Adam Gase – December 9, 2016
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Friday, December 9, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(How would you describe the relationship between T Branden Albert and G/T Laremy Tunsil?) – “Very close. ‘B.A.,’ (Branden Albert) he didn’t have to really take him under his wing like he has – everything from daily operation of how to be a pro. ‘B.A.’ is a great role model for really a lot of our younger players. He’s been through a lot. (He’s) fought through a lot of adversity through his career, has had ups and downs, been on good teams, been on teams that haven’t had great seasons, and just for him to be able to constantly communicate with him. If he does something that ‘B.A.’ doesn’t like, being able to approach him and be straight with him, that’s always helpful for a young player because sometimes you don’t know and ‘B.A.’ is one of those guys that he’ll let you know the right and the wrong things to do.”
(Is that something you encouraged T Branden Albert to do from Day 1 or did he kind of take that upon himself?) – “He kind of took that upon himself. We were hoping that that relationship would be good. But I don’t know if any of us really anticipated it being what it is.”
(It appeared LB Kiko Alonso wasn’t practicing again today. With the hamstring, could he play on Sunday without practicing all week?) – “He could. This is going to be a game-time decision for us. That’s one of those one’s you have to be very careful for of what happens in that game, because I don’t know if Kiko knows anything but full speed. He’s going to give everything he has. His body’s telling him right now that’s it’s not where it needs to be.”
(These decisions in December, you’re in the playoff chase. Do you have to take more of the decision making because the player probably thinks I’ve got to go. Do you?) – “That’s where we’ve really encouraged our guys to have to be brutally honest with us, and sometimes you have to set your pride aside and know what’s the best thing for our team. Having a guy come up and be active and all of a sudden go out 10 plays later, you’re hurting us more than you’re helping us. A lot of us have been through some situations where a guy says he can go and then all of a sudden you start that first quarter and then they pull themselves out of the game. You really put us in a bad spot because with the limited amount of guys you have, it trickles throughout the team, not only on one side of the ball but special teams. That’s where really you get hurt. ‘Rizz’ (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi) needs every body possible, and if we lose a guy because of just thinking … not thinking with their head of saying, ‘Hey, I’m not ready to go.’ That’s where you can get in trouble there.”
(How would you characterize what you are getting right now this week from T Branden Albert and G/T Laremy Tunsil as they’re still not 100 percent?) – “They’re acting like they’re 100 percent. I know they’re not. I know they’re not, but they’re going about their business like they’re good. I know last week, it was not easy for them to fight through during the week. They were ready to go for the game. They did everything they possible could to protect Ryan (Tannehill) and help with the run game. They were just limited on some of the movement. For ‘B.A.’ (Branden Albert) and (Laremy) Tunsil, it’s just more of strength. I think getting through that game and then getting through this week, as far as the way we did things, they seem to be better than what they were a week ago.”
(Did CB Xavien Howard indicate whether he thinks he can go Sunday?) – “We’re still looking … We have to talk about it. That’s always a good discussion for us on Saturday night. We have an idea – as far as some of us – what we think. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be on him.”
(You guys are 5-1 at home. This franchise hasn’t won six home games since 2002 when they were 7-1 at home. Do you feel dominant at home? Are you aware? Were you aware that you are 5-1 at home?) – “I guess our guys are pretty locked into worrying about just this game. Everybody wants to get caught up with the past and when the last time you did anything. Our guys, I’m sure they don’t really care about 2002, because it was a long time ago. I think our guys are focused on the fact that being home, it’s an advantage for us. It helps us on defense. Offense, it makes things a little bit easier as far as what you’re doing cadence-wise and being able to change things up and being able to communicate. With our crowd, if we give them something to get going early, that works to our benefit.”
(Two-part question on LB Mike Hull: One, Will he call defensive calls and signals if he’s a starter? And two, how has he responded in practice getting first-team reps?) – “He did everything last week, and we feel comfortable. He has been doing it since the spring – for the most part – when he goes in there. I think our whole group feels really good when he’s in there. He does a good job. He does everything we ask him to do. He gives max effort.”
(You’ve always been a problem solver. In terms of offensive difficulties in the first quarter – without giving away anything competitive advantage-wise – anything you’ve thought of doing differently in terms of how many plays you script? Have you mulled any changes the last couple weeks?) – “I feel like we’ve had some good drives. We haven’t always finished our drives. A lot of times we’ve put the defense out there first. We’ve had games where we’ve had three or four plays, and then we get the ball. We’ve had games where there have been extended drives and the other teams either put points on the board, or it’s occupied some time. I never really get too caught up with that, because it is a four-quarter game. That’s great if you can come out the first three series and score, but that’s not really realistic in this league.”
(The going 1-0 each week thing – one game at a time – this team has really, really bought in, more than a lot of teams I can remember being around in any sport. Has any other team bought in more that you’ve been around – Chicago, Denver, college level – anywhere you think?) – “A lot of it has come from being around Coach (John) Fox. He always would talk about focusing on what we’re doing right now. When I was with Coach (Nick) Saban as well, that was such a big mantra of ours, that you can’t look … He would always say, ‘Be where your feet are. Don’t try to go past that.’ Our guys have done a good job. It’s easier for players to not have to focus on anything except what you’re doing at the moment. I think our guys like the fact that we don’t talk past this game. We know what we have ahead of us. We know that this is going to be a very tough team to play. Whether we were at home or away, this is a good football team, and they have a lot of weapons. Both sides of the ball, they can hurt you. We have to be on it.”
(In the game a month ago, we saw WR Jakeem Grant being in motion obviously helped a lot in the RB Damien Williams touchdown run. Last week, not as successful with the WR Jarvis Landry run. How has the package with Jakeem done overall? Has it reached your expectations? Do you still want to get more out of it?) – “When we get him in there, we’re trying to really, with the injury situation that we’ve had, we have tried to put Leonte Carroo and Jakeem in there more, and we feel more comfortable because those guys have been taking so many more reps than they had earlier in the season. When you get these young guys reps, that makes everything kind of move a little smoother and you have a lot more faith as far as they know what to do. That’s why we just keep trying to find ways to get all those guys that are active playing on offense and special teams. The same thing with the defense – they’re trying to do the same thing. They’re trying to use as many guys as you can, especially when you get this late in the season, you need all hands on deck. You really don’t want guys standing on the sideline not contributing at all. We’re always trying to get as many guys in there to play as possible. We know anytime we put him in there, it’s a good thing for us because one: it helps maybe take a little bit off of Jarvis as far as what he has to do, and we can move some bodies around with DeVante (Parker) still struggling with an injury. Kenny (Stills) was banged up there for a while. It’s good that we have two young receivers that can come in there and execute.”
(It looked like RB Damien Williams might have tweaked something during the early part of practice. Was he fine? Did he continue on? – “Yes. He was good.”
(What’s your criteria or your philosophy on this decision you have to make with DE Dion Jordan?) – “We haven’t really had too much discussion. We were just kind of waiting to see how he felt and that’s one of those things where, on a day like today or tomorrow, where I sit down with (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier), and we kind of evaluate everything and see where we’re at and make a decision off that. But it’s tough to just have these long meetings and discuss every little thing during the week. You kind of have to wait until you get that free time on Friday afternoon or Saturday.”
(Do you know if it would have to be that DE Dion Jordan could help you next week or could you look a couple weeks down the road as a possibility?) – “We had some things that we kind of were looking for before he came off of … before he could start practicing. We’ll go back and evaluate all of that information. We have a lot of moving pieces with sports science, strength and conditioning, trainers. So we have to get all of the information together and sit down and make a decision.”
(Have you been pleased with DE Dion Jordan’s approach to it?) – “He’s worked … He’s done everything he’s been asked to do. He’s been fighting to try to figure out a way to contribute. I know it hasn’t been easy for him because it’s been one of those things where we start going, set back, start going, set back. I know that can’t be easy when you’re fighting through that. We’ve seen that quite a bit with some of our guys that have been active, where they feel like ‘I’m back,’ and then something else happens. So it’s not an easy thing mentally for … especially a young guy. You just want to play. You want to contribute and things don’t always go the way you want.”
(How has WR DeVante Parker looked to you throughout the week and do you anticipate him…?) – “He’s done good. Just the fact that he battled through that last week. If you would’ve seen him walking on Monday last week, you would’ve been like, ‘There’s no way he’s playing.’ The fight he showed as far as ‘I’m going to play.’ He kept saying that. ‘I’m going to play. I’m playing.’ We didn’t really game plan for him to play and we had to scramble a little bit there a couple of hours before the game. It was very impressive to see him not want to leave his guys out there. I know there was a lot of pride there as far as making sure Kenny (Stills) and Jarvis (Landry) weren’t out there without him.”
