Adam Gase – October 26, 2016
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Wednesday, October 26, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Did RB Arian Foster indicate to you that he was contemplating retiring? Were you caught off guard and when did you find out?) – “I don’t think I was caught off guard. Sometimes you can tell there are a lot of things going on in somebody’s head. I think the relationship me and him have was really good. We had a lot of conversations over the time that we were together. He definitely was guy I connected with very early. But I did get a text (at) about 5:30-ish on Monday. It was like one of those things in my gut. I felt like that’s what it was going to be. I was hoping I was wrong, but he did a lot of good things in a short period of time for us. I know the injuries really were frustrating for him because when he got hurt in that New England game, we had a couple of times (where) he was trying to rehab, strengthen up and would have these little setbacks. I know that was frustrating for him, because his body wasn’t responding the way he wanted it to. I know our guys really tried to do every they could to strengthen him up as fast as possible, and he kept itching to get out there. I know in that Pittsburgh game he was trying to be available as much as possible for us, because he knew we needed as much leadership as we possibly could get. We knew that was going to be a tough game. We were in a very tough spot for our team where we needed some good things to happen for us. He did everything he could to try to get as healthy as he could as fast as he could. It was a tough conversation to have with him as far as him explaining to me things and just kind of on the way I was thinking at the moment knowing how much he has helped our football team and our organization.”
(Are you upset at the fact that he retired in the middle of the season?) – “I’m not upset, because I want what’s best for him. If there was anything that was pulling him to where he couldn’t really be all in – and his body wasn’t all in – I’m not going to be upset about that, because I had a great relationship with him. He’s a guy that I really enjoyed being around and enjoyed him around our players and the way that he communicated. The way that he helped that running back room is one of those things you just can’t measure. We are very young in that room, but he did such a good job early on as far as when we had some bumps in the road, he kept those guys together and educated them. He did a lot of things here that I don’t know if he has done other places as far as when you’re as smart as he his – and picked things up as fast as he did – some of the little things that he tried to do to show those guys the right way to do it, he didn’t have to do that. He did it to try to help us, and I will always be appreciative towards him, because he tried to do everything he could to be all in with us.”
(You pointed to the running back room as an example of how you would like the team to be going forward. Has that changed a little bit now that RB Arian Foster is gone?) – “I think the one thing that I’ve noticed from that room is (Running Backs Coach) Danny (Barrett) has done a good job of trying to help those guys grew up as fast as possible. I think Jay’s (Ajayi) emergence – especially the last three weeks – has helped him grow up really quickly, and I think the rest of those guys are following suit. They’re seeing his success and realizing, ‘Wow, he’s doing everything right – all the little tiny details right – and now he’s benefitting from that not only as far as us having more success on Sundays as far as wins, but also personal success, winning awards – thing like that – and it’s all, because he kept going to work trying to get better, understand the ins and outs of everything that we were doing for that week, and he made it happen on Sunday.’ I think those guys are seeing that, and they’re following suite.”
(Will RB Arian Foster be around here in any capacity? Do league rules allow that, or is he just goes and takes care of his state of mind?) – “Basically his kind of conversation with me was, ‘I’ll never be far away.’ Obviously, he has great relationship with those guys. I’m sure if he see something during a game – or on TV – he’ll be very quick to place a phone call.”
(How might the absence of RB Arian Foster impact the roles of RB Damien Williams and RB Kenyan Drake?) – “It’s something that we’re trying to really figure out right now and go through the process. The fact that we have a bye week this week we have to figure out, ‘What’s our next step? What’s the right move to make? Do you bring in another guy? Do you promote somebody from practice squad?’ We have to figure out all these things, because Damien, for one, has a huge role in our special teams. The more plays he plays on offense, it makes it tougher for him on special teams. And then Drake has not as big of role on special teams, but he does play quite a bit. I think I’ve said it before as far as it has been rare in my career to have two running backs that are as involved in special teams as those guys are. So, whether we move things around on special teams, or we decide that we’re just going to play one guy more than the other … I know my trust level in Damien, obviously, he has done a lot of good things for us in the limited role that he has had so far. It seems like every time he gets in, (he has) one or two huge plays a game, usually game-changing plays. Drake hasn’t had as many opportunities, but he’s going to be, obviously, given the opportunity to really step up and do things right and be consistent. You can see that Arian leaving puts pressure on those two guys to be right and do things right, and we have to grow up quickly.”
(Are you okay with three running backs?) – “I’ve done it quite a bit in my career. I think we have to … Really, we’re going to take a look at it. Between (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and myself, we’ve spent a lot of time the last couple of days reevaluating everything, and we got the rest of this week (to) try to make a decision by Tuesday as far as what our roster is going to look like going forward. We have decisions to make, especially with the PUP guys. That’s going to come quick, and we’re going to have to make a decision in that area as well (about) roster spots. Who moves in? Who moves out? Do we get through next week completely healthy? I mean there are a lot of things that can happen here over the next 13, 12 days. We’re going to have to make some moves to try to make sure that we feel like our roster is good going forward.”
(Since you were at five running backs, you’re now down to three. I know you said you’re contemplating. Does three feel uncomfortable?) – “Not really. The only thing that is in the back of my mind is just the fact that Damien (Williams) is such an impactful player on special teams. Like I’ve, said it’s rare, especially at that position to have a guy that impactful. But he’s a good running back, and he does a good job for us. He’s a game-changing guy.”
(On a different topic, how easy of a decision was it to have LS John Denney replace S Reshad Jones as a captain? What are the leadership qualities you like about him?) – “It’s never easy to replace a guy like Reshad, especially with what he has done since I’ve been here. When you get to a place, you always do as much research on everybody as possible, and everybody told me, ‘(Jones) doesn’t kind of say a whole bunch. He’s a really good player, but he’s quiet, and he does what he needs to do and leads by example.’ We asked a little more of him, and he did it. He did a great job as far as being a vocal leader and coming out every day and showing young guys how to do it and speaking up when he felt like something wasn’t right. Trying to find that next guy wasn’t … It’s not that easy sometimes, because I’m not in the locker room every day. John Denney was able to speak on Saturday night before we played Pittsburgh. I think he really made a strong statement to our team. It hit everybody. When he talks – because he doesn’t say a whole bunch – when he talked, I think a lot of guys really listened to what he was saying. That was a clear cut to me the fact that he has been here longer than anybody else. He has been through a lot, and he has leadership qualities that I think a lot of us didn’t’ really realize and guys respect him. We felt like that was the best move for us as far as giving our guys another veteran guy to be able to turn to and somebody that I appreciate and will listen to if he ever brought something to me.”
(Why S Bacarri Rambo and what will you see and envision him playing?) – “We’ll still be going through our process of what’s our next step with that. Obviously, we’re very … I don’t even know if we’re 24 hours off of doing that. We’ll go through the rest of this week and go through practice next week. That makes it easier to figure out what everybody’s role is going to be, who’s going to be active – all those type of things – how fast can he pick everything up. We keep trying to figure out a way of what’s best for us, work guys out. I know (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) constantly are having these Tuesday workouts to see if there’s anybody that fits what we’re looking for. That’s going to be a wait-and-see process for us. I don’t have anything for you to say, ‘It’s going to be this.’”
(Does it trouble you that S Bacarri Rambo has been out of football since January?) – “I think we have a couple of guys on our team that have been in that situation a little bit. Our guys felt good about him. Our defensive staff obviously felt good. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t feel good about the situation that we were about ready to get into.”
(What did you like about S Bacarri Rambo?) – “There are some of us that have either competed against him and been around him before. (With) his skill set, his knowledge of the game, his play making ability – we feel like we got a guy that possibly can come in here and contribute. Obviously, we’re going to have to take some steps here as far as getting caught up, seeing how everything fits in. It’s going to … This is not going to be like Tuesday when we start practicing, ‘Here’s what it is.’ It’s going to take us a second to figure some things out.”
(Regarding RB Jay Ajayi, 54 carries the last two weeks. I know he’s young – I know it’s a bye week – but do you monitor his carries? He does have an injury history the last year and a half for whatever reason. Is it too early for that? Do you look at that in December? What’s your approach?) – “You’re trying to jinx me here. This I like saying ‘You have your starting five (offensive lineman) next,’ and then we’re having shower incidents. (laughter) I think you’re always going to be smart. Obviously, I do need to be aware of where we’re at carries-wise. I think last game didn’t feel like that. It is kind of a … He needs to be a good sounding board to me as far as – as we go through this with the nine games left – of, ‘How is your body feeling? How are you recovering each week? How many reps is he getting in practice?’ We’re going to have to be smart about it if we’re going to be giving him that many carries. I think he has done a good job as far as getting back in here quickly after a game, getting his body back. That is … When you run the style that he’s running right now where it’s physical, he’s taking on a lot of hits, but he’s breaking a lot of tackles. Over time, that’s going to take a little bit of a toll, so we just have to make sure we monitor throughout the game. But at the same time, we don’t want to be overly cautious, because he is a guy that has had a lot of carries in college, and he knows how to take a hit, he knows how to run through contact. If we can just continually go through our season and be smart about how we practice him and let him get to Sundays and make sure he’s feeling good, that’s going to be the biggest key.”
