Adam Gase – August 30, 2016
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Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On if there is a sense of urgency to get a look at RB Kenyan Drake) – “I think a little bit. With the minimal practice snaps we’ve really had (with him), the little time he was out there we were feeling good about his progress compared to where we were at in spring. At least mentally, we were feeling lightyears better. (With) him not practicing as long as he has and (he hasn’t) really been hit in a real game yet, (so) this will be important for him.”
(On what part of RB Kenyan Drake’s game he is most interested to see in a game setting) – “Obviously I’d love to just see what he can do as far as routes go and what he can do in the pass game. But at the same time, he’s shown us in the run game that he’s very effective, at least in the limited snaps that we saw of him in practice. I think we’d like to see if we can get him going in a little bit of both but you never know how this game is going to play out. You’d like to get him touches in both areas of that part of the game.”
(On what he is looking for G Jamil Douglas and if it will be tight for him to make the 53-man roster) – “I think that whole back end of the offensive line group is battling for only a couple of spots there. He’s a guy that with the positional flexibility he has, there’s a lot of value to that. The center – anytime you have a guy that you know has at least played in a game at center … It’s just going to be about keep trying to find ways to not make mistakes in a game situation, being able to make changes (and) executing as well as you can with the group you’re out there with. My conversations with him have always been about (being) right as much as possible, because obviously you’ll always have mistakes; but be right and just show that effort to where you’re always showing up on the screen.”
(On what he is looking to see from WR Leonte Carroo and WR Jakeem Grant on Thursday) – “I think for me it’s to the execution point of knowing what to do (and) being in the right spot. Both of those guys have had those moments of having those mistakes where the quarterback thinks they’re doing one thing and they do something different. We’re making strides in that area, you just want it to happen as fast as possible. I think this game – with the game plan where it is and who knows what the weather is going to be like so I’m not sure how many times we’ll actually get to throw it – we’d like to see them be as sound as possible as far as what they’re supposed to do. And then you try to develop the techniques and the little details of the routes.”
(On what he’s seen from WR Leonte Carroo in the preseason) – “Obviously he can catch the ball. If he has a defender draped on him, he’ll pull it in. I see a guy with strong hands. You see a guy that can move defenders off the ball. He has a quick first step but at the same time, he can stretch the field vertically. I think he doesn’t even know some of the things that he needs to know to really help himself. That’s a little bit of experience and as this route tree keeps growing for him, just finding, ‘How do I do each route? How do I get open? If I get pressed, what am I going to do? What’s my adjustment versus certain coverages and zone?” He’s got a little ways to go here but the thing I love about him is that he works so hard. He spends so much time in the classroom and every time he gets an opportunity out there, he doesn’t waste it.”
(On how LB Spencer Paysinger is coming along with his chemistry with the other linebackers and the defensive line) – “He’s a guy that I think so many guys on our defense trust. When you’re a guy that can play all positions, that’s so valuable for us because he can jump in there and play any of those (linebacker) spots and he does it well enough to where he is very accountable. I think those guys up front know that he’s going to be in the right place at the right time.”
(On the roster moves with DE Dion Jordan and DE Chris McCain) – “Well, as far as Dion goes, that’s hard for me to answer because I’ve never actually seen him play live. In 2014 – that seems like a long time ago. Once we get to that point, we’ll figure that out as far as how much he can help or what role there is, when we get to that point. Right now, the biggest thing for me is helping him make sure that he’s doing everything right as far as in our building and outside of our building. After we feel like that is in a good place, then I’ll worry about as far as his body goes. The biggest thing to me is let’s get him right. Let’s get him to where he feels he’s back and his mind is right and he’s ready to take the next step as far as, ‘I need to get my body straight. I need to get my strength back. I need to get into football shape.’ When we get a chance to get him out on the field, then that’s our next step. As far as Chris goes, I think he was in a situation where he was battling on the back end. When an opportunity came to us as far as possibly moving him, it’s a really good opportunity for him. Where here, he would have been … Would he be active? Does he make (the team)? How much is he going to contribute? I think the situation that he’s getting to go to is really good for him. I know that at least when I talked to him, he seemed excited for the opportunity to go to a place where he’s going to get an opportunity, get a ton of snaps (and) be able to do what he wants to do. Really, at the end of the day, every player wants to play as much as possible and I think that’s a better opportunity for him there than what he had here.”
(On if it’s too dramatic to say that one of the quarterbacks will win a job on Thursday) – “No, I think that’s real. I’d like both of those guys obviously to play. It comes down to how the game is going to unfold, what the weather is like (and) will they have the opportunities they really are looking for. Obviously both of those guys want us to call as many passes as possible. It’s going to be interesting to see how this thing unfolds on Thursday.”
(On how he feels about playing the entire starting offensive line and for how long) – “We’re still kind of talking about that. I feel like we do have a good feel of what we’re going to do. We’re going to have at least a couple of those guys go. I don’t know if all of them are going to go, but we’ll make those final decisions tonight and let those guys know what we are doing. Like I said, there are only a couple of guys that know they are not going. The thing we keep preaching to our guys is, ‘Hey, you’re going until someone tells you different.’ It’s going to be me that tells them that (they’re) not going to go. We’ll see how tonight goes, as far as the discussion, where our health is at and everything. Plus, you’re trying to make sure in this game, when you do sit a whole bunch of guys, you’re putting a lot on some of these younger guys. All of a sudden not only are they playing 60 snaps on defense, they’re playing 25 snaps on special teams. You’re talking about a lot of plays where they haven’t had the opportunity to go that long. To me, it almost becomes a little bit of a concern health-wise, because now you’re pushing guys beyond limits that they haven’t had a chance to do out here. The more guys that you can have up for this game – if you can take a few series off, some of these guys are going to play most of the game – that’s always beneficial as far as getting great tape out for these guys (and) getting a good evaluation where you know you can get them playing well the entire game.
(On the running game averaging 3.3 yards per carry) – “Obviously, we’d love to be better. One of the things that I always look at is that I’m more into the efficiency of the runs because sometimes you look at that average and you can get down on it. But sometimes it’s me calling a play to where it’s not built to get four yards. If we’re in a second-and-1 situation and we run a quarterback sneak, now that goes against your run efficiency. But hey, we got a first-down. That’s an efficient run. Or you run a dive play for 2 yards, but you get the first down. Now by standards, it’s not a good run, right? Because you got 2 yards. But, you got the first down. So to me, I look at efficiency. It’s not where we need it to be and obviously we’re trying to spend more time as far as getting better in these situations. I know the defense is doing the same thing. That’s why we’re trying to emphasize it in practice. We’re nowhere where we need to be on either side of the ball as far as run defense and the whole goal throughout the year is to continue to get better at it. We’re going to have to practice in pads and make sure that when we’re outside, we take full advantage of that.”
(On how much he expects the tight ends to contribute in the passing game this season) – “I think we’ll see a little improvement in the passing game. We’re getting a better feel, at least now the deeper we’ve got in this thing, and the more I’ve seen actually with Jordan (Cameron) especially, I’m starting to get a good feel for what he likes. I’ve had a lot of conversations with him over the last couple of weeks as far as, ‘What do we need to do different that I can get you a little bit in a rhythm?’ I feel like we’re kind of starting to hit some of those things. Dion (Sims), I feel comfortable in a lot of stuff. He’s one of those guys that kind of has a little bit of sneaky speed as far as getting vertical. He doesn’t look like he’s going to be a fast guy but once he kind of opens it up, all of a sudden he seems to get behind guys. So I think as this grows, I think they’ll be a little more impactful than what they’ve been, as far as the preseason goes. And then as far as the run game goes, both of those guys are so willing and work so hard on their technique. I know (Tight Ends Coach) Shane (Day) does a great job as far as constantly coaching those types of things up. You don’t see a group going in there just talking about the passing game. They spend so much time on the running game because they want to be part of the solution and not the group that is the reason we’re not getting positive yards or efficient runs. They’re doing a really good job because when you watch that tape, I know we always look right at, well, Jordan (Cameron) had a drop. Everybody just wants to come down on that but no one takes a look at the fact that he did a really good job in pass protection. He really did a good job as far as chipping out and making the tackle’s life easy. And then the run game, we score that touchdown because he did a great job knocking his guy basically off the path to get to Arian (Foster). Then Arian (Foster) gave him an opportunity to get a clean cut. So we’re seeing what we want to see out of our tight ends and it starts with willingness. That’s the hardest thing sometimes out of a tight end (is) to understand positioning, angles and then the willingness to go in there and dig a guy out.”
(On if it comes as a surprise to him that CB Xavien Howard is covering some of the faster receivers) — “I think we felt really good about him coming out. He was a very high target for us and I think we were just shocked that we got him when we did. We didn’t think he was going to be there and, really, he kind of fell to us. We were excited about it. We felt like that was really for us. Both those first two guys we got. We never thought we’d get both of them like that. We never thought we’d get the first guy (Laremy Tunsil) to begin with but for (Howard) to fall to where he fell to us, I was just surprised because we loved his skill set. We thought he was exactly what we were looking for.”
(On WR Kenny Stills, WR DeVante Parker and G/T Laremy Tunsil all being back at practice today) – “Kenny (Stills), if he would have went down on the first time when we had one of those deep balls and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) kind of rolled up on his leg, that’s when I thought something was going to happen. He came back. It was just a strange kind of … he went to pull away from ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and his back locked up. (It’s) something that he’s had in the past and obviously it kind of peeked his head there for a second. He felt a lot better today. DeVante (Parker)’s going to be day to day right now so we’re just going to keep working with him and strengthening him up. When you’re a second-year receiver, I feel like I’ve been through this a couple of times. I just go back to Demaryius (Thomas), when we were in Denver. It just felt like he was always hurt. It was just one of those things, it was just like one thing after the other. The thing is, these guys, the longer they start doing this, the more they realize how much they have to take care of their body, how important it is to practice fast every day and make sure they really push themselves because now, all of a sudden, when you go to turn it on, especially on game day and your body’s not ready for it, this is when you can possibly have these kind of issues. So that’s been our point of emphasis with him is all the little tiny things that you have to do off the field, in the building, and then when you get out to practice you have to treat every day like a game. Sometimes it takes some guys a little longer to learn than others. Eventually it gets to the point where you get tired of being the guy standing on the sideline. I do think he’s a little frustrated as far as he’s been the odd man out all the time. Kenny (Stills) and Jarvis (Landry) have been out there working together now and he’s kind of had to watch. We’ll keep working and he’ll eventually figure it out to where he knows his routine; he knows how to stay healthy. He knows how to push through certain kind of pains where it’s not going to really deter him from where he’s going to miss some games. It’s a fine line there, especially at that position. You really have to be locked into your body.”
(On if WR DeVante Parker will play on Thursday) – “No, he won’t be out there.”
(On G/T Laremy Tunsil) – “Laremy (Tunsil), he’s alright. I think he just got scared more than anything. His foot got caught in the turf when we were doing individuals. It wasn’t like a contact or anything. He took a weird step and his cleats got caught. I think it just scared him a little bit more than anything and we were just being precautionary at the moment. If we were playing a regular season game, he’d be ready to go.”
(On if G/T Laremy Tunsil will play on Thursday night) — “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him yet.”
