Adam Gase – December 26, 2016
Download PDF version
Monday, December 26, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Did you watch the Chiefs vs. Broncos game last night and your reaction to being in the postseason?) – “I had it on (as) kind of background noise. I was watching our game. I didn’t watch it the night before, so I was cleaning up our game. I was trying to get a little bit ahead.”
(I can’t believe I’m asking you this considering you were 1-4, but are you going to rest some starters in the final week of the season?) – “I think we need to do everything we can to try to make sure that we’re 1-0 at the end of this week. Our guys are going to get ready. We’re going to practice and see how many guys we got healthy.”
(Any nice calls late last night from the owner, Stephen Ross, or anyone close to you? Just with congratulations?) – “Yes. I talked to Mr. Ross last night and (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier). We were just kind of talking about our plan going forward this week and really that’s been our big focus. We have an opportunity to play after Week 17, but our main focus is this week, and we’re going to stick to the plan that we’ve had this entire season of not looking past the opponent that we have ahead.”
(Any updates on RB Jay Ajayi and S Isa Abdul-Quddus?) – “Isa (Abdul-Quddus), I’m still waiting for MRI results and kind of figure out where we’re going there. Jay (Ajayi) was just a little banged up for 32 carries; but, I think he’ll be okay.”
(Is QB Ryan Tannehill certainly out this week?) – “I don’t know yet. I don’t know where the doctors have him right now or how he feels. I haven’t really asked. I just tell them once you guys got something different then come talk to me.”
(We did see QB Ryan Tannehill without the cast. Is there any sense of improvement or progress?) – “I haven’t asked. I said if something changes, let me know.”
(You’re in the playoffs. You’re going to be on the road in the first round. Why is this Sunday important to you and the team?) – “Because that’s the game that we’re playing this week. That’s our focus and we know who we’re playing and we know we’re playing a very good team that’s as well-coached as you could possibly get. We know we have a team that we lost to earlier in the season that we have to make sure that we bring our A-game.”
(What does it mean to you personally to know that even though there’s still more on the table, you’ve gotten the first check mark of the season to qualify for the playoffs. What does that mean to you?) – “I think for me, it’s really more about our players – the fight that they’ve shown. A lot of people doubted those guys as far as how we would react when we were 1-4. They did a great job of ignoring the noise outside our building and focusing on the task at hand, which was that one week, and they slowly found ways to improve each week. That’s all we asked our players to do was to focus on that one week. I know it’s very basic and simple. It’s just not always easy to do, and guys did a great job of just taking care of business one week at a time.”
(With all the coaches you worked for are there one or two of them where you can draw upon them for how they prepared for the playoffs?) – “Well my only experience has been with (former Denver Broncos Head) Coach (John) Fox. I thought the way that we handled our business when I was with him was very good. We never … We had a lot of times we were in position, multiple weeks before we entered the playoffs, and we just focused on that one game. And we found a way to get better that week and our goal was to go out and win that week.”
(With all the one game at a time talk in the locker room, would you be disappointed if your players talked about the playoffs? Would you think that that’s looking ahead or breaking the mindset?) – “I think our players are focused on this week because they know exactly who we’re playing. This is absolutely a team, if you look past them, they will embarrass you. So our focus needs to be on playing New England, and if it’s not, you’ll see it on the field on Sunday.”
(As far as defending the option and playing assignment football, what were some of the things that were missing in order for you guys to have a little bit more success stopping the run there?) – “It’s a tough matchup being on the other side of that experience, watching defenses try to stop an option team in this league. It’s just something so unusual that you have to be on it. Your week of practice, you have to be sound and it’s just not going to be the same as it is in the game. They did a great job executing their game plan. They made it very difficult on us. We had … If one guy’s wrong, there are a lot of guys that are going to look really bad, especially when you get ‘25’ (LeSean McCoy) in space. There are not a lot of people in the league that are going to tackle that guy one on one.”
(How much changed in the way you and Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph call games from the time you were 1-4 to the past 10 weeks?) – “I don’t think it’s been that big of a difference. For offense, it’s been more leaning on the run game probably a little more. I mean once we went with Jay (Ajayi) and said that’s going to be our guy the rest of the way out, I think that made things a little easier because I knew for myself what he liked and what he didn’t like. That made it easier to call games as far as what we were dialing up in the run game and, on Vance’s (Joseph) side, we shifted some guys around. We put some different guys in as far as starters go and he’s had to adjust a lot with injuries and just kind of guys moving in and out. He’s done a good job of trying to put those guys in good position and give them the answers to the test. It doesn’t always work out the way you want it, but every week they’ve made plays, especially when we really need it.”
(Has the team notified the league as far as what happened with Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi on the sideline in the Buffalo game? Secondly, is there any hope that CB Byron Maxwell can go this week?) – “Maxwell, we’ll see how this week progresses; but I know he felt better towards the end of the week. We just weren’t going to put him out there and possibly further … really kind of hurt our chances for him to possibly play this week. So that was really the mindset there. Then as far as it goes with what happened on the sideline, I didn’t really make a big deal about it. It’s football. Sometimes things like that happen.”
(With RB Kenyan Drake’s touchdown run, was that a coach’s ‘o, no, no,’ and then ‘yes, yes, yes,’ type of run for him?) – “Yes. It was a big ‘no, no, no.’ He did a great job as far as kicking it into another gear down the sideline. But when he spun around, there were some interesting comments by myself.”
(It’s been a great dynamic with you and Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum and General Manager Chris Grier in assembling the roster. Can you talk a little bit of the job Mike has done putting this team together with you?) – “I think the direction that we started with was a good mindset when we first got together and started talking about how we want to develop the roster. I thought Chris did a great job handling the draft, putting everything together and made sure that we stayed on course throughout the draft. The communication has been outstanding. There are very few days where we’re not together at some point in the day just making sure we’re all on the same page. That’s really been the key to constantly saying the same thing, because we’re always communicating. That’s really how we wanted it when we started and we were able to maintain that throughout the year.”
(With S Isa Abdul-Quddus potentially being sidelined, is S Michael Thomas the guy who is going to step in?) – “I haven’t even gotten there yet. I’m waiting to find out what’s going on. It seems like that seems to be the position of where we lose a guy here and there during the season. We have to take a look at what it is first and how long, or if there’s a time period on this. Once we find that out, which I’ll know shortly, then we can kind of make our adjustments from there.”
(WR Kenny Stills has been a very explosive player for you. I know you were familiar with him from his time in New Orleans, but you also studied last year’s tape quite a bit. What did you see that you liked out of last year’s tape and what were you thinking about the different ways that you might use him?) – “I didn’t really focus on last year. I remember when we evaluated him in Chicago, we had an idea that he possibly could get moved. I really loved his speed. He consistently made big plays. I know there were a couple of times where he had some opportunities and it didn’t quite go the way he wanted it to. When he came in, when we first started and the first time I met him, I could tell he wanted to do it different than what he did in years past. We had a great conversation of the steps we needed to take. He really grabbed a hold of the offense, did a great job of making sure he knew it better than anybody else, and was able to put himself in a position where he worked so hard to where when he did have little tiny nagging injuries in the spring, he never missed any practice time. He never missed any practice time in training camp. I think that’s really helped him because running routes and being in the huddle with the quarterback every time, that allows him to get a great feel for what we’re doing on offense, the timing; and he’s really created that on his own. It’s really been about availability for him.”
(When you say do it differently, you’re talking about that or something else specifically?) – “However he went about his business before this year. Sometimes young players, the focus may not always be just on this. That’s part of the growth process of young players in the NFL. I could tell the first time I met him that he wanted to try to do something special as far as being a guy that was a big time contributor for us; somebody that we could count on every week and every practice. And he’s been that for us.”
(Just to be clear, when the Denver game ended you were watching Buffalo film?) – “I was finishing up watching our game.”
(Your reaction? Was there high fives to the staff?) – “I was at home.”
(High five with the wife?) – “I don’t think there was a high five.” (Laughing)
(Did you allow yourself a smile?) – “I’m happy for our guys. Our guys worked hard to get to this point and gave themselves an opportunity to keep competing. I’m happy for our coaching staff, (Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner) Mr. (Stephen) Ross, (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) and (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and all of these guys who have put in so much time and have been here. There are a lot of people who have been here for a long time and they’ve been waiting for an opportunity to compete and have an opportunity to keep playing after the regular season is over. That was our goal when we started this whole process of what we were doing in the spring. This is the first step but we need to focus on what we’re doing right now and that’s New England.”
(How about the fans? They’ve been high fiving and really excited the team has been winning. What are your thoughts on Dolphins nation, that are just so excited they haven’t been to the playoffs in a long time?) – “My experience in all of these home games is … The last time that I had been in the stadium (before this year) was 2011. It doesn’t even look like the same stadium anymore. When we go to play games and those things get tight, the volume that our stadium is generating right now has been outstanding. The excitement – you feel it when you walk into the stadium; you feel it through the players when they step out on the field. There’s a different juice for us when we’re on our sideline, when we’re at home. Our guys do everything they can to try to maintain that when we go on the road, but it’s not the same. You feel a big-time difference. When we’re at home, our players feed off it. You can feel the excitement in the stands; you can feel the excitement, especially when our defense is on the field. That’s probably one of the (most fun) things for me as a coach that’s able to step back – being an offense guy, watching our defense – and feel that energy coming out, especially on third down. It’s something that’s rare.”
(This record has exceeded fans’ expectations and pundits’ expectations. What part of this year, if anything has exceeded your expectations?) – “As coaches, you always have different thoughts of how a season is going to go. This is kind of what we expected. That’s how you think as a coach. You don’t think you’re going to have a sub-par year.”
(This is a big breakthrough for this franchise. It’s been a long time. Does it feel differently today being the coach of this team?) – “I feel the same as I did last time I was up here.”
(Will you mention to the guys, ‘Yes, you have a check mark to make the playoffs. But one of the things you can still get done this week is to finish as high as possible in the standings?’) – “We just talked about focusing on getting better with our film from the last game, making our corrections and then focusing on New England when we get back in on Wednesday.”
