Adam Gase – September 20, 2018
Download PDF version
Thursday, September 20, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Are you more encouraged by S Reshad Jones’ progress today than you were yesterday?) – “Yes. Him going out there, that’s a positive step for us. We’ll go through the rest of the week. This is a big one day at a time for him. I know how he feels about making sure that he’s there every Sunday. We just want him to take the proper steps and listen to the trainers. Just make sure he’s doing all of the little things right and listening to what those guys are telling him.”
(What have you learned about S Reshad Jones’ tolerance for pain and toughness since you’ve been here?) – “That’s a non-issue. If his body parts are working, he’s going to do everything he can to be on the field.”
(CB Bobby McCain has become a very valuable guy in the secondary because he can play so many spots. Where have you seen the most growth from him since the time he first got here?) – “I think it’s just experience, really. Just knowledge of offenses. When we first started, it started with leverage. He lost early in that first season on some routes. Then he made huge strides throughout the season. The longer we’ve gone, the tighter the coverage has gotten. The times that we’re throwing him outside when we’ve had injuries in the past, he’s gone out there, he’s been competitive, he’s been tight and he’s gotten his hands on some balls as far as some PBUs (pass breakups). I think he’s just to the point now where he’s able to play a lot smoother to where he kind of understands splits and concepts and things like that, that help him be able to break on throws and know where to position himself.”
(Offensively you’ve been able to turn turnovers into two touchdowns and two field goals. When you’ve committed a turnover, you’ve only allowed just one field goal. What does that say about your defense that it’s not letting the momentum swing for the other team in that sense?) – “I think they came in with a … They started in the spring with the right attitude of ‘it’s an opportunity to make something positive happen off of a negative play.’ I know (Defensive Coordinator) Matt (Burke), that’s been something that he’s stressed right from the get go. We kind of took some steps to change how we were going onto the field, is what we talked about. Those guys have done a good job of embracing it and then actually going out there and executing it the exact way that they’ve talked about it. That’s big for us because that’s one of those kick in the gut, when you have a turnover, especially when it’s on your own end.”
(With running back obviously there’s a numbers game because RB Senorise Perry and RB Brandon Bolden have such great value on special teams. Do you tell RB Kalen Ballage that this just the way it is? Or do you try to incentivize him to say why don’t you do something to try to make us re-think this in terms of positive motivation?) – “I talk to (Ballage) quite a bit, almost every day at practice. I just try to give him a few words here and there to just remind him, you just keep doing what you are doing because he’s done a great job in practice every day. He’s in there, he has a smile on his face. He’s ready to go if he’s called on. He wants to play. You can tell with the way he practices. Every day he walks out there and there’s a statement with the way that he runs and thuds guys up and the way he works extremely hard on special teams to just keep trying to show those guys, ‘Hey, I’m ready to go when I’m called upon.’ It’s not an easy thing, especially for a young player – a rookie – to not be active; but I think he’s done a great job of handling this. We keep seeing him get better every day. You’re always hoping that everybody stays healthy. It’s just the NFL. You’re going to have guys here and there that go down and you just need everybody to be ready to go.”
(Do you still see more of a ceiling to get to for WR Albert Wilson? I’m sure that he knows the playbook at this point, but to become more fluent and just to have it come without thinking for him would be the next step.) – “I think that the more that we do with him and the longer that he’s in this, it’s only going to get easier for him. I don’t know if any of our guys will really say ‘Hey, I’ve got it,’ because you always want to be learning. You always want to be trying to figure out the next step, ‘What else can I do?’ He’s one of those type of guys. He’s always looking to contribute in any way, no matter what it is, whether he has the ball or not. I think that’s something that I’ve really come to appreciate about him. He’s unselfish. He cares about his group doing well and he’s a big part of making sure our guys are focused on winning. It’s not about numbers, it’s about how do we do well as a team.”
(Do you approach this season by rolling out your offense and scheme in phases, or do you just drop everything at once and do what you want to do right now?) – “We kind of whole, part, whole type deal as far as installing the offense. We give them a ton early, then we scale it back, and then we piecemeal it in. Then we drop a whole bunch on them again during training camp. Once you get to games, then it becomes little segments of it and you’re pulling things out of there, and the guys can fine-tune those types of things. Every week is a little bit different as far as what we’re doing, but most of this stuff they’ve heard before. They just may have to reach back a little further to remember it.”
(Using it in a game is what I was referring to. Are you trying to show some things now and hold some things for later that in a big picture sense of the entire season, they’re doing some things now that setup for later? Or do you just use everything?) – “You use everything you can to win that game. You don’t want to hold anything back.”
(The Raiders are second in sacks allowed. Is it a matter of getting the ball out fast or are they really good up front?) – “It’s both. Derek (Carr) has done a great job as far as getting the ball out extremely quick. His guys have done a good job of getting open really quick. Then you throw that line in front of him and that’s a large group of guys that have done a great job in previous years. They’ve never been an easy group to go against. They are hard to get around. They’re big guys that when you attack up the middle, you’re not going very far. If you go around the edge, usually by the time you get there, the ball is out. I think it’s a combination of wide outs, tight ends and quarterback getting the ball out, then you throw in the running game … That’s why when they go play-action, you see guys running free because the secondary, they’re on their own.”
(Has the development of WR Jakeem Grant gone as you expected?) – “It’s probably gone better than … Initially when we first started and he was in the slot, I think he struggled a little bit. I think when we moved him outside, that helped him a lot because it really helped him focus on limited things to where there’s not as many options and he could use his speed and his quickness to his advantage. The longer we’ve gone through this, I just keep seeing constant improvement. It’s nice to have that many wide receivers. You’re trying to always get these guys on the field. You can’t get them all on the field, but you keep trying to find ways to get those guys on the field, get them touches, make sure that whole group is involved in the game. You’re aware of it. His development has been one of the main reasons why we’re able to kind of look at it as five guys. He’s not just a specialist. He legitimately contributes to our offense.”
(Does WR Jakeem Grant’s size on the outside, isn’t that an extra – I don’t want to say a handicap – but an extra issue?) – “I think his quickness overrides any kind of size. If you notice, he gets a lot of off coverage because guys – they come up to press him and if they miss, he’s by you and you’re not going to catch him because his speed is so great. That’s why when we’ve thrown deep balls down the field against our defense, he’s just wide open because they miss him at the line of scrimmage. We haven’t really seen a whole bunch of that with him during the season, guys really play off on him and that’s why we get some of the underneath throws with him.”
(Has WR Jakeem Grant improved more at route-running precision or catching consistency?) – “I think both. I don’t know if I can tab one over the other. His knowledge of the offense is light-years from what it was that first year, and then that helps him be able to focus on things like route-running and catching the ball. If you’re not thinking about other stuff and you’re able to focus on catching the ball, that helps you.”
(I know you’re comfortable with S Minkah Fitzpatrick playing that nickel spot. He’s gotten settled in there, but how prepared is he to maybe move back if S Reshad Jones isn’t playing?) – “We’ve moved him all over the place, really since he’s been here. He’s played every position. The thing about him is he’s a quick study so he’s able to take limited reps in multiple spots and really absorb that. He’s always ready to go at whatever we ask him to do. He’s built a little different.”
(To the untrained eye, it appears LB Raekwon McMillan has been thinking too much a little bit, maybe. I’m wondering what you’ve seen from him. Are you seeing the aggressiveness or are you seeing him swarm to the ball like you like?) – “From preseason to the first game to the second game, I just see strides every week to where he’s more comfortable. I thought last game was better than the first one, and that’s what we want. We just want constant improvement. I think he is getting comfortable really working with Kiko (Alonso) and (Jerome) Baker and those guys are really developing a good chemistry there. Sometimes you forget he hadn’t really played an NFL game until we got going in the preseason. I think he’s a quick study. He puts a lot of work into this and he does well in practice. We just keep working on translating that to the game and trust what he sees, and just react and play like we know he can.”
(Does LB Raekwon McMillan make the calls? Does he have the headset?) – “It’s been both of those guys at some point since the preseason.”
(Can you talk about the importance of this theme – playing with an early lead. Does that change your play calling when you’re up?) – “It probably makes it more aggressive. I don’t know. I think it’s great for our defense because if we ever get a team into a situation where they have to throw it, and let those guys pass rush as much as possible for as long as possible, that’s really ideal for us. Those guys are disruptive. If we can put more pressure on the quarterback, that’s where turnovers come in handy. Shorter fields, (you) score more points.”
(Where did WR DeVante Parker leave off when he was hurt? How did you feel like he was playing through the summer?) – “Mentally I thought he was good as far as all of the stuff we were doing. I know he didn’t feel like training camp was going as smooth as he wanted it to be. I think he was hoping he would make more plays in practice on some of those 50/50 balls; but a lot of the other things were really good with what we were working on. I feel like he’s in a good place right now. I think just really taking a step back and getting healthy and staying engaged in everything, it’s helped him. I love how his attitude has been since he’s really been back practicing with us. His energy level and his legs look great, as far as running. He’s had a good four days when he’s practiced.”
(Was WR DeVante Parker physically good in August? You said mentally he was good.) – “Yes. He was.”
(Was it because he was playing against CB Xavien Howard so much?) – “It might have been. I don’t know. It’s hard to say that’s what anything was. He’s so used to coming down with a lot of those balls. It might have been a little bit of Xavien just competing that much tighter than maybe what he was used to.”
(But WR DeVante Parker was where you wanted him physically?) – “Yes.”
(Is it clear in your mind if WR DeVante Parker is going to play Sunday?) – “I don’t know. We’ll find out.”
(With WR DeVante Parker, is that a missing element – that big, rangy body? Because you have a bunch of smaller receivers.) – “I think it’s always nice to have as many different body types as possible, different skill sets. It just makes it harder on the defense. The wider the variety, the better it is for us.”
(I saw a stat that RB Frank Gore is No. 1 in the NFL in least time spent behind the line of scrimmage. Obviously there’s something to that. What does that tell you? And even though he and RB Kenyan Drake have different body types, strengths and running styles, are you hoping that there’s any part of on-field that Kenyan sees Frank do that helps his game?) – “I think they both really learn from each other. There’s things I’m sure that Frank watches what Kenyan does and he might drop that into his game, and vice versa. That’s really what you want. When you have two guys that really have to play off of each other during a game, you want those guys to constantly be communicating and talking and ‘What did you see? How did you look at this?’ Frank does have a knack. He has forever (had a knack) of avoiding the negative plays. You really have to have just a flat out bum rush for him to get a negative yardage (play). He just has that little bit of a wiggle there at the end and then he’s powerful enough to push the line of scrimmage forward.”
(With running backs, on the topic, it’s clear every week they do something to show their pass-catching skills. We saw RB Frank Gore with a third-and-19 last week. Is that something that’s vital for you with your backs? Could you ever envision having a back here who’s not a good receiver out of the backfield or is that essential to what you want from that position?) – “I mean I like guys that can do everything, where you can run the ball, you can catch the ball and you can protect. When you have somebody that (you can use) only at this point in the game – first and second down, or short yardage or third down – it can limit you. I like guys being able to get in a rhythm and stay in a whole series instead of coming in and out. I think the group we have right now, I like that group. I like all of those guys. We can put any one of those guys in the game. We feel really good about it. I think as deep as we are, hopefully we aren’t bringing anybody in for a while.”
