Adam Gase – April 26, 2016
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On how his day went) — “It was good. It was fun to get out there. Feels like forever. Obviously, for myself it’s been since January, late December. I know the coaches were itching to get out, having two weeks of meetings. And then getting an opportunity to do this, it’s just a good feeling to get outside, especially in this weather.”
(On what he feels is the biggest difference now that he is the head coach) – “I don’t know, I kind of went through my same routine I always did. I went over and talked a little smack to the defense and let them know how many times we were going to throw over their heads. The thing that was a little different for me was (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen) was running a lot of the drills with the offense during individual. So it was fun to be able to be kind of be bouncing back and forth and seeing what’s going on with special teams and not working with the quarterbacks on some of those drills. It was a fun experience just kind of seeing everybody coach and get to observe what was going on.”
(On if he feels adding an extra minicamp because he is a new coach will help) – “I think so. I think it gets a lot of the anxiety out. For our players, they understand how we want to do things. The tempo is what we’re really trying to make sure we do a good job of, just in between periods and where we’re going, what we want to do. If you can get that done before you hit OTAs, it just makes OTAs a lot smoother.”
(On what he can share about some of the missing personnel) – “It’s a voluntary camp and the good thing is, I know where everybody is at. That’s just what it is with the Players Association and the league and the deal that they’ve worked out. This is voluntary. I learned very early and when this thing went down, there is no reason to get upset about guys not being here – it’s voluntary. We all know that right from the get go and we’re appreciative of the guys that have shown up and that are working hard and that are with us. These guys are here to get better and we’re here to help.”
(On whether the players who didn’t show up gave him advance notice of their absence) – “Yeah, we knew who was going to be here and who wasn’t going to be here.”
(On if everyone on offense has the entire playbook or if it’s given in small parts) – “We install it a little bit at a time. Those two weeks before this were nice to have. We were able to kind of give them a little bit of a pre-install to what we were going to do here. And then once we started with this minicamp, we kind of condense that and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to focus on in these camps.’ We try to be smart because you don’t want to run certain things in these types of camps. You don’t want pile ups. You don’t want situations where DBs and wide receivers can get tangled up. So we’re really smart about what we’re actually practicing.”
(On if it would be an issue to him if S Reshad Jones’ absence lingers beyond the spring) – “It’s voluntary. Every day I’m coming in this thing and when guys show up, we’re going to help them and we’re going to help them get better. But right now it’s a voluntary camp. It’s a voluntary program, so guys can come and go as they please.”
(On if he would be more upset if S Reshad Jones missed one of the mandatory camps) – “I’m not going to get upset about anything right now. It’s the first day of voluntary vet mini-camp. So we’ll see how everything goes once we get to June.”
(On if he feels that it helps or hurts with him being a new coach and the new players) – “I never worry. It’s the NFL. These guys learn things very quickly. I mean you don’t need a lot of time. When you’re a veteran player, you jump right back in. A lot of times it’s just change in terminology. These guys are sharp. That’s what NFL players get paid to do and that’s to learn playbooks.”
(On his feelings of having DE Cameron Wake on the field and how his recovering is progressing) – “We’re day to day. He’s just going to keep grinding and figure out every day we come in and we see what he can do and if he’s sore and where he’s at for that particular day. He’s working close with the trainers and the sports science group to make sure that we get him as close to 100 percent (as possible). The big goal for me is that I just want him ready to go for training camp. The offseason – this is a great time to make sure that he is as close to 100 percent heading into training camp as possible.”
(On if the timing is hard having veteran mini-camp at the same time as preparing for the draft) – “I was a part of it last year. We did this same schedule in Chicago with our first year being in that situation. And I feel like our time was managed well leading up to this. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) have done a great job of making sure we finish with what we needed to do with the coaching staff. And then for me, it’s just going to be a quick transition. When we get done Thursday, it’s a shorter day, and then I’m going to roll right into some draft things.”
(On how he feels about two new acquisitions: DT Chris Jones and CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu, who is recovering from an injury) – “We’re still working through to see how far we can bring (Ekpre-Olomu) around, as far as where his injury was. Once again, these injuries, it’s time. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with him. And then when we’re claiming guys, we’re trying to get better. And we feel like Chris was a guy we were interested in and our scouts and our personnel guys were really excited about the fact that we had a chance to get him. We’ll see how he fits in the group.”
(On CB Ifo Ekpre-Olomu) – “I know he was a high guy on a lot of people’s draft boards and unfortunately he got injured and we’ll just see how that one progresses.”
(On LB Kiko Alonso’s play and if he can return to his 2013 form) – “I would say it’s tough for me to predict anything. I mean, it’s been one day. We’ve had eight meetings. Time will tell. We have a long ways to go and we’ll see how it goes for the rest of the offseason.”
(On some of the things he tries to focus on the practice field) – “I try to get into the rhythm for myself, for one. Coaches, they all have their individual responsibilities. I’m trying to kind of see where my place is a little bit, as far as (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen) has such a great handle of what’s going on in the offense. I know I’m going to be calling plays. I kind of might be spying on the defense a little bit to see what we can take advantage on that from an offensive perspective and just kind of being around the o-line and d-line. Those are two positions you don’t get to spend a lot of time on them when you’re an offensive coordinator. You’re working with the quarterbacks a lot times. So I really enjoy going down there and watching (Offensive Line Coach) Chris (Foerster) coach and watching (Defensive Line Coach) Terrell (Williams) coach the d-line. It’s just kind of … for me to be able to observe a lot of these guys that I haven’t been able to watch in the past.”
(On if his mind starts racing on day one when he has a guy like WR Jarvis Landry on his team) – “It’s pretty early for me to get too crazy with what we want to do with him. But, I mean right now we’re installing our base stuff and just trying to get guys used to that up-tempo style on the ball. We’ll start working on where everybody fits in but we’re a ways away from that.”
(On how beneficial it is to a look at the players on the field as opposed to the film) – “It’s a completely different ball game. When you get out on the field, you start seeing things and … you might not actually see it on a game tape. I wasn’t here last year for practice. So I mean you see a guy rep after rep, then practice after practice, and you get a really good feel for what that guy can do and what he can’t do. This is like the first opportunity to see a few things where I might not have seen in a game situation. So this is a great opportunity for our coaching staff to really get into that evaluation stage to figure out what guys can and can’t do.”
(On what he likes about RB Jay Ajayi) – “When I watched him coming out of college and then now I see him in person, I guess I never realized how shifty he was, and today was a great example. Just seeing him stick his foot in the ground and change direction, you didn’t see him do that a lot in college. Just being able to see him move around, it was very impressive for me to see him in person. The way he cut in some of the run game schemes … I mean I’m really excited to see what we can do going forward.”
(On CB Byron Maxwell) – “There’s been a lot of talking going on between me and him. He’s got my number right now so I told him we’re going to try to go at him as much as possible. But, you know as long as he is and as physical as he is at the line of scrimmage, I’m just glad he’s on our side. It’s great to see, when I went down there in individual, just to see him smile and having fun. (He) really looks like he’s ready to go and enjoys the defense that he’s playing in under (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph). He’s a guy that we’re expecting to really excel in our scheme.”
(On if that was a walkie-talkie in his hand during practice) – “Yeah.”
(On who was on the other end of the walkie-talkie) – “I hope the quarterbacks. We like to start kind of that game-type mentality; and, for the quarterbacks, getting used to hearing my voice. I mean that’s just something – the way that I call plays and the way that they can hear it and kind of understand – that I probably talk too much. And I’ll give them tips and things about what to look for. So it’s just getting used to hearing me on the other end.”
(On if he likes what he has to work with on the roster heading into the NFL draft) – “I like what we have already on the roster. I’m excited to see what we can build going forward and then what we can add. And I’m excited to see what takes place coming up here in the draft. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Executive Vice President, Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) have done a great job in kind of getting that board set and Chris (Grier) and the scouts have really worked hard to make sure that we have everything covered. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.”
(On what CB Jamar Taylor needs to do to become a starter or play in the cornerback rotation) – “He’s no different than every other guy. When we had our first team meeting, the statement was, ‘It didn’t matter who you were before this.’ You’re getting a fresh start. Everybody’s walking in the building (with a) clean slate. So if you were lazy and didn’t try hard last year, you could be the hardest-working guy walking through the door and I won’t know any different. We’re encouraging guys to just come out here and give us everything they have and see how it shakes out for them.”
