Adam Gase – May 5, 2017
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Friday, May 5, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(As the draft was unfolding and the team kept going for defensive players, how was your inner offensive coordinator reacting?) – “I was good. I wasn’t worried about that. I felt good about where we were at on offense. There were a couple of pieces we were looking to add, but if it didn’t happen, I wasn’t going to be in a panic. It was just more about seeing how it fell and not trying to run up the board and go grab somebody that we shouldn’t at the wrong time.”
(And what’s your reaction to what you came away with?) – “I was very happy with how everything unfolded. There were a couple of moments where we were … It got to a point on a couple of picks where we weren’t really sure what we were going to have to do because the guy that we wanted, he was really the last one left before we picked, and a couple of times where we had a couple of different options, and it worked out the right way.”
(Regarding DE Charles Harris, do you have a role in mind for him? Is he third-down pass rusher? Is he a three-down player and does it matter to you to have a role for him right now?) – “No. He’s been here for about 36 hours. He’ll be on the field at some point this year. When we have a general idea of what we want to do and we’ll see how everything plays out … We’ve got a long ways to go. To say that we know how many snaps he’s going to play and exactly who’s doing what right now, that’s ridiculous to think that way.”
(What kind of an impact do you hope the top three picks can have with a longer lens?) – “That’s hard for me to think that far down the road. We’re focused really right now on getting those guys better in this rookie orientation. For me to think how it could be two years down the road, I can’t even put myself there.”
(Did you have a good feel for DE Charles Harris before the draft? Do you know him at all? How much do you get to talk to him?) — “We spent time with him at the Combine and then our scouts do a really good job. They dig probably deeper than any group that I’ve been around. It just seems like they almost have personal relationships with a lot of these coaching staffs and when these kids are coming out and at the Pro Day, I always see our guys kind of lingering over there and talking to them. You feel really comfortable when our scouts put their stamp of approval on a guy. You don’t really question that.”
(You have a lot of options now at linebacker. How do you see that shaking out?) – “We’ll go through the process and see what happens. It’s hard for me to say who’s playing where. I know they’re all going to play linebacker. So that’s the best I can give you right now. (laughter) We’ll figure it out as we go and we’re going through our meetings with the vets, and then once the rookies come back, then we can figure out where everybody’s going to be at and who fits best where and who is going to play where in base (packages) compared to sub (packages). There’s a lot of moving pieces we’ve got to figure out.”
(I know you’re 0-0 and last year doesn’t count. I know that. And you haven’t played and you haven’t practiced. But do you feel like you have more talent at your disposal now than you did last season or last year at this time?) – “I don’t know if I would say talent-wise … Any time that we get a chance to add more players – younger players – that we feel really good about, I think that’s a good thing for us as coaches; but I think the different feel for myself and a lot of the guys in the building, even the players is, you know our routine a little bit. There’s a little different swagger about what our guys have right now in a positive way. There’s no indecision as far as what they’re supposed to do, how they’re supposed to do it, what they’re responsible for. I mean guys are really … kind of can get from point A to point B really quick and there’s no issues with any kind of gray in our building right now. Guys are really wired in on what we want to do. I know that’s not really what you want to hear, but there’s a different feel with what we’ve got going on right now with our day-in and day-out.”
(And does that make you better?) – “I think it does because you know what you’re supposed to do. You know your responsibility. You know how things are supposed to be done around here. It allows you … I look at it as it’s going to allow us to play faster (and) make less mistakes. We had a lot of guys get so much experience last year that you never really thought would get experience. When you look at our depth chart right now, you start seeing a lot of guys played last year. That’s a good thing for us.”
(The experience of having gotten to the playoffs for a lot of these players and that taste of postseason play, how does that affect your expectations going into this year for yourself and for the team?) – “We don’t really … we don’t talk about it like that. We are so focused on what we have to do in the spring. Just looking back at last year, I think what hit me more than anything was after that last game, just seeing the emotion our guys had. You could tell it meant something to them and they were all disappointed that we didn’t play as well as we thought we would and that it was over. So really, it’s going to come down to how does that transfer over once we hit OTAs and then training camp and then the preseason, to see if we have that ‘Oh, I’ve got it attitude,’ or if it’s a legitimately one day at a time, get better type of team. Right now, our main focus has been one day at a time again, and hopefully we stay that way.”
(TE Julius Thomas had his best years in Denver. If he’s healthy, how much can he add to this offense?) – “I think any time you have a tight end that can really cause issues in the passing game, especially down the middle of the field, it benefits the run game and the other players on the field. Any time you can single a guy up and there’s a matchup problem there, whether it’s a safety or linebacker on him, now you’ve got man-to-man and if he can win, there are some big-time issues. We had a lot of success doing that and teams quit doing it against us. The next thing you know they’re playing Cover 2 or some kind of quarters and then we start running the ball and then the next thing you know, you’ve got a 1,100-yard back that nobody thinks can run the ball.”
(When you have a chance to address rookies, whether it’s in a group setting in a room like this or individually, what is a part of the key-central message that you want to make sure you impart to them?) – “Just learn the way we do things, respect people in this building and really come to work every day and understand it is a one day, one day at a time league. If you go outside of that and you start worrying about things you can’t control, that’s where you get in trouble. I think the biggest thing we emphasized yesterday was that this is a prove-it league. It doesn’t matter what round you were drafted – if you were drafted – nobody really cares. If you can play, you’ll be out there. If you’re a rookie over a 10-year guy and you’re better, you’ll play. No one cares. I think when you’re a rookie, if you hear that, then you know to get to work and see where these chips fall.”
(Talking to General Manager Chris Grier last weekend, it seemed like Charles Harris was kind of a no-brainer, especially when he was there at No. 22. Why? Why was he such a consensus pick?) – “I think when you watch him, the way he gets off the ball is a unique trait. I mean, that’s what you look for. That’s what we talk about with Cam Wake all the time about how tackles have such trouble getting to him because he comes off the ball just at the right time. He has a similar trait in that, and I really like the feel he has as a pass rusher. I know that was something that we kept talking about compared to some of the other guys, that we felt like he had a game plan going in there. His football intelligence was very impressive to us. He’s the type of guy that we like a lot of what he already brings to the table and we feel like there are some areas we can help him get better.”
(What is the biggest thing you want to accomplish during this three-day minicamp?) – “For us, it’s really get them acclimated to what we’re doing (and) what we expect of them between lifting (and) meetings. We try to educate them on all of the things that can help them. Our sports science group speaks to them; player engagement does. We usually have a couple of players (and) ex-players come in here to talk to them about what they’ve experienced. So we’re trying to get ahead of it. That was the one reason why we did this. We always just felt like when we have these rookie minicamps and you’re practicing, you’re coming back in, you’re installing more, you’re watching practice. By the time they leave here, they don’t remember anything. So our biggest goal was how do we get these guys to where we can get them to leave here, come back and have an idea of what what they’re going to go through in the next phase, but also retain some information and really try to catch up to the vets as much as possible. We felt like last year it did matter for us, because when we hit OTAs, our guys knew what to do. They knew where they were supposed to be. They were able to actually contribute and practice. They weren’t just standing in the background just watching.”
(Can you give us some specifics on what you’re seeing from QB Ryan Tannehill as far as where he’s at right now physically?) – “He looks normal to me. He just looks like he did last year. The difference is he’s got a better grasp of the offense at this point compared to last year. He moves around fine. He’s got a good edge that I like to him right now. You can tell that he wasn’t real happy about getting hurt last year. I like the way he’s working right now, and we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing. I know he’s really trying to make sure that he’s one of the reasons that we’re taking the next step. He’s really been pushing himself.”
(Is there any level of uncertainty for you that you just don’t know until you actually see QB Ryan Tannehill out there?) – “No. Nope.”
(You’re fully confident with QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “I’m good.”
(To clarify, physically QB Ryan Tannehill is 100 percent?) – “I don’t know all the percentages and stuff. All I know is he looks good to me.”
(Is C Mike Pouncey doing as much as the others or is he being brought along …?) – “No, he’s going to be brought along slowly. I know we kind of joked about this in the past about how I’m going to handle him this coming season; but our goal is to make sure that he plays every game plus more. So if that means that he doesn’t practice as much, I have no issues with that.”
(T Ja’Wuan James, the fifth-year option was picked up on him. What has he done to earn that in your eyes?) – “I think he’s worked … Where we were at, at the beginning of the season, and as we moved along, I think he’s done a good job of trying to head in the direction we need him to head. I still think we have a lot of room to where we can help him, and I think there are some things that he can help himself on, to where he can make … There are still big strides for him to make. I don’t think we’re even close to where his ceiling is. I don’t even think we’ve even come close to reaching it. I see a guy that’s really coming every day and he does, he has a little bit a different look to him trying to do what we’re asking him to do. It will start in OTAs, and that’s really not the best time to really evaluate our offensive and defensive lines; but once we hit training camp, that’s really what those guys are preparing for; to make sure when they hit that, it’s reactionary. They’re not thinking. They’re doing what they were trained to do. If we can get him better, that’s going to be real beneficial to the entire line.”
(General Manager Chris Grier said when G Isaac Asiata was drafted and he addressed the media, he talked about his toughness. Are you excited to see if this guy fits that bill as much as Chris Grier was talking about just how tough he is?) – “Any time that you can add pieces that increases the toughness of our team, no matter what position they play, that’s a positive. When you have a bunch of hard-nosed, never-die type of players, you’re always going to want those type of guys, because that’s how all this league is. It comes down to the last drive of the game, one side or the other to win or lose. Whether its physical toughness or mental toughness, those are going to be critical factors. When we evaluate guys, we’re looking for that.”
(So as you bring C Mike Pouncey along slowly, what do you do at center?) – “Well we’ve got four guys that play guard/center. So we’re just rotating these guys through and we just keep working. I guess we’re kind of in the boat of we did it so much last year that nobody’s really affected by it. We just move around and whoever pops in there, the quarterback has been really comfortable. He’s done a good job. We’re able to kind of do a couple things where we work some – really everything’s on air – but just kind of the mechanics of running plays and protections and things like that. It has been a smooth transition.”
(Between the moves that you made in the draft on the defensive side of the ball and in free agency, how much more improved do you feel your defense is?) – “I don’t know if we could go much further. We could, but not too much further down. Both sides of the ball, we were just bad. We were bad statistically, however you want to look at it. We had a rough stretch there with five games – or five or six games – where we were just terrible. We had a couple of rough ones versus some good teams. We have a lot of room to improve, which is a good thing for us.”
(I’ve got to ask you this one, but if we were to go back to a couple of years ago when you were in Chicago and I told you QB Jay Cutler would be going into TV work, what would be your reaction?) – “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
(Why wouldn’t you be surprised Bears QB Jay Cutler would be going into TV work?) – “I guess I know a different guy than what everybody else portrays. I think a lot of things that have been said about him in the past have really been (BS).”
(Are you surprised he didn’t latch on with a team?) – “I don’t want to speak for him. I really don’t know all the situation with what happened with him.”
