Adam Gase – July 26, 2016
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Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Opening statement) – “I’m going to hit you with a couple roster updates here. Obviously, you guys know we signed Arian Foster. (I am) not sure how many days ago it was, probably last week. Xavien Howard will start the preseason on PUP. He was injured on the last day of minicamp. We had to scope a knee, and he will be out for a little bit. We expect him, at worst, to be back by the first regular season game. He has been working hard trying to work his way back.”
(On who he anticipates being the starting cornerback) – “Tony (Lippett) has been starting the entire time anyway. We’ve been rotating those two guys (Howard and Lippett) in and out. Tony is just going to keep working at that spot right now.”
(On RB Arian Foster joining the running back competition) – “I think it adds great competition to that group. I really like his skill set. I’ve been an admirer of his for… I don’t even know how long he has been playing. It just feels like forever. (It is) a great opportunity for us (with) him still being out there. We had been in conversations with him for a while. We had brought him in on a visit. We had a really good talk and allowed him to get healthy and work to get back. It’ll be interesting when we get him out there and see how he fits in.”
(On determining how the running backs divide their reps) – “It usually sorts itself out. It’s hard to predict anything as far as going into the regular season. I know in practice, (Running Backs Coach) Danny (Barrett) does a great job as far as making sure everybody is getting the right type of reps, whether it be routes, outside zone, inside zone, gap scheme-type plays, protections. That’s the beauty about what our position coaches are doing to where they’re keeping track of what their guys have been doing in practice and then they can adjust. They see it on the (practice) script and know, ‘I need them to get these two outside zone runs, because he hasn’t had that many.’”
(On RB Arian Foster’s route running ability) – “I’ve always been a fan of how he does things. He’s the type of guy that he can run his route tree similar to what a wide receiver’s is. When we worked him out, I put him in a couple spots to see how that looked. He runs about as smooth as any running back that I’ve ever seen. I’ll be interested to see how far we can grow the running back position with him.”
(On whether he has spoken to RB Kenyan Drake about his route running skills) – “No, because I haven’t seen anybody. We’ve been here just a couple days now and there’s not a whole bunch of players hanging out here, obviously, especially four days before they’re going to report. Everybody is trying to get that last couple days to stay away.
(On the emotions of his first training camp as a head coach) – “It’s no different for me. It feels like what it has always been. I haven’t really given it much thought. I just know that as a staff, we’re trying to get ready right now, and we know we got meetings coming up here real quick on Thursday and then we got practice on Friday. There’s just not a lot of time to waste. Training camp is going to go by fast and we’re going to be at our first preseason game before we know it.”
(On RB Arian Foster’s health) – “I have a lot of faith in our training staff and our strength and conditioning (staff), our sport science (staff). We spent a lot of time with him on two different visits. We’re going to see how this all plays out. That’s the thing. Right now, we still have to get everybody here, have our trainers reassess everything – have our sport science guys reassess everything – when you have a conditioning test. Not only him (Arian Foster), but our entire roster, to make sure, ‘Are we completely healthy? Is there anybody else that we actually have to put on PUP?’ Right now, it’s a gray area for us. We feel like we’re fairly healthy, but you’ve seen a couple things pop up from other teams to where you get a little bit surprised. We just got to make sure before we declare, ‘We only got one guy on PUP.’ We got to make sure we get everybody in the building first.”
(On determining veterans’ practice time) – “We’ve had some discussions about what’s the best way to handle some of our guys (by) looking at our schedule and the days off and when you have a preseason game. It’s almost like you count back to try to figure out, ‘Alright, what’s the smart thing to do.” (You) develop a plan and you head into Thursday and Friday and you start saying, ‘Okay, how many days in a row should we go? How many reps should guys get?’ The good thing is, it feels like you got so many people that are really good at their job that can give you a heads up of, ‘Here’s what we need to do. He’s how many reps Cam (Wake) needs.’ As long as our sports science people keep doing a great job – (Sports Performance Director) Wayne (Diesel) and his staff – as far as giving myself and the coordinators a heads up, I think we’re going to do a good job of taking care of these guys in training camp.”
(On what he expects WR DeVante Parker) – “Well I haven’t seen him in five weeks. I’m hoping that when he comes back, he does a really good job on his conditioning tests and then he’s ready to go because as far as I know, we shouldn’t have any limitations and we should be able (to be) full go right out the gate.”
(On if he plans on G/T Laremy Tunsil to start training camp with the second team like he did in OTAs) – “I would say right now when (Offensive Line Coach) Chris (Forester), whoever he trots out that first day, that’s whoever’s out there for that group. I don’t even know. I haven’t even talked about it yet. They’re going to switch lineups around. He might be on the second team that very first period and then two periods later he might be with the first team. I mean we’ll see. We still got a couple of days to sort all that all out.”
(On if there’s a point in preseason he would like to have his starting lineup set) – “You just got to kind of see how this thing comes together. I just keep thinking back a couple of years ago in 2014, I think it was Week 11, against (the Dolphins). We changed the whole offensive line and played six or seven games and (were) one of the top teams in rushing, and we changed (the starting offensive line) in mid-season. So I mean it’s really, it’s irrelevant as far as how fast we need to be declaring a starting lineup.”
(On if they’ll see one on one’s with the wide receivers and defensive back matchups and why they didn’t have any in OTAs) – “Well you can’t do it in OTA’s. So this is the best time because once you get into training camp, when we get in full pads, now you’re going to see more one on one’s – whether it be linebackers, safeties, running backs, wide receivers versus DBs, o-line, d-line. You’re going to get to see it here in the next few days.”
(On what kind of stories he’s heard about the training camp weather) – “I mean it depends who you talk to. I’m a little disappointed to be honest with you. Baton Rouge is way hotter than it is down here. So if I hear anybody complain about weather, I’m going to be severely disappointed.”
(On how different he thinks the weather will be from where he’s been) – “I mean it’s going to be different than Denver and obviously it’s going to be different than Chicago. I mean it is what it is. I mean weather – it’s hot, cold – it shouldn’t matter to our players.”
(On if he sees the hot weather as an advantage) – “I do. Because if you’re training in the heat, I mean it’s an advantage for us.”
(On if he likes to run a physical camp or will take it easy with the veterans and injury concerns) – “We still got 35 guys under 25. So it’s not going to be a cupcake. We’re here to work. I mean we need to get better. We were 6-10 last year. I mean the team up in New England has won the division like 13 out of 16 years. We got a lot of work (to do).”
(On a determination of what role DE Dion Jordan might play) – “I mean until somebody tells me that he’s reinstated, I got nothing to add to that.”
(On if he has any timetable from the league on a reinstatement decision about DE Dion Jordan) – “I haven’t heard anything from the league.”
(On what the main thing he wants to get done in training camp) – “Probably just to see where our mental toughness is. What are we going to do when it gets tough? Because it’s going to be tough in camp. There’s not going to be any special treatment. We’re going to work and we’re going to make it hard and we’re going to see – when it really gets tough – who’s going to rise to the top and who’s going to fall off.”
(On his vision of the rotation at defensive line and DE Cameron Wake’s role in that rotation) – “I mean we’re going to be smart with him. I mean we know what the end goal is with him and that’s to make sure that he plays 16-plus games this year. I know the d-line coaches will do a great job as far as rotating those guys in and out. Once again the sports science staff, the strength staff and the trainers will make sure our guys are on it as far as ‘Hey, we only want him to take this many reps this day.’ The hardest thing is the individual (drills). We have a long, long time frame there with individual (drills) and it’s harder to keep track for the assistant coaches because you really don’t keep track of those reps. It’s easy to go on a script and if you have a 12-play period saying ‘He’s getting two reps this period.’ But when you’re in individual and you’re going 20, 25 minutes, it’s like how many reps did he get? So that’s where out sports science guys will tell us ‘Hey, you got to cut back on the individual,’ and the goal is to make sure that he’s healthy the entire year.”
(On if he thinks at some point there will be diminishing returns if DT Ndamukong Suh is out on the field 90 to 95 percent of the game) – “I don’t. I want him to do his thing. That’s why he trains the way he does in the offseason.”
(On if he has spoken to QB Ryan Tannehill since he became a new father) – “I haven’t seen him. I got a text saying that happened the other day. After that, it was just ‘Congratulations, I’m glad everybody is doing well.’ I haven’t really spoken to him since.”
(On if he is looking more at the physical or mental side of QB Ryan Tannehill’s game during the first week of training camp) – “I hate to … Really both. I’m thinking that mentally I’m not going to be really worried about anything. He’s showed me that he can handle what we’re doing and he’s ready to go. It’s going to be about how fast the rest of the guys can hang with him and we’re looking to make some great strides in this camp. It’s going to be competitive just because I feel like our defense is a tough defense to go against – that attacking style – and the way our corners play, the way the DBs play and then how that front rushes. It should be a good battle between offense and defense.”
(On how much he worries about chemistry with QB Ryan Tannehill and his receivers) – “The good thing about it is we’re starting over. We’ve got this camp and hopefully we’ll stay as healthy as we can all through camp so we can develop that chemistry. The good part was I felt that Kenny (Stills) staying healthy the entire spring and same thing with Jarvis (Landry), I felt like there was something there. I really thought that Kenny came on there during the back half of the OTAs and minicamp and is one of those guys where he feels really comfortable and hopefully he can carry that over to training camp. The longer we can keep DeVante (Parker) out there and keep developing the timing with the routes and just hooking it up. I feel like there is a little natural chemistry out there (with Parker and Tannehill). Even the one day (Parker) shows up (to practice), he catches three or four balls and I’m not really sure… it was just kind of like street ball almost. So I feel like there’s just something there naturally between those two.”
(On adjusting to having a young team and how it compares to other young teams he has coached) – “It’s pretty young. I’d say maybe Denver (Broncos) in 2011 might have been as close to as young. That was like the (Tim) Tebow, Von Miller, all those guys were really young. That was probably the youngest team that I was around. For the most part, this is probably one of the younger ones that I’ve been a part of. The good thing is we’re not going to have a lot of guys sitting out of practice because of age. That’s the good part.”
(On how good of a grasp Ryan Tannehill has on the offensive scheme) – “I have no concerns. He has picked it up as well as I’ve expected and I’m sure he has been working hard the last five weeks to make sure that there is nothing he doesn’t know.”
(On how much the offense has been installed) – “The biggest part about what we do to get a lot of the terms in front of them and then it just becomes an adjustment from here. Everything is week to week. Once we get going in camp, we will kind of get an install going and then we’ll start game planning against the defense. The more (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph) starts tinkering with what they do, I will only do like three or four installs and then it just becomes a daily … like ‘Hey, this is what they got us with last time and here is how we’re going to beat this,’ and we will start just changing it up.”
(On the contact in training camp and how he balances the evaluation of assignments and the physical part of blocking in the trenches) – “For us on the assignments, I feel good after watching all of the spring stuff. I felt like our line on the offensive side and the defensive side both… You feel good about the assignments as far as going into camp. Now with the physical part added, is the constant contact going to throw you off as far as… Now are you trying too hard to go out and smoke a guy and now you don’t do your job correctly? It’s a long evaluation. That’s why you have all of these practices. You just got to keep paying attention and figure out who are the guys that can handle the physical part plus the mental part.”
(On the depth at cornerback without CB Xavien Howard to start camp) – It is what it is right now. He (Howard) is not going to be there and it gives a bunch of guys a chance to step up and see who wants to try to make this team. We will see how it turns out. I’m interested to see how it plays out. I think it’s great for Tony (Lippett). It’s more reps for him and it’s going to be more reps for somebody else that gets a chance to step into that role.
(On CB Tony Lippett’s development this spring) – I thought he did a good job. (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph) and I were talking about it the other day. As the spring went on, we saw him getting more comfortable and he did a good job. He had a couple of picks there towards the back half. It seemed like he did a good job of even when the ball was popped up in the air, he gets his hands on it. He does a good job of making sure that he comes down with the ball when he does get his hands on it. We are seeing improvement – the fact that he is long and can get at the line of scrimmage and press. We just need guys to be able to hang in there for a short period of time. That’s why I love our pass rush, because that thing is coming.”
(On if CB Xavien Howard’s absence affects where CB Bobby McCain will play) – “No, we are not going to mess with what Bobby (McCain) is doing. We need Bobby to keep working on his craft right now and I’m sure he will get plenty of time to work on anything outside; but we want him to focus on his roll of staying inside and developing that craft.”
(On the depth of players behind CB Bobby McCain) – “We are just going to keep working on it. We are going to keep throwing different guys in there. I know there are a lot of guys that are itching to try to compete at that position so we are going to try as many guys as we can. Obviously in this division, there are some guys that can play the slot and we need some guys that can handle it so we are going to keep trying to find out who is the best guy in there. I felt like Bobby (McCain) did a great job and he got better as the spring went along I know our offense is similar to some of the teams we play in our division and he has seen a lot of those routes that he is going to see in the season and he did a good job of covering (them). Obviously the guy that he is going against every day in practice is pretty good. ”
(On RB Arian Foster’s reps) – “The good thing with signing a guy like this late, is that he has been around football long enough that he knows and understands the football scheme, it’s just the terminology. He just has to make that switch in his brain, which I have no doubt he will be able to do. He is a very smart guy. It’s going to be about what are the smart reps to get with him. How many more times do we need to see Arian Foster run outside zone? I mean he has done it pretty good over his career. I want to see maybe certain things that he hasn’t done a whole bunch of. Or how do we use him in certain areas in the passing game so we can get him some experience there? We will just be smart with how we do it because we have a decent size group of running backs and we need to get all of those guys reps.”
(On RB Kenyan Drake’s health) – He is good. He should be good. Obviously we are going to find out here in the next couple of days; but as far as I know, when he left here after rehabbing, he was in good shape. We will see after the conditioning test and after our guys look at him where he is at.”
(On how physical he wants the players to be when pads are on) – “Time will tell. I’m interested to see it myself. If I look historically at each individual guy, I feel good about it. But it’s about everybody being on the same page and being able to practice correctly and understanding what type of expectations we have as how physical we want to be.”
