Adam Gase – October 11, 2017
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Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What do you like about Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGuglielmo?) – “I met him this summer. It was the first time I’d met him. He was down here for a few days in training camp. We had some good conversations just talking about some of the things that we both experienced. He was with Josh (McDaniels) in New England and me being with him in Denver, and we were just kind of talking about kind of that system and how we went about things and some of the things that we’re doing different now and some of the things that we liked in that system, some of the things that we’ve kind of tinkered with to see if we like better or if we go back to certain things. We just had a good few days of conversations and we’ve kind of been around the same circle of people throughout – obviously his career has been going on a little longer than mine – but I just felt like that was the first really name that popped in my head.”
(How are you going to divvy up the duties with the offense line now?) – “I’ve got to kind of sort it out the way I want it right now. It’s just one of those things, getting ready for this game, I’ll just kind of keep it in-house.”
(Fresh eyes?) – “Yes. I mean that’s another … That’s a positive that’s come out of this is somebody that hasn’t really been here. We’ll take a look, see if he can kind of see something (and) maybe make some adjustments.”
(Do you have an update on WR DeVante Parker and if he cannot play what is this offense lose if he’s out?) – “I don’t have an update that’s going to help anybody. I’m kind of in a wait-and-see mode. Last year, we went to the Baltimore game and I was told he’s not going to play for a couple of weeks and he played on that Sunday. I just never count him out and we’ll just kind of see how the week progresses. If he’s out there, it’s always, it’s a big positive for us – size, speed, his ability to go up and get balls – and if he’s not out there, we’ve got guys we’ve got to shuffle around. We’ve got to mix a few pieces, put some guys in some different positions that will … what they’ve done for us in training camp. But that’s why we kind of do what we do when we move guys around in training camp, to make sure that everybody is ready to go for the season.”
(Are you comfortable that the problem with Chris Foerster does not go beyond Chris within the building? Or is that to be determined?) – “To me, it was an isolated incident. Really that’s the best answer I can give you guys. I think a lot of people were just a little surprised.”
(You’ve had a lot to deal with of course, with Hurricane Irma to LB Lawrence Timmons to injuries to Chris Foerster. For all the coaches you’ve worked for, has anyone taught you how to deal with say crisis management more than anybody else? How to deal with all this things that when things come up?) – “I think, maybe some of it is just watching (Nick) Saban over a seven-year period. I don’t remember anything quite happening every week; but just kind of watching how he always handled things where he dealt with the situation and then had to get back to work, had to move on to the next thing. I think a little bit has to do with watching how my dad operated through his businesses, dealing with anything that would come up and jump into the forefront, just knowing, ‘I’m the one in charge and I’ve got to handle it.’”
(C/G Anthony Steen played every snap at left guard on Sunday, so clearly he separated himself? Is that going to be the plan moving forward?) – “Yes, I mean right now it looks like he’s kind of found his role and I thought he was doing well enough to deserve that opportunity to play an entire game, and he did a lot of good things in this last game. The thing I’ve always appreciated about him, he’s a fighter. He gives you everything he has. Every week he’s getting better with knowledge of situations. It’s one thing to know the offense and play offensive line. It’s another thing to kind of see what’s going on and react and defensive coordinators are getting very creative of how they’re doing things. You’re getting four-man rushes but these stunts and all those things that they’re doing up front, they’re getting more and more exotic every week it seems like.”
(Will there at all be a league role in the Chris Foerster situation? Have they reached out to you all? Do you feel like this might be in their purview at all?) – “That’s something that Mike (Tannenbaum) and Chris (Grier) will deal with. If they need to talk to me, they’ll let me know.”
(There’s a report that WR Jarvis Landry is supposed to meet with the league later this month. Are you optimistic? Are you aware of that?) – “It’s a league matter. There’s nothing that I can do about it.”
(Is WR Kenny Stills’ catching and blocking being impacted at all through injury?) – “I haven’t really seen it. Really, if I’ve seen anything with the hand, it has been in practice. It seems like on game day, for the most part, he has been good when he has had his opportunities. I know last week I think it was more of a surprise that there was a guy outside of him, and he started slowing down and it kind of was an awkward play. But for the most part, when we get to game day, when we’re warming up, I don’t see any issues.”
(Only 86 yards so far in four games for TE Julius Thomas. What needs to be done to get him more involved?) – “I can ask the other coordinator to play man, but I don’t know if they’re really going to listen to me.”
(Is TE Anthony Fasano the starter now?) – “It’s whatever personnel grouping I call. Everything is week to week.”
(How did you grade the offensive line overall on Sunday?) – “We had some moments where it wasn’t what we were looking for. I think the fourth quarter was really our best quarter that we’ve had probably since that first game, where I saw what we saw that first game where there was a lot of grit, there was a lot of toughness shown. There was great finish. There was strain. Really, that’s what we need to just be consistent on. I think our frustrations come when we get beat quick of, ‘Just keep fighting,’ because you can recover, you can find a way to get that guy blocked, the quarterback can move out of the way to where if you finish the play, it might open up a throwing lane. If we are consistent with that, that’s where we’re going to make strides, and that’s where we’re going to get better at protection. The whole process of what the offense is going through is every guy doing his job and at the same time guys trusting each other. Sometimes, you get in a little bit of a funk and everybody is trying to do more. It almost hurts you more. We just need to get down to every guy does his job, trust the other guy is going to do his job, and that’s how we’ll have some production.”
(You and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke were both saying last week that numbers … It’s a little bit too early. At what point do you start to look at them and put some credibility into it?) – “Probably at the end of the season. (laughter)”
(Any updates on DT Jordan Phillips and or CB Byron Maxwell?) – “We’ll see today. We’re going to practice them and see how they feel. You go in optimistic every day that you’ve got somebody on the injury report thinking, ‘Okay, today is going to be a better day.’ You just never know how their body is going to react.”
(There was at least one moment in the last game where WR Jarvis Landry showed what I would say would be extreme frustration and emotion. Are you cool with that?) – “Yes. We talk about this all the time. There are three of us that are the hotheads of the offense. It is ‘14,’ (Jarvis Landry) ‘23’ (Jay Ajayi) and me. So, it’s like a deadly combination. We start getting all fired up. All three of us talked about it, about how can all three of us not get as frustrated when things don’t go quite right? I need to do a better job of keeping my anger under control, and they’re trying to do the same thing. The fact that those two guys came to me and we discussed this, I look at that as a positive thing, because they know everybody is looking at those two guys. How are they reacting when things aren’t quite going right? I know everybody is looking at me. ‘How are you reacting?’ I need to do a better job. They’re working on it. It’s not easy. They want to do well. They want to have an impact on the game. I tell Jarvis all the time, ‘I’m trying to get you the ball. I’m not, not trying to throw to you.’ It’s just one of those things. You’re trying to get into a rhythm and get positive plays going. When we do that, then good things happen. That drive we scored a touchdown on, we had a good rhythm going. We were making plays.”
(So the three of you guys were in your office on Monday basically?) – “It was like Monday and Tuesday we were … You see guys around the building. It’s not real hard to grab guys.”
(Who’s the hottest of the hotheads?) – “Probably me. I’m the worst.”
(I want to understand better what you’re saying about TE Julius Thomas. Can you explain? So if they play zone, it’s…) – “I mean a lot of times … His value comes when he is matched up on safeties and linebackers. When you put a corner on him, it’s not as easy for him to get as open as what he’s done in the past. If you get a safety or a linebacker on him, it’s a good matchup for him. He’s got a good skill set that makes it tough on them. We haven’t really seen a lot of man. We have a lot of guys that can win one-on-one coverage and we’re seeing a lot of zone. Teams are able to kind of try to take our run game away and still play zone behind it and that’s where we’ve got to hurt them in the run game, and then you saw this last week, we started running some play-action and we started making some hay; but when we do run play-action, the tight ends aren’t going out for a pass.”
(So it would be that TE Julius Thomas would have a speed advantage on safeties and linebackers?) – “A lot of times it is size, as well. When you put a safety on him, he’s a big guy.”
(But corners are small too.) – “They are but they’re quicker, they have better ball skills. It’s just a different type of matchup. (Julius Thomas) can body up a corner every once in a while but that’s not always a route you’re running with him. You’re not going to run the same route all the time. They can take things away by leverage and at the end of the day, if he wins off the line of scrimmage, they can still catch up and get a hand on the ball.”
(When we talked to you on Monday, you had not spoken with Owner Stephen Ross. Have you? And what was his reaction to all of this?) – “Yes, he was in town, so I was able to meet with him and talk to him about a lot of different things that have happened, probably, over the last month and just kind of (our) game plan going forward and kind of how we want to handle things on the field, off the field. It’s typical type things that we do whenever he’s in town.”
(Was Owner Stephen Ross disappointed? Andry?) – “I think he was just making sure that I was good and the staff was good and players, where they were at with a lot of things. The thing that’s kind of the steps we are taking is we win the game and the fact that guys are disappointed because they want to do better, they want to make sure that we’re making strides to where the deeper the season goes, we get better. I think he likes seeing the fact that guys aren’t satisfied with just winning a game. They want to make sure that we’re getting better each week.”
(On a different matter, you want players to stand for the national anthem if they’re on the sideline. What happens if they kneel during the national anthem on the sideline?) – “I mean I’m not going to get into the details of anything. This has been a discussion that we’ve had amongst a lot of us, with the players. It is what it is right now.”
(Do you feel like the players are on board with the policy?) – “Yes.”
(With Commissioner Roger Goodell in town yesterday, your players once again not just with the demonstration but also how they’ve handled this, going out in the community. Your thoughts on what they’ve done?) – “I think that’s something that I talk to Kenny (Stills) about all the time. I keep trying to find somebody that does as much as he does in our area. On any Tuesday, if you try to get a hold of him, you’re going to have to wait until five or six o’clock because he’s doing (community) stuff all day. I’ve been impressed with how he’s made himself available, how much he tries to do. There’s a group of guys. (Stills) grabs different guys all the time to come with him with whatever he’s doing and I’ve just been impressed with the amount of time that he’s put forth to try to make a difference in so many different areas.”
(If you were game-planning against Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke – I know you do it in practice, but in a regular season game – it seems like he’s sort of bringing pressure from different spots and sort of disguising things. What would you notice if you were looking at what he’s bringing?) – “The way our personnel is set up, I think last week the one thing I noticed when we’re warming up and I’m looking out there and I see Kiko (Alonso), (Lawrence) Timmons and Rey (Maualuga) and I’m going ‘Okay, that looks different.’ Now he has some veteran guys that understand why he is doing everything. He’s done a good job of explaining why he’s doing everything so now he’s able to not only do what he’s been doing but make it look like one thing and do something different. The guys have really done a great job of embracing everything they’re doing. The more we talk and watch the film, there’s very few errors. Guys are really doing an outstanding job outside the building, making sure that they’re prepared for the game. To me, it was tough in training camp, because if those were real reps – if that was live – then I don’t know how many quarterbacks I would have went through. These guys, if you make a mistake and they get through, they’re coming fast and they’re coming hard.”
(You were talking earlier about you learned a lot of crisis management from Nick Saban and from your father. What specifically did you learn from your dad with businesses and things like that? Or what principles would you take?) – “The thing that comes to mind for me with him is I just remember he never shied away from anything. He always met it head on. He would never look for somebody else to try to fix something. I think I always just appreciated the fact that he was always trying to lead the charge.”
