Adam Gase – November 20, 2018
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Tuesday, November 20, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Quarterback?) – “What about them?”
(What are you doing?) – “Ryan (Tannehill) will start this week.”
(And you feel how about that?) – “Really good.”
(Because?) – “Because he’s done a good job of rehabbing. I think the training staff has been very smart of going through his procedure and working out some of the earlier kinks where he got fatigued and sore. (They) did a good job of shutting him down and then building him back up. I think he’s had a good week through the bye week and then being able to practice today and make all of the throws he needs to make.”
(So you don’t have any concern that QB Ryan Tannehill will suffer any soreness or setback during the week?) – “I don’t know that but I feel pretty good as far as what we’ve done so far and with what he’s communicated to us. We’ll just take it day by day and like I told Brock (Osweiler), you’ve always got to stay ready.”
(Is QB Ryan Tannehill pain free?) – “If he wasn’t then he’s not telling me.”
(When did you tell the guys of your decision?) – “We talked to both of those guys last night or yesterday before whatever time it was – before we had our walkthrough.”
(You said you needed QB Ryan Tannehill to shoot straight with you about where he’s at. Did you hook him up to a polygraph or anything like that?) – “(laughter) No. I trust him. Kind of. (laughter)”
(Moving forward, how do you guys manage QB Ryan Tannehill’s shoulder after weeks, after this first game?) – “That’s something that I’ve talked to him about, making sure that he’s doing all of the things that the training staff needs him to do. The strength staff is involved as well. We need him to spend the amount of time that he needs to spend, whether it be post-practice, before practice or whatever he needs to do to make sure that he’s good to go for practice or a game. That’s really his number one focus. I think he does a good job preparing for the game as it is. We can take some off of him and really do a better job as a coaching staff of making sure that he has everything he needs to do without him having to go search for anything that he’s concerned about.”
(You guys obviously had high hopes for QB Ryan Tannehill going into the season. Is everything there still, all of the goals that he’s had and you have, are they still in front of you?) – “I don’t think he cares about anything individually statistic-wise. The only thing he’s ever said to me is that he just wants to make sure that we’re winning. I know he felt like him coming back, he can help be a part of that.”
(Did the receivers today in practice look 100 percent to you?) – “Yeah. I thought (Ryan Tannehill) looked good. I think it’s just always going to take time. I think it’s a little different receiving corps that was out there today than when he left.”
(How big of an impact does it have on the game plan and how much of the playbook does that open up to you?) – “I think really, it’s not anything drastic. We have to do some different things just because of the personnel we have. We’ve lost a couple of guys that were kind of key to us at the wide receiver spot and really we have guys with different skillsets than what we’ve had in the past. It’s really going to be about … Every game is going to be different in how we want to go about it, what we want to do, what he can do – whether it be passing or running – and those types of things.”
(Following up on that, what are you seeing out of WR Leonte Carroo? Obviously he’s having to step into a bigger role now.) – “Yeah, I mean he’s been ready for this. He’s been here for a while. He’s doing a lot for us in special teams right now and that’s big for our team because any time you can get somebody that steps in and does personal protector on punt and has a whole bunch of other roles, and is a wide out, that’s critical for us because that saves us a spot somewhere else and it gives us another number at that position.”
(Are there things that QB Ryan Tannehll does to maintain or keep the shoulder capsule good, like as far as ice?) – “Yeah. They’ve got a whole routine or whatever they do. I don’t sit there and take notes on it.”
(What was QB Ryan Tannehill’s reaction when you told him he was starting?) – “We had a discussion, just kind of went through a few things and it probably took about one second too long to just tell him that’s what we were doing. He was ready to go. He’s been waiting for this week to come for a while. The whole thing was us just making sure he stayed patient and with the program we had him on instead of if things didn’t go right leading up to this game and we had to take another week, he needed to understand that’s what it was. But that wasn’t the case. We had a good week last week and today was a good start for us of him practicing the whole practice.”
(What’s the status of the two offensive tackles – T Laremy Tunsil and T Ja’Wuan James?) – “Well, getting them out there and getting them to practice, that’s …”
(Did they take full part today?) – “I don’t want to say if they were full or limited. Matt will make that decision. I’m not doing that anymore. (laughter)”
(With WR Jakeem Grant going to injured reserve, does that open up or make it a necessity that you add another receiver to the 53-man roster or is that just a spot that you can be flexible on?) – “Well, we added Brice (Butler). That was … We weren’t really sure where DeVante (Parker) was going to be leading into this week and then (with) Jakeem going down. We’ll just keep looking at what’s the best thing for us to do, whether it’s another spot somewhere else or … I feel like we’ve got a good group there that knows what to do. Having Isaiah (Ford) basically ready to go at all times, he has some flexibility to move outside if we needed him too. Ideally I like him in the slot but he does have the ability for us to … If we needed him to come (we could) move him outside and he’ll still find a way to get open.”
(With C/G Ted Larsen, we never got an update on how that injury happened and where he is right now in the process.) – “Yeah, you saw a couple of games where he came out of the game a couple of times for a decent amount of time and then he’d go back in. Really, it got to the point where we needed to rest him and just see how his body recovers. Getting through the bye week, we’ve got him on a little program right now to build him back up and really see where he is when it comes Sunday.”
(With C Jake Brendel, how did he perform?) – “He did well. He played very aggressive. He finished as well as anybody that was playing on Sunday. You could tell he was excited to be out there. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go because he’s played center mostly for us and we kind of got put in a weird situation where we needed him to play guard, and he did a great job.”
(You’re playing a team that scores a ton of points, at least they have the last month. Does that change how you call a game as opposed to if you were playing like Buffalo, who is the least-scoring team in the league?) – “It depends how we have been doing. The last few games, it’s changed the way I’ve called plays as far how we’re doing on defense, how we’re moving the ball on offense, if we’re running the ball well, if we’re completing balls. You have an idea going into the game of how you’re going to play. We’ve been talking about this, everything we do has to be focused on we’re going to do this as a team because we’ve lost some guys where if you throw a check down, Albert (Wilson) would go 70 (yards). That’s not a planned deal. We’ve lost some of those guys that can do that. So we have to make sure that everything we do is kind of grouped together with the defense, offense and special teams. Then the game flow kind of dictates a little bit of it too. If all of a sudden you’re moving the ball up and down the field, now you can be a little bit more aggressive and you can do some other things.”
(A follow up to that about last night, did you ever think you’d see a game where a team scoring 50 points loses?) – “No. Close. I saw it. Close. I saw Dallas score 48 (points) and lose.”
(What game was that?) – “Against somebody. Somebody in this room. (laughter)”
(You got your starting quarterback back. Did you see a perceivable lift over the team with that?) – “I don’t know if I was really looking for it. I know (Ryan Tannehill) was excited to get back out there. I could tell yesterday when he got in that huddle, he was juiced up like we were practicing. I can’t speak for those other guys. I just know they haven’t seen him in a while. For him to go out there and be just turning it loose, you don’t look at him and go ‘is he trying to feel his way in this?’ I don’t see that. I see a guy that’s just confident in where he’s at right now and he’s doing a good job of just turning the ball loose and putting it where it needs to be.”
(How do you go about managing QB Ryan Tannehill during the game? Is it going to be consulting after every series, ‘How did you feel on that one?’) – “I mean once we get going, we’re going to go. The last thing he wants is me checking him every 10 minutes and wondering how he’s doing. If there’s an issue, he’ll let me know.”
(Does QB Ryan Tannehill’s return loosen things up for you as a play-caller?) – “We’ll kind of see how it goes. Once again, he’s playing with a different group of guys. So we’ve just got to kind of see what’s either working, what’s not working (and) how this week goes as far as what we have in. It’s different.”
(WR DeVante Parker and RB Kenyan Drake, how encouraged are you about those red-jersey guys?) – “I think the fact … You’re going to get me in trouble with this because they’re not happy about wearing the red jerseys. The fact that they’re out there and they’re working is good. We just wanted to make sure that nobody … with them practicing, somebody thuds them up and it just sets us back. I think going through individual and then getting some team snaps, that was good.”
(Looking at the bye week considering how injured this roster is, is this where optimally you wanted to be with what you’re seeing out there on the field with those players?) – “I mean I like the group we’ve got. Guys are working hard and it seems like guys … We needed a bye week. Guys were beat up and they seem, I don’t want to say fresh but energized and ready to go and know that we’ve got six (games) left. We’ll see what we put together.”
(With CB Bobby McCain, is he still in the concussion protocol?) – “Correct.”
(Is CB Bobby McCain close to being out?) – “I don’t know. (It’s the) concussion protocol.”
