Adam Gase – April 28, 2016
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On his overall thoughts about the voluntary veterans minicamp) – “It was good work. It was good to see our guys in person. I thought everybody was flying around. They were playing fast. We had fewer mistakes than I expected, as far as mentally. Guys were on it. I think the last two weeks of having our meetings … They (the players) stayed in it. (They) just didn’t blow that off. They took it serious and came out here and it felt like the guys were on it.”
(On if there was a play or moment that stood out to him) – “Not really. There were quite a few good things that were happening. The best part about when you go through a camp like this is trying to just make sure guys stay on their feet. And I thought our guys did a good job of making sure … (It was) kind of our first time of practicing together, and understanding that they are still our teammates to make sure we protect each other. And play fast but at the same time, protect each other.”
(On having C Mike Pouncey and LB Koa Misi return to practice today) – “Anytime guys are out there, that’s what we are looking for. This being a voluntary minicamp, anytime they show up, that’s great.”
(On LB Jelani Jenkins and CB Jamar Taylor not practicing today) – “Jamar is here and I know where Jelani is at. They’re both fine, if you guys are worried about them.”
(On if he is excited about the NFL draft tonight and what is going through his mind) – “I don’t know. We have like 10 more hours (before the draft), it feels like. We’ll see. I don’t know. I’m going to transition here probably in the next couple of hours. We’ve been meeting on this since February, so we’ll be ready to go.”
(On what he learned about his team during this voluntary minicamp) – “I think the No. 1 thing I learned about is I feel like there are a lot of guys that want to win. Just watching them practice, they’re not talking about it. (But) just watching them go through what they need to go through – individual (and) team periods – and seeing how fast they play. The fact that they’ve picked up what we asked them to learn in the playbook, I mean actions speak louder than words. Right now I like where our guys are at. We’ve got three weeks of Phase 2 and then we’ll get into OTAs and that’s … Phase 2 being our next step, and we’ll see how much better we can get in the next three weeks.”
(On what he is looking for in the offensive line when there is no contact in practice this time of year) – “It’s tough. But the hardest thing to do in the NFL is to be a great pass protector and that’s why we are leaning on a lot of … (We’re) doing a lot of passing game things right now. It’s a tough position for them with no pads. Our d-line is coming off the ball. It’s a great experience for (the offensive line) because it’s almost unrealistic for these guys right now. Their footwork, their hand placement, just making sure they’re in the right position … That’s our biggest evaluation going on right now.”
(On if there are two or three guys that surprised him this week) – “I don’t know if anybody has surprised me, necessarily. I think just seeing guys practice live, it just gives you a better feel of who our guys really are.”
(On if there is a position group that he feels really good about after practicing this week) – “I guess I feel good about all of our positions. You’re always looking to add depth. You want competition, that’s the thing. You just don’t want to be thin. So when you go into (training) camp and you’re sitting there, you want to be able to make hard cuts. You want to make sure you go ‘Wow, I can’t believe we are going to let this guy go because he’s a good football player,’ and then somebody else comes and picks him up. You just want to create depth at every position.”
(On whether it is a priority to find a backup center either now or in training camp) – “That’s why we have so many guys that are always … If you ever watch our quarterback-center exchange, there’s four guys going, and you’re always looking for, ‘Who’s our next best guy?’ Then you’re looking for the third best guy. When a center goes down, it can be devastating to your team if you don’t have a backup plan. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) has done a great job of figuring out who our guys are that we can target. We have to keep giving them reps, throwing (in) some awkward situations where all of a sudden, maybe we get in camp, and we pull (Mike) Pouncey out of there and throw the next guy in there and say, ‘Hey, you got to go. There’s no time to react.’”
(On how he would describe his offense) – “I think it’s such a combination of so many different influences. For myself, having (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen) here and getting back to some of the things that he did in Indy early on with Peyton (Manning) and Tom Moore and then some of the things he has learned in the West Coast (Offense). And (then having) my influences coming from (Mike) Martz and doing what we did in Denver and developing a different deal in Chicago. It’s just so many things combined. It’s hard to put your thumb on what exactly it is. I just know that we always look to be able to adapt from week-to-week and do what’s best for that game that marries up with our defense and special teams.”
(On the makeup of his ideal player) – “The guys that we’re looking for are those guys that (are) looking to win. They’re tough. They’re competitive. They’re selfless. They really have a love for this game. You want to find those guys that (think) there’s nothing else for them but this, and they just live and die by what happens with football. When you’re around guys like that – and the more guys you can get like that on your team – the better chance you’re going to have.”
(On how he identifies players with those ideal characteristics) – “It’s tough. You can do all the research you can. You talk to as many people, especially coming into the draft. You talk to every person you can. (If) you got a guy targeted in that school, talk to the equipment guys, trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, other players. (You) might grab some guy on campus. You try to find as many ways as you possibly can to figure out what kind of person that guy is. It’s hard to do, because you got to collect the information and sort through it. It’s a very hard thing to identify when you don’t know that person. When you get around somebody, you can figure it out really fast when you actually get in the heat of the moment.”
(On what scares him the most about this draft) – “I don’t know if anything scares me about the draft. I don’t have a good answer for that one. That’s the best answer I can give you right there.”
(On this being his first draft as a head coach) – “It’s football, man. This isn’t rocket science or anything. It’s football.”
(On whether first-, second- and third-round picks have to be immediate starters for a team) – “I think anytime you can … When you hit on those picks, that’s nice. We’ll see how this thing plays out. I can’t predict how this is going to shake out.”
(On whether the team can afford to draft depth players in the first three rounds) – “I don’t know. I’ll let you know when we get there.”
(On his involvement in the draft preparation) – “I was pretty involved. The staff was hired in January and we started draft meetings in February. I’ve heard about the same guys for it seems like forever now. I got a pretty good grip of it.”
(On if his involvement in the draft process this season will be the same as future seasons) – “Yes.”
(On possibly moving up in the draft) – “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens when … What time does the draft start?” (Reporter: “Eight o’ clock”) “OK, so we’ll figure it out then.”
