Adam Gase – June 16, 2016
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Thursday, June 16, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On QB Ryan Tannehill’s accuracy and if he’s where he wants him to be at this point) – “I’ll say this, there’s been a few throws where I’d like to see the ball placement to be a little better; but, there’s been a few times too where they haven’t been on the same page to where (Tannehill) is going (with the ball) to where he’s supposed to go and the receiver didn’t stem it vertical enough to where now it looks like it’s behind him. It looks like a poor throw but it’s really … That’s the development of the offense. You’re not going to be perfect from the get go. That’s why we’re practicing. That’s why we still have training camp and preseason games. We got some time here before we play a game.”
(On how much you can improve a quarterback’s footwork and how does he do it) – “It’s something that you kind of got to know what they’ve done in the past and then whatever you do want to do (to improve their footwork), you got to drill it. That’s the great thing about the amount of time that we’ve allowed for the individual period. We focus on things like that and what we want to do under center compared to the gun. And so you really have to drill it and you have to work on it. You got to spend a lot of time. You got to know it’s going to be a slow process.”
(On what QB Brandon Doughty has to show him to make the team) – “He’s made a lot of strides since he’s been here. I think a lot of it comes with knowledge of the offense. The thing that’s been interesting about him is that he seems to find completions. When I look at a lot of our film over the last three weeks before this week, even when he was wrong with where he was going, somehow he’d complete the football. He’s kind of got this knack of … He just sees the open guys. Sometimes you’re like ‘Why’d you throw it there?’ He’s like, ‘He’s open.’ He has something about him in that capacity of he can find completions.”
(On if there is a benchmark that he wants his quarterbacks to be at for completion percentage) – “I think every game is different. You kind of look at what you did and then is it a throw behind the line of scrimmage? Is it under 10 yards? Is it down the field? If you look at the way the league has been really going, everything’s under 10 yards right now. You’re seeing a lot of catch-and-carry type plays and I think a lot of it is because the defenses have become so fast. The defensive ends are so much faster than the tackles. Something that (Chicago Bears Head) Coach (John) Fox used to tell me all the time, he would just remind me constantly (that) it’s the worst matchup in football. He would remind me of that and if we got in trouble in a game and the quarterback was getting hit, it was just kind of that reminder and that meant ‘Alright, hey, let’s get the ball out a little sooner.’”
(On how he feels about the state of the team and if it’s where he would hope) – “Well, this being the first year, I feel good about how it looks, at least to us, on tape. From where we were that first minicamp – going through the phases – and now where we’re at. You look at today’s practice and yesterday’s practice, and what the temperature was outside, the effort that you see, the energy that’s brought to practice. Today is an easy day to just kind of be like ‘Hey, we’re really done.’ It’s not a long practice and they mail it in. Our guys didn’t do that. They came out there, they worked every minute and you saw great energy and you saw guys that were excited to be out there. And that’s what we’re looking for.”
(On how much he is active with the quarterbacks and the receivers) – “Today was something that I wanted them to get accustomed to something that we’re going to do during the season – that tempo, that period, making sure that you’re doing the right thing. It’s one of those drills where if you just watch the guy in front of you and he does it right, all you have to do is copy what he does and usually it’s like the fourth group that goes and somebody screws it up. That’s when you can get frustrated. But you want to make sure, and I know all our coaches are thinking the same thing, just make sure our energy level is great and that’s going to bring up everybody else. If a guy’s not really where he needs to be, if we’re up (as coaches), it’s hard for a player to be the one guy that’s not at that level and you can raise him up.”
(On what on the field please him the most during the offseason program) – “I think just the competition. I think the mistakes that are made schematically can be fixed easily off of tape. But if you bring that energy, enthusiasm, that competitive nature every day that’s going to be our best chance to keep getting better and making sure that when you hit the season, you’re getting better every week instead of kind of flattening out or having an off week. You just got to make sure every day you’re getting better.”
(On what sort of schedule or plans does he have over the next month) – “Our coaches, we’re off with the players. We come back a few days before the players but really, for the most part, our training camp stuff is already set up for the most part, as far what we want to do, especially early. We do like to have some flexibility, so if we get through eight practices we can make some adjustments. But our guys will be taking some time off and I’m sure a lot of guys will either be going out of town or spending time with their families.”
(On his plans specifically) – “I know I’ll be hanging out with my family for a few weeks at least.”
(On what he wants out of G/T Laremy Tunsil over the next five weeks) – “This goes with everybody – we just can’t have guys that just don’t do anything. It’s not 20 years ago where you got six weeks to work into shape. You got to hit the ground running. You got to be ready to go. It’s going to take a second to get back into football shape, but you can’t be grossly out of shape. You got to stay in your (play)book. Because if you come back and you don’t know what to do, it’s going to be a problem because you’re going to play slow.”
(On how challenging it is for G/T Laremy Tunsil to be learning two positions?) – “So the way that we looked at it was when you put a guy on the left side he’s playing the two positions that are really … They’re making the calls together, whether it be in the run game or the pass game. So it’s not like he’s learning something completely different. He’s working on different sides of the ball and that’s kind of why we said we know that he’s going to be on the left side. So what we ended up doing was we put him out there and whether it is left guard or left tackle, it’s easy for him to kind of go back and forth. That’s why I always appreciate those guys that you see coming in that say yeah (I) can play right tackle, right guard (and) left tackle. What we (as coaches) never understand, because a whole lot of guys didn’t play that position … I learned this from (Offensive Quality Control) Chris Kuper, it’s a big difference when you go from the right to the left. It’s a completely different view with your peripheral vision and things and when guys can do that, that’s something that we don’t really take pleasure in the fact that that’s a tough thing to do.”
(On G/T Laremy Tunsil and if he is where they want him to be right now) – “He has got a lot of room to get better. Any position that you play as a rookie, it’s a different, different animal. It’s funny, we were actually talking with him and a couple other guys, (and) we were talking about how training camp is going to be another speed. Preseason is going to feel like another speed. And then when you hit the regular season, it’s a completely different speed. When you get to the playoffs, you’re talking about guys playing, really, for one thing. The paycheck is … Everybody is making the same amount of money. You’ll see a completely different speed there.”
(On RB Kenyan Drake and WR Jarvis Landry missing practice) – “(Kenyan) Drake, obviously, we saw him limp off (yesterday). He is going to have to get healthy as fast as possible. He’ll be ready to go for camp. Jarvis (Landry), he had a personal thing to deal with today, so I excused him and told him to make sure he took care of that.”
(On his coaching style) – “I want guys to have fun. I want guys to be able to come out there and be who they are. I don’t want anybody to feel like they can’t be themselves. By getting things going – whether it’s DJing myself or with (Linebackers Coach Matt) Burke or letting (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn Jefferson be a vocal guy on our offensive side – I want that. I want guys to be who they are. I don’t want them to try to be somebody they’re not.”
(On what he saw from G Dallas Thomas this spring) – “He did a good job. He kept getting better. I think what we did in the weight room this year … I think (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach) Dave Puloka and his crew did a great job as far as making sure that those guys were able to get stronger and increase their weightlifting. That was a big focal point of ours, and we felt like we were going to help both our fronts if we did that. We knew we had to spend time on it. That was the biggest thing. We were like, ‘We have to give them their time.’ As coaches, you want to get ahold of them and you want to spend all this time on the field and the classroom, but at the end of the day, those first two phases are built (to) let them get stronger, let them get faster, let them get in shape. That was our goal. I think (Dallas Thomas) really embraced that. To me, when I watch film from the past and I look at some of the things he was doing this year, I feel like you can see that. I think it was him really embracing what they were doing in the strength room.”
(On his offseason routine) – “I have a little routine I go through when I’m not here and out of town. I’ll have a thing that I do as far as I’ll take a block during the day and say, ‘I’m going to work on these three things for the next week.’ It’s really the same procedure that I’ve gone through, probably, for the last three or four years. I always like to keep my mind fresh and make sure that maybe I can learn two or three things over the summer, whether it’s watching another team, whether it’s watching another college team. (I am) always trying to find a way … Maybe there’s one thing we can get that we can put into training camp that’ll help us.”
(On WR Jakeem Grant) – “I think the offense is a little different than what they did in college and the terminology, obviously, is a little more than what they did. He has done a good job of picking everything up. Sometimes, it’s almost like we have to slow him down. He’s so fast that he has got to learn how to play at that speed (and) be able to cut, stop. You’ll see him slipping every once in a while, and that’s when he’s going too fast. If we can get him under control as far as how he understands that, ‘You pulling back a little bit is still faster than everybody.’ Once he realizes that, he’s going to really make strides there and be able to really have a great route tree.”
(On whether teammates joke with WR Jakeem Grant about his height) – “I don’t know. I guess I haven’t seen … I’ve seen him more being the guy that jokes about things like that. I haven’t really heard a lot of the guys giving too much (to him). You know what I’m saying? Too much as far as his height and stuff. He’s probably more (of) the aggressor in that.”
(On his message to the team while they are away from the facility) – “You always want them to be smart. I think a lot of times a lot of guys in this profession, they just forget who they are, who they represent. (You have to) understand what kind of situation you are putting yourself in. That’s a decision you have to make for the next five weeks: what’s the most important thing in your life? Hopefully, they get a chance to take a break, but at the same time, they make good decisions.”
(On the team’s leadership) – “The first thing that I learned is there’s more than I think a lot of people gave guys credit for. I think a little bit of it is, if you let their personalities come out, you’re going to see more guys take that leadership role. I think it has given them the opportunity to do that and given them some ownership of, ‘This is your locker room. This is your building. The way that you treat people – the way that you function throughout the building – it should be important to you, because this is where you spend a lot of your time.’ I think we’ve had a lot of guys step up, and if somebody gets out of line, they get straightened up pretty quick. It’s something that not a lot of things have gotten back to me, which is great. As a head coach, the less that gets brought to you where it’s things that are non-football related, that’s less time that you’re spending on that stuff and you’re focused on the important things.”
(On T Ja’Wuan James) – “He has done a good job. He has been what we thought coming into this thing. We want to see him keep getting better. He has done a good job as far as he knows what to do. He has always seemed to be that guy that where he gets beat, he somehow recovers and does what he needs to do as far as protecting the quarterback. We like where he’s at right now. We want to make sure when we get into camp, he keeps doing the right things, he keeps taking care of his body, keeps getting stronger. As long as he stays in his playbook and he understands what his responsibility is in this offense, we’ll be alright.”
(On how CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu looked during practice) – “He seems like he’s trying to make sure that he’s feeling good going into training camp. I think getting going a little bit this week was good for him (to) get that right mindset, so now in the next five weeks, he can keep getting stronger and getting his conditioning up and feeling good about going into training camp and hitting on all cylinders and cut it loose.”
(On not having a veteran in the nickel position) – “We got a lot of guys that aren’t veterans. It is what it is. We’re young, but that’s not going to be an excuse. Nobody is going to care when it comes September. Nobody is going to be like, ‘You guys are young.’ Nobody cares. You just got to figure out a way to win.”
(On how to evaluate the running backs’ pass blocking skills at this stage) – This is tough. You want them to get in the right position. When you get into training camp and you put the pads on, they got to do it. You’re going to know pretty quick. They’re either going to turn it down – even though it’s not live – or they’re either going to turn it down or they’re going to step in there and thud them up and stick on their blocks. When you get in the preseason, that’s where you really got to figure out when you get the live contact and tackling and all those things. When they do it there, that gives you a good indication of what it’s going to be like in the season.”
