Adam Gase – December 22, 2017
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Friday, December 22, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(With CB Cordrea Tankersley, what’s the challenge in terms of his road back?) – “I think it’s just getting out there and getting that confidence of being able to stick his foot in the ground and attack, not being cautious at all. I don’t know if he’s really thinking about that part of worrying about any kind of injury. I think he’s just ready to get out there and go play physical, play his game.”
(So RB Damien Williams is doubtful. In addition to RB Kenyan Drake, you have RB Senorise Perry and I don’t remember if RB De’Veon Smith was up last week; but to what extent have you or would you consider using one of those guys in a slightly increased role?) – “Yes, it’s kind of really how the game kind of goes. I mean sometimes we have some stuff in there for certain guys and we don’t get to it and it’s just no different than Jakeem (Grant), where we’re trying to do some stuff with, and the tight ends, we had certain packages in. We just never got to it. It just depends how the flow of the game is and how many touches (Kenyan) Drake ends up having. You just prepare for a lot of different scenarios and then see how it plays out.”
(With the linebacker situation. The perception is that from a coverage standpoint, you guys are struggling in that unit. Is that what film is showing you or are we overplaying what’s happening?) — “I think a little bit of it is we’ve played some good tight ends and so there’s been some times where we’ve had guys wide open and sometimes we’re in zone, where it’s not really their responsibility and possibly it was the safety’s or the corner was supposed to be in a certain location. If we clean a lot of those things up, we probably eliminate half of the issues that we’ve had. Have there been times where we get one on one and it’s not the greatest matchup ever? Yes. I mean it happens; but if guys play the proper technique, proper leverage and stay tight to make it hard for the quarterback to throw, if we’re contesting balls then that’s a good play. If they catch it, I mean that’s going to happen. It’s the NFL.”
(When you have an offense with talented threats, high-level threats at every level with the receiver, the tight end, the running back, how challenging is that for a defensive coordinator?) – “I think that’s what you want. You want to make them play the whole field. We’ve had situations before where they know they’re not going to get anything past 20 yards. That makes it really hard. If you got guys that can stretch the field, that’s where they start and then they work their way back down, now obviously we’ve got guys that can stretch the field, we’ve got guys that can hit in the intermediate game and then we’ve got a guy that’s really good in underneath and the intermediate game, which causes a lot of problems for those guys. That’s why you see Kenny (Stills) pop free down the field every once in a while and DeVante’s (Parker) had some one-on-one matchups. A lot of it starts with Jarvis (Landry) doing some of the dirty work and working underneath and the same thing with the tight ends, just finding those little, almost like annoyance catches to move the chains. Now when you add the backs to the passing game, now it becomes a whole different animal for them because just a simple check down turns into a 12-yard gain. It puts a lot of pressure on the defense and that’s what we want to do.”
(I know you don’t think about stats and I know this is how you are, but how important do you think it is for WR Jarvis Landry to maybe lead the league in receptions for the first time in his career and get over that 1,000 yard benchmark?) – “It’s one of those things, you don’t want them to think about it. When position guys come into the season, they have goals in the back of their mind; but it’s kind of one of those things they kind of keep to themselves. It’s really not necessarily, ‘This is what I want to have.’ They’re thinking, ‘This is what I can do to help us win.’ He’s a guy that we go to a lot and the hardest thing is when we know he’s getting doubled and he still gets open and we’re still finding him and not shying away from the fact that we can run certain routes and take advantage of some of those coverages, and he’s done that. I think if he’s in that position to where he ends up having the most catches in the NFL, that’s great. I mean it’s one of those things that’s great for the resume; but I’m sure he’d take two more wins. and be second. We’ll see how these next two games play out and if he is, great. If he’s not, I’m sure he’s not going to lose too much sleep because he still caught a ton of balls.”
(Has S T.J. McDonald lived up to expectations?) – “I think so. I think it’s hard when you come in and you basically didn’t play any football for a long period of time and then he jumped right in there and was ready to go. I think in his first game he played 60-some snaps. I think he played every snap on defense. That’s tough to do to prepare yourself like that. As this part of the season has gone on, he’s gotten better every week. He’s a guy that we’re looking forward to, not only these next two games but down the road. We think we’ve got something with those two guys (McDonald and Reshad Jones) back there.”
(How is TE Anthony Fasano’s skillset at this point in his career compared to what you thought you might have been getting when you signed him?) – “I didn’t realize he was as good a receiver as what he’s shown me. We’ve done a lot of things with him in practice that we haven’t (done in the game), whether it’s been the wrong coverage when we were releasing on certain routes. He gives us flexibility. There’s nothing on the game plan that I say, ‘I don’t want to call that because he’s in.’ He knows exactly where to be and has been reliable for us as far as any time the ball is thrown to him. We’ve gotten a couple of big plays out of him. It’s always good to see a guy that everybody says is a blocker and you’re able to get him the ball in the passing game and throw him the ball every once in a while”
(It’s weird because it seems like, as the season has gone on, obviously you’ve gotten more and more hurt on the offensive line, but it has played better and better. How is that? How does that work?) – “I think you’ve just got a group of guys that have a great mentality and they’re fighters. A lot of times on the offensive line, that’s really what you’re looking for is guys that develop a little bit of a bond, a little bit of that chemistry that I’ve been talking about for the last two years. We’ve had so many guys in and out. These guys have actually been practicing together and playing together, it seems like, for a while now. It probably has only been like four weeks, but it feels like forever. They do a good job of sticking together throughout a game, adjusting during a game and I love the way that they battle down in and down out.”
(Have you settled in with G/T Jesse Davis at right guard or do you still think he could be a tackle?) – “We’ll look at that at the end of the year. It’s one of those things where we’ll probably put film together and sit there and watch both at the end of the season.”
(G/T Jesse Davis was one of those guys that when you picked him up last year, he was on the practice squad right? How did that even come about? Was he was someone that was on your radar?) – “Personnel guys, this is all they do. They look at practice squad guys throughout the league, looking at their preseason tape, looking at tape if they’ve played in games. They’re constantly coming through, paying attention to what’s going on with them on a weekly basis. When opportunities come up, they have to have a list ready to go. ‘Hey, this is a guy I like,’ and when we have a spot open, they go and try to get that guy on our team.”
(In years, even before you, this team put so many resources into that guard position and you kind of, not stumbled into a pretty good player in G/T Jesse Davis, but it wasn’t exactly a plan.) – “I think he’s done a good job of allowing himself to be put in his position because when he got here, I don’t know if you guys remember, he wasn’t as big as what he is now. He really spent a lot of time in the weight room with (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave) Puloka and he continued it, not only through the end of last year, but all through the offseason, all of training camp, through the season. You can see his strength is one of his assets that we really, really like. When he gets his hands on guys, he really can tie a guy up for a while.”
(Where is TE A.J. Derby in terms of being able to help you on offense?) – “He’s smart. He’s done a good job of picking things up very quickly. It helped a little bit because Denver runs close to a similar offense. Some of the terminology is still carried over from a while ago, so I think that made it easier. We’ll see how it plays out for us.”
(We’re done, but I do have information for you. You asked me about RB Kenyan Drake, 148 scrimmage yards per game the last three games, that would make him the most productive back in starts over that three-game span. Now he started four games, so his 123 yards per game average, that makes him the fifth most productive back in the NFL.) – “I’ll take it.”
