Adam Gase – October 19, 2016
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Wednesday, October 19, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Adam, losing S Reshad Jones, can you make up for him with one player, or what’s your philosophy or strategy on that?) – “We got to have the next-man-up mentality. It’s tough when you lose a player of his caliber, not only as far as a player, but as far as a leader. He has done a great job of showing guys the right way to do things. The way that he goes about his business on and off the field, he does it right. It’s unfortunate for him and for us, because he was having a good year. I know it hurt him a lot for the fact that he wasn’t going to be out there with those guys anymore. We’ll go through this process. I know he has got a tough rehab ahead of him, but he’s an extremely competitive and tough guy that’s going to be able to come back from this.”
(Do you know when S Reshad Jones did this? I remember at one point in the third quarter he was having his left shoulder [looked at].) – “I don’t know the … I don’t know exactly. I didn’t ask that.”
(Adam, DE Mario Williams said he may be thinking a little bit too much. I think Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph said he needs to play better, play harder. What do you see in terms of what he needs to do to get more playing time and to be more productive?) – “I think we’ve been talking about (the) efficiency of the amount of snaps we get. Hopefully, we can start turning around as far as the amount of reps that our defense is getting compared to what our offense is. I know it has been a little lopsided early in the season. I think those guys were probably a little surprised they had to play the run as much as they’ve had to, because we were so inefficient on offense and left those guys out there on the field way too much. Hopefully we can get back to having more offensive snaps than defensive snaps, which would help those guys (and) they can stay fresh. Now they’re really doing what we’re paying them to do and that’s rush the passer.”
(In your experience, does players playing against their former teams add motivation to play a little different, or is that a bunch of media stuff?) – “I think every guy is different. Some guys look at these types of games if it’s their former team and they just want to make sure they play really well and there’s a little added intensity. Plus, when you’re with a certain group as long as you … Obviously, (Mario Williams) was there long enough to have relationships with a lot of those guys. He knows, probably, some of the strengths, some of the weaknesses, and that gives you a little bit of an edge, because you at least know how they do certain things (and) you see a lot more things, because you practiced against them every day.”
(Do you plan on replacing S Reshad Jones as one of the season captains or go game by game?) – “We’ll have to … We’ll get to that when it comes to Saturday night. Right now, it’s … Today was really the official (news) where I was told that he wasn’t going to be able to go. We’ll get to that point.”
(This team has had a really hard time with the Bills the last few years. How much do you look at games from the past seasons between the two?) – “I was able to watch a lot of games leading up to when I took this job, because it was … We took all the division games and made sure that we studied those to see how we’ve fared in the past. There are certain things that they may do versus certain players that we have right now offensively and same thing on the other side of the ball. I think we have more guys on offense than we did defense last year. But every season is a new year. It’s such a different group of guys, a different scheme. Rex (Ryan) will have a good plan in place for what we’re doing right now. I’m sure (Bills Offensive Coordinator) Anthony (Lynn), he’ll keep continuing doing what they’re doing, because they’re having a lot of success right now.”
(Adam, I know you guys have dealt with a lot of injuries defensively – LB Koa Misi, DT Earl Mitchell, S Reshad Jones, CB Xavien Howard. Has it been a lot of injuries or that’s just life in the NFL?) – “I think that’s just what it is right now. The way the rules are set up and the way that you have to practice and you don’t get as many padded practices, guys are breaking down a lot quicker. At least that’s what it feels like. Maybe it’s just I was younger, and I didn’t realize it earlier in my time when you’re still doing two-a-days and guys were really … You had a lot of padded practice before you actually a played game. I’ll be interested to see some of those numbers as far as injuries from before and after.”
(Adam, could CB Chris Culliver or LB Zach Vigil do team work today or just individual?) – “We just did some individual. I know they both were trying to jump in there, but we got to go through our process.”
(What do you attribute the change in RB Jay Ajayi from having done nothing and feeling a little bit entitled in the preseason – and maybe the first week of the season – to rushing for 200 yards and at least today talking, showing lot of humility?) – “I think a little bit of it was he was kind of handed that job early. You could get lost in that, and that’s probably a little bit on me not creating a better sense of competition maybe in that position. Things went bad there for 10 days, and what he did do though (was) he came back and got his head straight and focused on what he needed to do to get himself better, and he did a good job. The one thing that he had really going for him early was he knew things better than everybody else, which put him ahead of everybody. After the New England game, I noticed a big change in everything he did – practice, meetings. Obviously, he wasn’t making a lot of mistakes, and then when he got his opportunities, he just made sure he ran hard. It just continued throughout those games. And then (with) that Tennessee game, that was one thing we noticed was we didn’t have a lot of guys play real well, but he was one of those guys that did at least do his job and was running physical, made guys miss. He was trying to help change the game. He was trying to be an impact player. This game allowing him to get in a little bit of a flow and staying with it and us not going away from the run game – which sometimes when you have success in the passing game, it’s easier, because you’re getting huge chunks of yards and you can move the ball – but he was ripping off those runs, and it was, ‘Why would you go away from that?’ That was the one thing we kept talking about on the sideline was, ‘Just stay with him. He’s really running well right now. He’s running physical. These guys are having a tough time tackling him.’ His mentality on Sunday was outstanding.”
(Adam, how was your run defense Sunday? I know the numbers weren’t great, but were guys tackling?) – “Really, they had the one play. We let up 60 yards on one play, which that was going to be a big play for them, but hopefully we can prevent the touchdown if we do a couple of things different. But for the most part, we didn’t … Not allowing LeVeon (Bell) to go crazy, that was a big step for us. They did a good job. We just had that one miscue on a reverse, and that’s 60 yards of … What did they have, like 120 or something? That’s half their yardage right there.”
(Adam, in the past when you’ve had only two healthy tight ends going into a game, do you feel nervous about that? Would TE MarQueis Gray and TE Dominique Jones be enough this week assuming no TE Jordan Cameron, no TE Dion Sims?) – “We’ll have a plan. That’s what you do in this league – you adjust, you figure something out.”
(Are you hopeful that TE Jordan Cameron will play again at some point this year? I know you’re not a doctor, but do you have any sense of that?) – “We’ll just see. I’m not going to try to rush anything back. I want him to be healthy. I want things to be right. So, we’re just making sure we go through all the necessary steps. We’re going to keep talking to the doctors and making sure that he’s 100 percent before we even walk back on the practice field.”
(Adam, you’ve had a lot of things like that since you have been here that are beyond your control. How do you personally deal with some of these things that you might consider unlucky?) – “I think with a lot of the guys I’ve been around in with in the past, you try to move on very quickly, because (you can’t) waste energy on things you can’t control. Our coaching staff has done a good job of trying to get the next guy ready. And that’s all you can really … That’s what you can control is trying to make sure the next guy at least knows what to do, put him in the right position and then try to help develop him. That’s (what) a good coaching staff needs to do. You have to get these younger guys ready to go, because it’s a long season. Guys are going to be up and down, you’re going to lose guys for the season, things that are weird are going to happen, you’re going to slip in the shower – stuff like that. You don’t know what’s coming, so you just got to make sure you got the next guy ready.”
(Does it seem like it has been a lot?) – “I don’t know, it seems like there are always things like this happening every year. It’s just how much you magnify it and how much you worry about it. If you can just figure out a way to get the next guy ready, that’s really all that matters.”
(We asked briefly about CB Chris Culliver, but what do you need to see from him over the next week, or two, or three?) – “I think it’s just him feeling good. When you haven’t practiced and gone out there and competed on the field in a while, it just takes a second to get used to. He’s a competitor. You can tell he wants to get back and play on Sundays as fast as possible. It’s going to be a little bit on … We’ll take our data that we have and see where he’s at physically, but it’s going to be a little bit on him to say ‘Okay, I’m ready to go.’”
(With S Reshad Jones out, who could you see in the secondary stepping up to take on the leadership capacity?) – “It’s going to have to happen throughout the next few weeks as far as playing games and kind of seeing who’s making plays. Who wants to step up vocally? Obviously a guy like Mike Thomas has been a big vocal leader on special teams and now he’s going to play more defense than he was before. We’ll kind of see how that happens and who kind of becomes that guy that steps forward.”
(Adam, a question about a few of the inactives last week: DE Terrence Fede, DE Julius Warmsley and S Walt Aikens, who had all been kind of contributors at different times) – “Yes those were just all coaches decisions.”
(All performance-based?) – “Some of it was the packages we wanted to go up with, having a certain amount of guys up, whether it be on the offense or defense.”
(Coach, the running back group seems to be a competitive bunch but it’s hard to ignore just how close they are and how much they encourage one another. Is that kind of what you see from them and just how much they really do pull for one another.) – “It’s a pretty tight group. Those guys are around each other a lot and that’s the thing you kind of do like about that group, as far as how they … they’re like pulling for each other. There’s not one guy being like, ‘I should be in there and I can do better than this guy.’ You don’t see that. Whoever’s in there, full support and the thing is, they all play, and whether it be special teams or offense, they’re in there a lot. They’re contributing in some capacity so they all want each other to have success and that’s a good thing to have. When you’ve got a room that tight, that helps you build the culture you want.”
(Adam, any concerns about the field goal unit? Two blocked, one missed. I think K Andrew Franks is 7-for-10?) – “Yes, I mean obviously we’d like to make those. He’s been really consistent, at least since I’ve been here. We’ve had a couple of miscues there but that happens sometimes. That’s part of the development of that position. You come to the NFL, it’s a little different – the timing’s different, the speed is different. You’ve got to be on it every time. You can’t have the slightest mistakes. I know he’s working hard to make sure that when we get inside that area and we don’t score a touchdown that we know that’s a guaranteed three (points). I know that he’s going to keep trying to make sure that he does everything he can to put us in position where we get points out of those situations.”
(Ryan is fourth in the NFL in yards per attempt. What can we read or learn from that statistic?) – “That he’s probably a little more accurate on the deep ball than everybody told me when I got here, I know that. He’s just hitting everything down the field. He’s made some plays on the move. He’s been consistently accurate as far as when we get time, he’s able to get in the pocket and make a throw. He does it and we catch it. That’s probably one thing that’s been a big difference for us is guys are doing a great job of making sure if it’s around them, they’re pulling it in.”
(Adam, did you guys have heat-related things last week, specifically I guess G/T Jermon Bushrod, T Ja’Wuan James, G/T Laremy Tunsil and if so, is there anything you can do if it might be that hot again?) – “It was pretty good. It was getting competitive. I think that was the most plays we’ve had all season. It’s the longest a lot of those guys have played. It just gets to the point where you have one little misstep on your preparation for the game, it could affect you later in the game. We had a couple of guys that just needed some IV’s and then we made sure that we were good to go.”
(Is there a concern with DE Jason Jones?) – “No, we decided to rest him today. We’re just trying to make sure, I mean he’s played long enough to where, the amount of snaps he’s played so far, he’s getting banged around quite a bit. We just need to take a little off him.”
(And RB Arian Foster did practice today?) – “Yes.”
(You had planned to hold him out on Wednesdays and then he’s also hurt. Is this an indication that he’s better?) – “Well, it was more … he’s been … it was really, really him that wanted to go today and wanted to make sure … He wants to keep trying to see where he’s at and I know today he was pushing it. He was trying to really see if we can get to the point where he’s opening it up more and feel more comfortable. He’s coming back from something that’s just one of those nagging things. He just wants to make sure he feels good so when we get to Sunday, he could tell me, ‘Hey, I’m 100 percent. I’m ready to hit it if I need to.’ He wanted to make sure that his body felt right.”
