Adam Gase – November 16, 2016
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Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With the news that T Branden Albert is out for Sunday, do you have a timeframe? Is there any chance he might need surgery?) – “I haven’t really … I haven’t gotten into that with those guys. I’m probably avoiding asking anything right now. The fact that I know he’s not going to play this game, I know that for a fact. So I’ll get into more discussions with those guys as the week goes on.”
(But you’re not concerned about the surgery or anything?) – “We’ll handle what we need to handle. We’ll take care of everything and we’ll go through what process the trainers, doctors, he feels like we need to go through.”
(Does he have any breaks or fractures?) – “I don’t want to go into the details of everything because I’m not … I don’t know all the little ins and outs of everything right now. I’ll be getting back with the trainers here soon, after today, and kind of get caught up with everything.”
(Obviously, because he’s not put on IR, the hope is that he could come back this season?) – “That would be fair to say. Nobody has told me anything different yet.”
(With G/T Laremy Tunsil, what’s this transition going to be like for him? I know he’s been practicing at left tackle throughout the season but now to play in a game, a full game.) – “Yes for him it’s … he has no concern. We feel comfortable with him out there. Obviously, that’s a position he’s very comfortable with. I think the transition of playing left guard compared to tackle for him is a lot harder for him, as far as just being comfortable. But he’s done a great job as far as what he’s accomplished and what’s he’s done throughout the season. I know when he bumps out to left tackle, that’s like riding a bike for him.”
(Can you explain how T Branden Albert was okay to play Sunday but not this Sunday?) – “I think he really just gutted it out. I’m sure that wasn’t comfortable by any means. But he did not want to leave those guys; he didn’t want to leave that group. So they went in there and kind of got him straightened up and casted him up and he came back out there and did everything he could to try to keep his guy off Ryan (Tannehill) and do everything he could in the running game. Obviously after the game, the body’s going to react to kind of what had happened to him. It swells up and it changes things for the next week. It happens a lot of times with other kinds of injuries as well.”
(With the decision for who plays left guard – C/G Kraig Urbik got into the game – but how much of a consideration is it to give C/G Anthony Steen some action at guard?) – “I think everything’s up in the air right now. You have a general idea starting a week and then as we go through the week and how comfortable we feel with Urbik in there. We feel great as far as what he’s shown us so far and what he did in the game. We’ll just kind of see how it plays out. Sundays are always strange. You never know how it’s going to go down and hopefully we can stay healthy throughout the game. I know we have a big test ahead of us, especially with this front. It’s going to be a challenge considering we’ve played four teams that have really good fronts and this might be the best one that we’re about to face.”
(What do you like most about what C/G Kraig Urbik showed you last game?) – “The fact that when you have a guy that’s played as much as he has and been around for the time he’s been around, knowledge of just general football is always something that always stands out for me when you have guys that are backup linemen. Being able to go and play multiple positions – obviously, jumping in there playing center – doing things like that is critical for us and showed a lot about where he is mentally with what we do. He’s got a toughness about him and grit that you really like as far as offensive linemen go.”
(What are some of the areas of improvement that you’ve seen from CB Tony Lippett this season?) – “I think his confidence has grown as the season has gone on. Any time that you make that transition from being a wide receiver to a DB, it’s a lot more difficult than maybe it seems. I think he does have some advantages. It’s just understanding route concepts and maybe the why – why offenses do certain things. But at the end of the day, when you start going against some of these guys that are top tier wide receivers that have been doing it for a while in the NFL, they know all the little tricks of the trade and they take advantage of the fact that you’re trying to learn how to play DB properly. The way the rules are set up nowadays, it’s not easy for DBs to battle. You have to be careful how hands-y you get. You’ve got to be careful when you’re playing tight coverage. Obviously they can see every little thing and you get called for holdings and PI’s (pass interference) and illegal contacts. You have to do a great job as far as anticipate what might be coming, kind of understand route concepts and being able to shadow guys and redirect quickly.”
(How far along would you say QB Ryan Tannehill has come from the beginning of the year or even from training camp to now?) – “I think any time that you start over on an offense, you want everything to progress quickly, and it doesn’t always work that way. I think a lot of times too it takes that full unit to kind of get comfortable with each other, and even though we’ve played together, it’s a different system. You’re being asked to do different things. They’ve all been through different experiences and I think the strides we’ve made as a group have been positive. Obviously we’ve had a lot more success here the last four games. I think he’s really gotten comfortable as far as what we’re doing schematically in the passing game. He has a big hand in what we have to do in the running game as well because a lot is put on his plate to make sure that we’re in the right play. He does have a lot on his plate and the longer we’ve been together and doing this and getting used to how I call it and how we set things up, the better he’s gotten.”
(What is it about this team that plays to DT Earl Mitchell’s strengths? Obviously he flashed on Sunday.) – “I think anytime you allow a defensive lineman to attack, that’s what most of those guys want to do. I don’t know if you’ve seen or heard too many defensive linemen say ‘Hey, I like kind of sitting back and seeing what the offense is going to do. I’ll react off of them.’ They want to get up the field. They want to get after the quarterback. They want to be disruptive and for what Earl (Mitchell) likes to do, that’s what this defense is. I think you saw a guy that was really excited to get back out on the football field for sure.”
(How is DE Mario Williams?) – “You know, we’re day-to-day right now. Hopefully he’ll feel better by the end of the week. Right now he’s still not where he wants to be. We’ll see how this progresses as the week goes on.”
(How about LB Jelani Jenkins and DE Jason Jones?) – “Same thing.”
(Is DE Jason Jones hurt?) – “He’s banged up. Usually, we give him Wednesdays off. Some of the guys are still sore from the game. That was a physical battle that we went through against San Diego, especially with the defense. They had quite a few plays. They were trying to run the ball, and it was a hard-hitting game. We got a lot of guys, especially on the defensive side … Because we are a little bit older on that side, those guys … This part of the season, this is when guys start getting banged up a little bit, and it takes a couple more days to recover.”
(Is playing a quarterback – a rookie quarterback – who has never played before in the NFL a good thing, a bad thing?) – “It’s tough. It’s tough, because you really … You don’t know what to tell your guys as far as, ‘Here’s what he does well. Here’s what he struggles with. Is there anything we can take advantage of?’ There are all those questions that a lot of times at least you can ask and give answers to. Right now, we have limited film. We can dig into the college scouting reports and pull up college tape and all that stuff, but really, you always want to go off of NFL tape. We have very limited stuff on him. You don’t really know what they’re going to do offensively. You don’t know if they’re going to lean on one part of their game over another. How are they going to play with him? Are they deciding to move their scheme around? Are they going to do something different? It’s one of those games where we have to go in there and do a great job as far as our sideline adjustments, get a feel for what’s going on in the game, try to play as aggressively as you possibly can. But at the same time, we have to be aware that we don’t know him. We have to make sure that we’re taking in that information as the game goes on.”
(How close is CB Chris Culliver to being game ready?) – “It’s hard for me to give an exact timetable. I think we’re going to keep going through practice and keep giving him reps and trying to get him feeling as great as he can possibly feel. When myself and (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph) feel that things are where we want them to be, and we feel like there’s somebody that we want to replace with him, then we’ll head in that direction. Every week is a new week. No decisions have technically been made yet. I know we always outline things a little early to give ‘Rizz’ (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi) an idea of who needs to practice on certain special teams, but a lot of times, our decisions go all the way up to Saturday.”
(What is CB Xavien Howard able to do right now?) – “He’s still rehabbing and doing a lot of the strengthening things. It’s one of those processes when you see him working out and running and things like that, (and) you’re excited that you see him look like he feels good. But we know we have to be smart with what we do. We don’t want any setbacks. We’re going to make sure that if we get him back, it’s at the right time. We are not going to put him out there too early. We are not going to rush him back. We are going to make sure this timetable is right. We feel like this guy is going to be one of those guys that is going to be here for a long time, and we want to make sure that we handle this correctly.”
(Can CB Xavien Howard run full speed?) – “I don’t think we’re at full speed, yet. He’ll probably tell you, ‘Yes.’ But I think he’s pretty close. But I still think we got a ways to go as far as making sure that he’s close to 100 percent.”
(Is there a cut off when you guys want to get that roster spot?) – “We’ve got plenty of room to take care of him right now. If it was a concern, then that’ll be brought up. It hasn’t even been discussed.”
(With C Mike Pouncey, he has played guard at some point. He played guard in 2014. Is there any consideration to maybe working C/G Anthony Steen at center, or you just don’t want to move Mike?) – “I like Mike where he’s at right now.”
