, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Have you made a decision or has a decision been made on WR Danny Amendola’s availability for Sunday?) – “No. I won’t know until Sunday.”
(What have you gotten out of WR Danny Amendola? What has he been able to do this week?) – “I mean he can run straight. We’re waiting to see lateral movement, how well he really feels doing that. We’ll be able to work on some stuff tomorrow and see how he feels.”
(I assume WR Danny Amendola thinks he’s good to go?) – “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him yet. He’s always going to tell me that. Just like in the game, he said he was alright.”
(So you think you might take WR Danny Amendola through a workout Sunday morning?) – “We’ll see where we are tomorrow.”
(C Travis Swanson?) – “He didn’t do anything in practice today. It’s a wait-and-see (with him). We’ll get to Sunday and figure it out.”
(I’m not asking who you are going to play at slot receiver if you have to, but who do you have that can? Who do you have that you think…) – “Really, all of them can do something. We’ve got enough packages to mix all of these guys around between receivers, tight ends, running backs and all of those types of things. We just have to have more guys doing it. It won’t be just one guy.”
(How often do you see a guy on a scout team catch your eye and really make plays? A few times a year?) – “Offensively, it’s a little easier because guys are getting either catches or getting a chance to run the ball. I think (Kalen) Ballage, especially at the beginning of the year, he really was flashing and having some big runs and doing some really good things. The one I think back to is being in Denver, Brandon Marshall – the linebacker – that’s where he really started. We got him from Jacksonville. He frustrated anybody that he went against. Knowshon (Moreno) always thought he was tough. He was the one linebacker that could go out on Julius (Thomas) and give him problems. Peyton (Manning) was a huge fan of his where we would do something one week and if we tried to do something similar the next week, he would be calling out our plays and it would drive us nuts because we felt like we couldn’t get as good of work because he knew what our stuff was. He really used that time and developed and when he got his opportunity, he made the most of it. He’s had a really good career.”
(How do you know when your scout team is effective? Do you see that on Sunday that your team reacts to looks pretty well? How do you know?) – “I think it’s more about if guys are in the spots that we need them to be in and are playing the coverages the way that we need to, because it’s not always the same as what we do. So there are some things that they have to adjust to and maybe some things that they haven’t played before. When you start getting the right looks, you can see it on tape that it looks close to what we’re actually seeing from the other team.”
(Have you been happy with the discipline of this team, by and large, this year?) – “Yeah. These guys just work. They get to the office and they just grind.”
(And on Sundays?) – “Yeah, I mean they try to do everything we ask them to do. We’re not close to being perfect by any means; but last week, you watch the film and you see the effort. Guys – whatever they have – are giving it.”
Matt Burke – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(We’ve seen some good from LB Raekwon McMillan and we’ve seen some when he may have been a step slow – please tell us if that is unfair – but have there been some instances where maybe speed or instincts haven’t been quite what you wanted? I know he’s still young obviously and that’s a factor.) – “I wouldn’t necessarily say that … Honestly, you’re probably going to think I’m crazy here. Sometimes I think he’s too fast in a reactionary sense. Sometimes he reacts to things too quick and I think he gets himself out of position sometimes. I spend a lot of time talking to Raekwon about just slowing down. He sees one thing and he’s gone, so some times he overreacts to the play-action passes or even the run game. He sees a run and starts going 100 miles per hour to get there and then when he cuts back, he overruns things and those sorts of things. I actually a lot of times try to tell him not to slow down in terms of a running factor but just slow down in his reads a little bit to give him that half a step to diagnose and things like that. He was very proud the other day. I know you guys saw the other night the Houston game was on and Lamar Miller broke that 97-yard run and he was talking about he caught him on the one in our game. He was pretty proud of himself for that. (laughter) Some of the stuff … He’s a rookie and I treat him as such and he probably doesn’t like that; but I think with him it’s just some of the stuff I don’t think he’s seen as he’s building that database of plays and things that he’s seeing more and more. Situations that he maybe hasn’t been put into before, as he builds that experience under his belt, I think he’s getting better and better. His production has gone up for us from a tackle standpoint in the last month or so. I think he’s trending in the right direction and I don’t think his physical ability is going to hold him back from doing the things we’re asking him to do.”
(Some players when things don’t go there way, like LB Raekwon McMillan, can get a little down on themselves. He seems very, very uber confident in himself. How much does that help him?) – “Yeah, obviously … He wants to get better and he’s very coachable. I think everything, even if he makes a mistake or something happens, and you get in his ear about it and (Assistant Head Coach/Linebackers) Frank (Bush) is with him all of the time, he takes it as a learning experience. It’s not like ‘I can’t do this.’ It’s like ‘Okay, that’s how you respond to this situation or play or whatever it is.’ I don’t know what his numbers are, but he’s had a decent amount of production for us. We’ve had about … Kiko (Alonso) has had a bunch of tackles. There’s about four or five other guys that have – a group – that has a bunch of tackles together, between T.J. (McDonald), Raekwon, ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) and ‘Mink’ (Minkah Fitzpatrick). He’s had some production for us. I don’t see any reason to be discouraged about him and I don’t think he feels that way either.”
(With that third-and-9 scramble play, what happened with Colts QB Andrew Luck?) – “At the end of the game last week? Yeah, we had him in the grasp. He got out. I don’t know what happened.”
(On the back end.) – “Yeah, we were in a zone coverage and we kind of bluffed out into a zone coverage and we had them matched up. We caused him to hold the ball for a little. He didn’t have his first read and he pulled it down. We had a chance to obviously put him on the ground in a sack situation. It’s just sometimes when you’re in zone coverage and the play gets extended and the quarterback gets out of the pocket to some extent, you try to find matchups. Now at that point, you have to matchup with a guy in your zone. When you’re in a zone, you try to hold your area but once the play breaks down and the routes are now converting into other things, everyone has to try to grab on and sometimes … The guy kind of slipped out. We had two guys in the same zone and as Luck broke out, the one guy kind of drifted behind the backside. Obviously with that play, you’re playing a coverage that is designed to … We accomplished what we wanted with the call. We got him to hold it, he didn’t have his first look, the rush had a chance to get there. We’ve got to finish that and get him on the ground. Once it starts becoming a broken play, now you’re in … There’s a little bit of chaos trying to match up and find the bodies in your zone. We had two guys in one zone, so we grabbed one of them and the other guy leaked back through and we weren’t able to latch on to him. It’s frustrating obviously, but we have to get him down when we have the chance to get him down. Obviously they’ve had a lot of success protecting the quarterback and when you have a chance just to put him on the ground, we’ve got to take advantage of them. We did a pretty good job rushing him most of the game and got after him a little bit, but we have to finish that play there.”
(DE Andre Branch said that he’s been held all year. Is that a fair representation?) – “(laughter) Branchie. He’s a colorful man. I don’t know, probably. You get frustrated. Again obviously, we put a lot on our front and having those guys rush. I think it’s probably a little frustration from the production total from the sack point of view setting in a bit. Everyone gets held. I’m sure he’s been held a bunch, but that’s just a part of the game. There is no use complaining about it. Everyone get held. It can get frustrating for him. I know he’s been working hard. Branch has been doing everything we’ve been asking him to do. I thought he’s rushed a lot better this year than he did last year. He’s been very productive in terms of just performing as a rusher. He just hasn’t been able to finish things, so I’m sure there is a little frustration with that. I try not to spend a lot of time worrying about penalty calls.”
(If I told you that you’d have 18 sacks at this point of the season, your response would be what?) – “I wouldn’t have a response. I try not to get hung up on that stuff. Every statistic is situational. There’s a lot of stats I’d like to look different right now than they do.”
(That’s a unit where you have a lot of accomplished players and salary.) – “I don’t pay salaries. (laughter) But yeah, we’re built for that. I’m not trying to make excuses. Those guys get a lot of attention and probably one of the most underrated injuries for us this year has been Will Hayes. Having such an effective interior pass rusher to take some of that attention off the edge … A lot of our pass rush is on the edge. They’re getting chipped. I mean Cam (Wake) gets chipped every play. We just kind of account for it now and build in stuff to help him deal with those things. I try not to get caught up in sack totals. If you interviewed (Defensive Line Coach Kris) Kocurek, he probably gets more frustrated with that than I do. For us, the pass rush is about affecting the passer, affecting the play. We feel that if teams are focusing attention on chipping guys and keeping guys in to protect, that’s cutting down on players that are out in the route and those sort of things. We try to look at it as how it affects that game more than worried about focusing on straight sack totals. I think those guys have been effective, I really do. Especially the last probably three or four weeks, production has gone up. Cam had one last week and Robert (Quinn) had one that was taken away with a penalty and Robert had a couple of sacks against Green Bay and Cam had a couple of sacks the week before against New York. The production has been stating to show a little bit, so I think that’s been positive. I think they’ve all been affecting the passing game the way we need them to. We’ve just got to keep going that way with it.”
(DE Robert Quinn, for the season, from the beginning – meeting expectations? Has to do better to meet expectations? Where is he at?) – “I think he’s about what we expected. I think he started out pretty hot and kind of hit a little lull. They all get banged up. I’ve noticed just a difference in him physically in the last probably three weeks. The bye week obviously, and even the week before that – just coming back – I think he’s been kind of healthier the last three weeks or so. I see him just kind of moving around lately like he was earlier in the season. That’s been encouraging. Like I said, the production has been coming. He had the one (sack) taken away. He should have had four or five sacks in the last … He’s had three-and a-half sacks in the last couple of weeks or something like that, and he had one taken away last week. I think he was a little slowed down kind of in the middle part of the season and I think he’s kind of coming back to where we want him to be, moving around. I’m excited to see him kind of move forward these next four or five weeks so we can get him going. He’s a guy that’s always gotten sacks in bunches. He’s always gotten sacks where he gets on a roll and he gets three a game and he gets two the next game, gets three a game and you look up at your numbers and you go ‘he had a great season.’ He’s always been that guy. He gets shut out for three weeks and all of a sudden he goes on a tear and he’s unstoppable. Again, I’m hoping we’re facing down that as we get toward the end of the season here, because I think physically he’s getting back to where he was in moving the way and bending the way he was earlier in the year. He’s a guy that’s capable of wrecking a game at any moment, so we’re hoping that maybe this is the week for it.”
(Two-part question regarding takeaways. Your numbers are up. What do you attribute that to? Does it go back to a philosophy you instilled in the summer or whatever brought that about? Secondly, I wanted to ask you about CB Xavien Howard and his ability to get not just opportunities at interceptions, but to get those to translate to actual interceptions and not just balls that fly off his fingertips?) – “You have to catch the ones that come to you. That’s a start. Overall, it is obviously something that we didn’t do a great job of last year – the turnovers and getting our hands on balls. We’ve obviously been emphasizing it. Again, for us it just starts with getting to the ball. Population to the ball. We want hats around the ball. Good things happen when that occurs. We had the forced fumble last week where ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) and Raekwon (McMillan) had the nice vice tackle and were physical and then the ball pops out, and T.J. (McDonald) is there getting to the ball to recover it. We had another one on the ground on Cam’s (Wake) sack that we didn’t get to that we had a chance and it kind of squirted out. You can talk about whether it’s randomness or anything else; but for us, the more people we get to the ball, the more times we’re attacking it. If the ball is in the air, we have more chances to get on it. If the ball is on the ground, we have more guys around to do it and all of those sort of things. I think it’s a philosophy, part of just getting to the ball and having 11 guys around the ball at all times and everyone turning and running. Good things are going to happen when you do that. Just from a philosophical standpoint, I think that’s probably as close as you can get. Again, if they don’t throw us the ball, they don’t throw us the ball. It’s tough to some extent. ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) has been putting himself in a good spot. The final part of turnovers is catching the ball when it’s thrown to you. He made two pretty nice catches. He has good ball skills. It’s not unusual for him. It was cool for me to see him use different techniques. We were in man on the first one. The second one, he was kind of overlapping in a zone – something we worked a little bit on during the week. It was kind of cool for me to see him get those two with two different techniques, two different calls, and execute them both. He has good ball skills. When he is in position, when he does play good technique, when he puts himself in a good position and the ball is thrown, he has a pretty good chance to come down with it because he has pretty good hands and pretty good ball skills. I wouldn’t say it’s the finishing part with him as much as getting in the right spot and playing the right technique so if he’s there and the ball comes his way, he has a pretty good shot to finish that play usually.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase earlier this week said he kind of felt it was an (expletive) feeling knowing that you could’ve had the Colts game, you could’ve had the Bengals game and what the record would be if you had those two games. For you, how do you feel about those two games and the results from them?) – “There’s a lot of what-ifs. You can’t play that game. Obviously, most recently – Cincinnati feels like a long time ago – it was a disappointing loss. You have a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. You feel like you should win that game, and the way it went down, we had opportunities – I’ll speak for our side of the ball – to make some of those plays. It’s crazy. We went through the film on Monday and just talked about how our margin for error is not very big on all those things. Obviously, everyone sees the last play on the third-and-9, but the drive before that, we had about two or three opportunities to end a drive. It’s one guy is in a technique that’s just a little bit off or takes a bad angle and stuff like that. That’s obviously frustrating and it is disappointing. I felt like we had a pretty good game plan and that was a pretty hot offense coming into things. Guys played hard and got after it and there was good energy. (We) accomplished a lot of good things, so it was kind of frustrating to feel like we had a good thing going and let it slip away. I’ll have time for that after the season. We have another game coming up here in (a few) days and we have to move on to Buffalo. We’ll feel worse if we don’t get this one done. It’s frustrating obviously from a big picture standpoint, but usually kind of in the moment and in season, you don’t have time to reflect too much. You come in Monday and you feel like crap and you watch the tape and figure out what happened, fix it and move on and try to get the next one. That’s where we’re at.”
(You guys have had success against rookie quarterbacks. They’re all in your division. I don’t want to get into game plan, but with rookie quarterbacks, is it about showing them something early and then switching it on them or just making them think overall?) – “It depends. They’re all different, not just rookies. Every quarterback has different strengths and skill sets. Just like our rookies – we talked about Raekwon (McMillan) earlier with the stuff he hasn’t seen or just gone through it and it’s a new experience for him, a new visual thing he hasn’t done or matched up or whatever. (It’s the) same thing with rookie quarterbacks. I think you try to maybe give him some stuff that you haven’t shown or give different looks or try to switch the picture on him at the last minute. Obviously, in our division you have a guy like (Tom) Brady who it’s kind of hard to do some stuff with. If you change the picture, he sees it.”
(What happens if you switch the picture on Patriots QB Tom Brady?) – “It depends. Every now and then, maybe you get him, but usually he goes ‘okay, that’s what you’re doing,’ or it takes him one time and he sees it and then he registers it for the next time you try to do that. There’s part of that element of trying to show him different things, whether it’s different things that we’ve shown before in the past and now it’s a different twist to it or disguise one thing and move last minute and try to just slow that clock down. Josh (Allen) – he has a big arm and he can make all the throws, so if you let him sit back there and get comfortable, he can drive the ball. He’s pretty impressive from a physical standpoint, and then obviously getting outside of the pocket. It ties in with some of the questions about our rush. Sometimes with the coverage elements and disguising those sort of things, you’re trying to just make him hold it for that half second extra longer to try to get that rush there. If he has a clear picture and can pipe it in there, obviously he can make some throws, but now all of a sudden he’s not sure about it and he has to pull it down, now we get some pressure there and those sort of things. In general, that’s obviously what you try to do with anybody, but you try to test a rookie quarterback out and kind of see where his capacity is for reading coverages and reading defenses and reading pressures and kind of see how he can handle that. We’ll try to do the same this week.”
Dowell Loggains – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains
(To what extent will Head Coach Adam Gase encourage you to suggest particular play calls and does he want it ever before the play or does he say, ‘If you have something that you see, tell me well in advance?’) – “Most of the time when it goes on is after a series. As an offensive staff, we have a game plan going in. After a series, sometimes you’re in a great rhythm as a play caller and sometimes there’s a conversation about, ‘What do you guys think about this?’ or ‘Do you guys like this?’ or ‘They’re playing more of this coverage. Do you guys think we should get to that?’ There’s definitely those conversations throughout a game with Coach (Gase) and the whole offensive staff.”
(With WR Kenny Stills, he’s been quiet for lack of targets, nonproductive for the past five weeks. What is the rhyme or reason behind that?) – “Kenny is asked to do a job, he fills a role for us. As a receiver, you can’t control where the ball goes and as a quarterback, the coverage dictates it. Sometimes the ball goes his way. There’s a lot of pass routes he’s designed to get, that he’s number one in the progression, obviously, and then sometimes it goes that way, sometimes it doesn’t.”
(WR Kenny Stills is the only healthy receiver you guys have – healthy starting receiver – and he’s still not involved that much.) – “We have three starting healthy receivers most of the time. From the start of the season?”
(Yeah.) – “I mean (DeVante) Parker is back. He’s a starter to begin with. Stills, it goes back to … Other people know that as well. Teams know where Stills is and sometimes the coverage is going to take the ball there, sometimes it’s not.”
(T Laremy Tunsil has played well this year. How has T Ja’Wuan James done?) – “I think Laremy Tunsil has played very well. I’ve been extremely impressed with him. He’s as good of a left tackle as I’ve ever been around. And Ja’Wuan has been solid. There’s obviously things that each one of them need to improve on. We’re not where we need to be yet as an offense. They still have room to grow, both of them, so does Ja’Wuan. But he has been a solid player for us.”
(Best left tackle, that’s pretty high praise.) – “I said as good as.”
(Who else would be in that class?) – “Joe Thomas. Michael Roos. Laremy (Tunsil) is having a really good year. There’s things he needs to improve on.”
(That’s a pretty big jump from where he was last year?) – “I can only speak on this year. Watching the tape last year, I thought there was some things he did really well. As a young player, there’s some things he needed to get out of his game. We’re still working hard to eliminate some penalties and consistency with technique, but he’s a really good player and we expect him to keep getting better.”
(We saw all of these plays, red zone plays, during training camp from TE Mike Gesicki, it has not translated during the season. Why?) – “It’s a broad question. It’s a valid question. There’s things that we put in the game plan. We tried to throw a fade against Tennessee. We didn’t execute it well, the quarterback didn’t execute it well, he didn’t execute it well. There are things each week that are up, they just haven’t got to it. We probably need to get in the red area some more and we’re not doing as well as we need to in the red area. We lack a lot there and we need to be better with execution. Mike is always part of the thought process. Sometimes we get the plays called for him and we just haven’t lately. Sometimes it’s based on coverage, sometimes it’s based on the matchup. Is it we’re trying to get the ball to Kenyan (Drake) more or we’re trying to run the ball more, Wildcat package more? Mike is still a thought there and we need to do a better job of getting him the ball down there.”
(With RB Kenyan Drake, obviously, you guys have figured out the right way, or maybe people disagree with that, in terms of how you utilize him, but how now does the shoulder injury impact that amount of carries or touches or how you use him?) – “It’s like every other player. What he can tolerate, we’re going to give him. He played really well last week. He made plays for us. He needs to – and we’ve talked about it in here – step up and make some plays. With some guys that have gone down, he’s a guy that can get the ball in the end zone for us. He scored twice last week. The open field stuff, he’s explosive. As long as he can go and as long as he can be out there, he’s a competitor, he’ll play through stuff. This point of the year, everyone is banged up and everyone’s sore. If he can go, we’re going to get him the ball.”
(Where is G Isaac Asiata in his development?) – “Right now, he’s on all the show team stuff and scout team stuff. We’ve been pleased with his effort in getting better. He’s not obviously in the starting lineup right now. You have to keep developing your young players. You have to develop young lineman specifically. He’s done a nice job doing everything we’ve asked him to do to this point. If things continue to happen the way they are, at some point he might get a chance to play.”
(G Isaac Asiata seemed more advanced in run blocking in preseason. Is that part of his game NFL ready as opposed to pass protection?) – “It’s hard for me to speak on that. I think for the most part, young players do better run blocking than they do in pass blocking in the NFL in the early age. But he’s done a good job in the show team stuff. Sometimes until you actually get to see something with your own eyes and for me to get him out there and actually go into real competition on a Sunday, it’s hard for me to predict what it’s going to be. I would say to this point, his strength is run blocking over pass pro.”
(With WR Isaiah Ford, what skill is there that makes you think he could be an NFL receiver?) – “He’s crafty. He’s an aware guy. He’s intelligent. I think that’s his biggest asset. He’s a guy that’s always in the right spot. He does things the right way. There have been some injuries and stuff and he hadn’t gotten called up yet and now there’s a chance, obviously, he can get some opportunity to play. He just worked his tail off and has done everything the right way. He’s an impressive kid that way. Really good demeanor. I would really say the savviness, that’s a strength of his.”
Darren Rizzi – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(What did you think of the return game – obviously moving past WR Jakeem Grant last week – how your guys did with the opportunities they had?) – “Obviously, they ended up kicking a bunch of touchbacks on us and then we had that kickoff from the 50 at the end that they kicked a high short one on us. Senorise (Perry) obviously had the opportunity on that one. We had (Kenyan) Drake back on the others. Certainly, I thought Senorise did a good job on that particular play. That’s a tough one when it’s a short kick and the ball lands on the field. Obviously, you can’t get a touchback in that situation. We had a number of guys back there that had the experience. Obviously, a couple different guys back on punt last week, both with Danny (Amendola) and Kenny (Stills). As I’ve been saying all along, I think it’s good to have a number of guys that can do it. We’re in that situation again this week. We’ve been repping a bunch of guys out there in practice. The more the better, the more the merrier for me. I just really kind of continue to evaluate that. It’s an unfortunate loss with Jakeem. Obviously, we’d love to have him back there, but it’s good to have other guys on our roster with experience.”
(With WR Kenny Stills and the return game or your other options, how much is it your comfort level in terms of that guy’s experience that you’re looking for in punt return?) – “That’s always a big factor. Experience is a huge factor, no different than when Jakeem (Grant) first got here. Jakeem didn’t have a bunch of punt return experience when he first came here. That’s one of those things where you can get a bunch in practice, you can try to simulate a JUGS machine, but it’s really hard to simulate live action with gunners coming at you and a live ball. The ball comes off the punter’s foot definitely different than a JUGS machine. Experience definitely helps. A guy like Kenny has been doing it his whole life since he was a little kid, in high school, in college. That’s always a positive. Certainly, the more experience the better there. No different with Danny Amendola or Kenny or those guys. Some guys have more kick return experience than punt, and it’s a completely different game. I would totally agree that the experience factor is definitely a positive.”
(In a week like this where you basically have to try out guys, do you make sure that they’re getting the real kicks instead of the jugs machine?) – “Yeah. For example, the way we practice – everybody is different – but the way we practice, Wednesday and Thursday are the days that Matt Haack is kind of a live foot, if you will. But you have to remember, he’s lefty. We’re playing a right-footed punter this week, so believe it or not, it’s a completely different ball that comes off the foot – the rotation and all of that. We have a JUGS that goes lefty and righty to get the different rotation. They got live work off of Matt, but they also have to get simulated work with a right-ball rotation there. You try to get as much as you can. Certainly, in the last couple of days, those guys have gotten live ball reps. Tomorrow, they’ll get some more off the JUGS and we’ll just get as many as we can. That’s really the way we do it.”
(This is the time of year where they have coaching candidates come up. What is your thought on special teams coaches and their chances to become head coaches?) – “Obviously, you look at the history of the league and there hasn’t been a ton of guys that have gone from being a special teams coordinator to head coach. Obviously, the one that everybody talks about is John Harbaugh. When you really look at the job and the resume that he’s put together, he’s won a Super Bowl. It’s a difficult thing for a special teams coach. It takes a lot of faith in the front office and an owner because you’re stepping outside the box a little bit. My feeling on it is special teams coaches may be as well prepared as anybody to run a football team. You’re the only guy in the building that’s really dealing with the entire football team. You’re coaching everybody. You’re dealing with situations and game management, those types of things. I think there are a lot of qualified special teams coaches right now in the league that would be terrific head coaches. I think John Harbaugh is again a great example of a guy that did it and has done it and has put together a tremendous resume. He’s one of the best game managers in football. You look at the history of a lot of guys, a lot of the coaching history of some of the guys that are head coaches right now. A guy like Bill Belichick was a special teams coordinator, and I could sit here and list a bunch of different guys that have special teams coordinator on their resume. Again, it’s not the norm, if you will. There’s a lot of times where guys want to win the press conference and maybe get the sexiest name out there that is maybe a play caller or something like that. A lot of the times when you kind of dive into it, a special teams coach could be the best option. Obviously, I’m a little bit biased towards it. I believe that a lot of my counterparts in the league are very qualified to do it and would be terrific head coaches.”
(We’re sitting here in front of one special teams coach. Where do you feel like your readiness or desire to be a head coach is at this point?) – “I’ve been fortunate to be a head coach in college. That was a great experience. Certainly, if that opportunity presents itself down the road when the season’s over, those are always things you’re going to look at. Obviously, my biggest concern right now is Buffalo and finishing out this season strong, and then you worry about opportunities after the season. It’s something that as I look forward in my personal career, it’s something that I want to do again down the road, to be a head coach again. I had a great experience doing it. I loved doing it. I think with the role I have here on this football team is preparing me to be a head coach because I deal with the players every day. I deal with the game management part of the game. I’m very fortunate that (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) gives me that role. It’s really helping my personal resume in terms of learning on the job and dealing with the management, the game management, the time management. All of that stuff is really preparing me. I think when that opportunity presents itself, I’ll be very well prepared and be ready to go.”
(If I might ask, did any colleges reach out to you in the past year about being a head coach?) – “I don’t want to go down that road. I’m going to pass on that one for right now. We can talk about that after the season, but I think right now during the season I’m just going to really concentrate on our schedule and on Buffalo. I appreciate the question, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t want to start throwing things out.”
(So, that’s a yes?) – “(laughter) I’m going to pass on the question.”
(Chris Lammons, the rookie you guys signed on the practice squad – what are some things you like about him? I know during the last preseason game, he got a pick off of QB David Fales in that game. What are some things that he brings to the table for you guys?) – “The truth is I had my first conversation with Chris today. I’d known him as a player a little bit. We played him in the preseason with Atlanta. I know he’s bounced around between Atlanta and New Orleans. Watching him here the last couple days, I like his athleticism. I’ve watched him play on our scout teams in all four phases. He’s a local guy from Plantation. I know his high school coach, Steve Davis, real well from Plantation High School. I’ve known him for a long time. In my short dealings with him so far, (he’s a) really good kid and I like what I see. Since it’s been a small sample size, all I really have dealt with him so far is based off of film and watching him play. I can remember him flashing as both a defensive back and a special teams player, so I’m happy to have him here and continue to work with him. I always love to gather as many of those guys as we can on the practice squad that have potential to maybe help us down the road on special teams. We can sit here and list many guys over my 10 years, that was their way into the building and the next thing you know, the next year or whatever, they find themselves in a role as a special teams guy. I think Chris is a great example of that as a guy that potentially could help us down the road because I really like his athleticism. He seems like a very bright kid and a good personality and ready to go. So far, so good.”
Adam Gase – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What kind of progress have you seen from TE Nick O’Leary? It seems like the past few weeks his numbers have dipped from earlier weeks.) – “I think we’ve just been using some different personnel groups. We’ve been playing all those guys. We were heavier with two-tight end packages last week but we were playing all three of those guys. He keeps doing a good job in the run game. He’s been open in the pass game; the ball just hasn’t gone to him. He’s done a really good job. His blocking has really been strong for us, helped us in the run game a lot. His pass protection, the same thing. Whenever we throw him the ball, he’s reliable.”
(Not that TE Nick O’Leary would tell us, but have you noticed any pep in his step this week facing the team that gave up on him?) – “I mean, I haven’t noticed any change in him since the day he got here. (laughter)”
(What is it about Dolphins-Bills that brings out a little extra? There was a fight at the end of last year.) – “I don’t know if that was really … It seemed like that once incident. It was just goal line and everybody was just in a mosh pit. There was probably some trash talking and a late hit just kind of started the whole thing up. It just got carried away.”
(I know the Bills felt that hit on S Aaron Williams had them pretty hot as well. Is there something about these two teams, or no?) – “I don’t think so. You might want to ask some of the players about it.”
(What has WR Danny Amendola meant this year?) – “He’s been extremely reliable in third-down situations. He’s done a great job on the field as far as practice habits, what he does on game day, the intensity he brings. He’s almost in a different world on game day. The way that he carries himself in the locker room, in meetings, on the practice field, it’s ideal. You want every player to operate like that. I know Danny has gone through different things in his career to where he’s had ups and downs. That’s probably part of the reason why that’s how he’s become who he is right now. When you’re a veteran player, that’s what happens. You see a lot of things and you might adjust the way you do things. I know the way that he prepares his body to get ready for a game, he feels like that’s changed over the last few years that have helped him a lot.”
(What would it do to your offense if WR Kenny Stills has to play that slot spot?) – “Going into a game, if that’s more the case, us knowing going into the game, that helps us because now we can tailor really what we’re doing to him. And that does change a little bit. Him and Danny (Amendola), they’re different players.”
(How often do you have players that can play all three spots or know all three spots as a receiver?) – “There’s probably usually one or probably two guys max that know all the spots and be able to do them – go from outside to inside – and be good at it. It’s hard to find guys that are built that way.”
(WR DeVante Parker came to the team with a lot of hopes and potential. You’ve had him for three years. Why, outside of one game at Houston, has he not been able to be that guy more consistently?) – “I think the injuries have hurt him. That’s probably about as obvious as anybody in this room … I know everybody knows that. I think anytime you miss practice time, that hurts. The hardest thing for me is just in my time, there have been some really good games where he’s done a lot of stuff that we’re looking at, ‘Hey, this graded out really well.’ And it might not be a game where he has a ton of catches, a ton of yards; and he’s doing things right, the ball is just not going to him. To me, it’s just all about consistency. Being able to be out there – availability – that’s really the No. 1 thing in this league. If you can be a guy out there 16 games and you’re doing the right stuff, usually you’re going to be productive. The physical traits are there. I like the way he’s been going the last couple of weeks. We could have had some other opportunities for him last week, we just didn’t get it to him.”
(When the season started, you said that you expected to keep three quarterbacks throughout the season. You guys have held true to that. You’ve had a hell of a lot of injuries. Have there been times you thought, maybe this is a luxury we can’t afford?) – “I don’t look at it as a luxury. That’s what we’re going to do. If we find guys we like, we’re going to keep trying to develop them and spend as much time with those guys as we can. The last three years, we’ve lost quarterbacks. We’ve just got to keep finding guys that we like and try to develop them. This year, when we’ve had injuries, we’ve been able to replace those guys. It hasn’t been somebody like sitting around that we have like an extra guy that we might not be able to get up. I don’t know how to explain it. It just kind of worked out to where it hasn’t been really a discussion or a worry.”
(What have you see from QB David Fales that he’s been able to stay on the 53-man roster throughout the season?) – “To me, I like David’s anticipation. I like the way his brain works, the way he sees things. He like what he does in practice, what we see every day. I like the way that he just keeps coming along, just keeps working.”
(I wanted to ask you about the pass rush. You guys have 18 sacks on the season. I know you value pressures just as much as you value sacks, but this team is built to rush the passer. You’ve got a lot of resources put into that position. How come it’s not more effective than it could be?) – “I think it has been. That’s why we have all these interceptions because the quarterbacks are throwing the ball a lot earlier than they want to, and we’re getting turnovers because of it. So the quarterbacks, instead of getting sacked, they’re rushing their throws and we’re picking the ball off. It’s working for us. We’ve had opportunities for more sacks. We’ve just got to finish the play. But I do think that that pass rush forces quarterbacks to panic a little bit and get rid of the ball sooner than they want.”
(What, if anything, have you said to TE Mike Gesicki since the turnover against the Colts?) – “Nothing. He knows that’s one of those things that can’t happen, especially with the amount of time we spend on ball security. That might be the second fumble we’ve had by a non-quarterback. He’s got to be able to catch that, take that hit and we’ve got to be able to keep moving on that drive. That was a big drive in the game.”
(In general, what would you like to see from TE Mike Gesicki over the last five games, and also going into his second season?) – “I’m not going to go to the second season yet because I’m worried about this week. I just want him to carry over what he’s doing in practice. We’re seeing a lot of good stuff on his releases, we’re seeing him make a lot of good plays in practice. He’s got to build on that, carry it over to the game, execute it the same way he does out here and just take it one week at a time, just keep getting better every week.”
(With LB Raekwon McMillan, what are some things you’re seeing that he’s doing really well and some areas you think he needs improvement?) – “Just the more he sees, the easier it is for him to react fast and go make plays. There’s so many things in the NFL that offenses do now, that you have to be prepared for a lot of things. He’s got the mind for it. You can see, he’ll see it once and then the next time he has it, it’ll trigger a little bit faster and make a play. He’s just got to keep at it as far as studying the game, reacting. He’ll get to the point at some point in his career where he won’t need to see it one time to react. He’ll just go do it. He’ll understand the rules inside and out to where he doesn’t only know his spot, he knows everybody else’s. He knows where everybody is going to be and sometimes what happens when the game is moving fast and guys are in different places, you don’t always know where everybody’s at. That’s why that continuity on defense is so important on that second level to where those guys are always on the same page, they trust each other and they can do their jobs.”
(The holding call on DE Andre Branch that wasn’t called, is that a play that you turn into the league? If so, exactly what happens?) – “There’s nothing we can do about it now. That’s all I got for you.”
(But what happens when you do turn in certain plays to the league?) – “They tell you what they think it should have been and that’s it. They can either say, ‘Yeah, we think we missed it.’ Or, ‘Hey, this is why it wasn’t called,’ or ‘This is why it was called.’ I mean, it doesn’t do anything now.”
(So, what do you think of that? In the NBA they have the last 2-minute reports but the team can’t do anything about it.) – “We’re heading down a bad path right now. (laughter) Nothing. We can’t do anything. You can be mad all you want, but it’s not going to change anything.”
(DE Andre Branch said he was going to start flopping and he was only half-joking. Would you advise for that or against that?) – “I don’t know if you’re going to get calls. It could be a double whammy. You don’t get a call and the next thing you know, now it’s even worse because maybe he can run past you. I think he’s just got to stick with what he’s doing and just keep making it hard on offensive linemen, keep trying to disrupt the passer.”
(How did DE Charles Harris play in his return?) – “I thought he did a good job. He played with great energy. He was playing fast. There were a lot of good things … He did a lot of the dirty work, which is something we’ve noticed, especially at practice. We’re seeing him doing a lot of things in the run game that looks really good. He’s been very reliable. Since he’s been back, he seems stronger, he seems thicker. I know he spent a lot of time in the weight room when he was hurt because he couldn’t do anything as far as running as much as he wanted to. He was real excited to get back and every game … He’s a high-energy guy for us.”
(Back to LB Raekwon McMillan, considering he missed the time with the knee, has his play met your expectations this year?) – “I don’t know. It’s hard to even remember what I was thinking however long ago when we started. I think he’s done what we were hoping … The way he developed, it seems like we’re headed in the right direction. We just want to keep stepping him up and keep taking the lead and him, Kiko (Alonso) and ‘Bake,’ (Jerome Baker) just keep playing together and keep learning how they’re going to play together. When we get in situations, we just need them to step up.”
(Just to clarify one thing, was TE A.J. Derby down last week because of health? Did you want to see TE Durham Smythe? A combination of the two?) – “It was a little bit of those other three guys are probably the healthiest guys we’ve got on the team right now. He’s still … (Derby is) still not 100 percent. I mean, he’s working as hard as he can to get there. We’ll see what we do this week. I like all four of those guys. Every week is a tough decision. If they’re all four healthy, that’s a tough decision. You almost want to figure out, how do I get them all up? Because they all can do something offensively. They all can do special teams stuff. There’s a lot of value in that room.”
Xavien Howard – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
CB Xavien Howard
(If the Pro Bowl were ever to happen for you, what would it mean?) – “It’d mean a lot. I feel like my hard work is going to pay off at the end, so that’s the goal right now. We have the Bills. That’s my main focus right now.”
(When you hear that kind of support from your teammates, what runs through your mind?) – “I feel like they just hold me accountable to doing my job well.”
(What do you see in Bills QB Josh Allen? Strong arm, but rookies can be confused and disguise things.) – “I see a lot of stuff on film. He’s a big guy. He has an arm. He likes to run the ball a lot. We have to be ready and just be prepared for the game plan we have for him.”
(Did you shake hands with Colts QB Andrew Luck on Sunday?) – “Yeah, we ended up talking after the game.”
(Did Colts QB Andrew Luck tell you anything about how you baited him into the second pick?) – “Yeah. He was like ‘Man, where did you get your hands from?’ And we just started laughing and joking like that. He gave me props after the game.”
(How does that feel for you – two on Colts QB Andrew Luck, two on Patriots QB Tom Brady? It seems like there are a bunch of other guys.) – “There’s a lot more opportunities out there (with) five weeks of football. Each game I’m going to take advantage of the opportunity if they throw the ball my way.”
(What did you tell Colts QB Andrew Luck?) – “I just started laughing.”
(Do any of the Bills receivers stand out to you?) – “Yeah, they have speed over there. Zay Jones, Kelvin Benjamin – they have some nice receivers over there.”
(What kind of sense of urgency is there right now as far as playoffs go? You’re on the outside looking in right now.) – “We have to take care of our job. We just have to do our job here and everything else will take care of itself. We can’t really just focus on that right now. We’ve got the Bills this week, so that’s our main focus this week.”
(It’s been nine picks over 16 games, which the team of course keeps up with. Fans are aware. Is that something you’re aware of, knowing how many you have since the Denver and New England games last year?) – “Yeah, I have seen it on social media. Like I said, there’s a lot more opportunities out there I can take advantage of.”
(Is that a source of pride knowing that in the last 16 games, you have the most picks in the NFL?) – “I really don’t pay attention to the stats like that. I just do my job.”
Mike Gesicki – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
TE Mike Gesicki
(On trying to translate what he does in practice to games.) – “I think it’s all part of the process. I think coming in here, I’m working my tail off each and every day and doing what I can on the practice field so when my opportunity comes on Sunday, I’m ready for it, whether it’s in the run game, pass game, pass protection or whatever it is. That’s really all I’m focused on is just being ready to maximize my opportunities on Sunday.”
(What’s been the best part of your rookie season and what’s been the hardest?) – “Any time that we win. Especially starting off 3-0, that was an awesome feeling. It was a great start to the season. Now, we just have to finish off strong over the last five weeks and we will have everything in front of us and all of that kind of stuff. It’s been everything that you can imagine. It’s living your dream, playing in the NFL.”
(How about you personally as far as ups and downs in your rookie season?) – “I don’t know. I’m just going out on Sunday and doing what I’m asked to do. Whenever an opportunity comes, I’m trying to make the most of it. I’m definitely just focusing on inside the locker room. I don’t listen to what people say outside or what’s talked about or anything like that. I’m just focused on what (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase, (Tight Ends) Coach (Shane) Day and (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Dowell) Loggains, my teammates and what they have to say. I’m just trying to improve each and every day.”
(What’s been the biggest eye-opener for you about the NFL?) – “I don’t know. Nothing really too crazy that stands out. Obviously this is the highest level playing this sport, so everybody out there is an extremely talented player and all of that kind of stuff; but that’s not a surprise. You’re ready for that. It’s something that I expected.”
(I didn’t get a great look at the replay of the fumble from last week. Did the guy punch it out?) – “No. His helmet hit right on it. My elbow got too wide. I went to cover it up and his helmet hit the ball and it’s just how it goes. Obviously I can’t let that happen; but it’s part of the game and I was able to learn from it.”
(Are you encouraged by your rookie season? Building blocks for a successful, long career?) – “Absolutely. In my personal opinion, with how I feel everything is going, I think each and every day, I’m getting better. Each and every week I’m getting better. I’m adding some new stuff to my game and kind of taking coaching points and doing some things that I haven’t really been asked to do before. For me, I’ve had a blast. It’s been exciting. I’ve been able to go out and just kind of maximize opportunities whenever they come my way.”
(Is the hurdle still in the tool box?) – “Whenever necessary. (laughter) If somebody is going to go at my legs, I’m going to go over the top of them.”
(How would you describe the relationships among the tight ends?) – “Awesome. We’ve got a great room. I think that all of us bring something different to the table, when it comes to playmaking ability on the field. Off the field, we’re all great friends and able to communicate really easily. We’re all there for each other, so it’s been good.”
