Adam Gase – August 13, 2017
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Sunday, August 13, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(It appeared that RB Jay Ajayi was led off the field by a trainer. Is he okay?) – “Yes. He’s alright. Just hydration. I mean his first day back out there, full pads. He’ll be okay.”
(You’ve obviously had rookie defensive linemen who have shown some stuff led by DT Davon Godchaux. DT Vincent Taylor, at times we’ve seen DE Cameron Malveaux, even DE Praise Martin-Oguike. Would you mind talking about them just as a group and anything you want to say about any of those four people as individuals as players as well?) – “I think that those guys know the standard has really been set by the leaders in that room and with those older players, their expectations in the younger guys are, and how they’re supposed to work and how they’re supposed to practice. So I know those guys probably feel a little pressure more from those guys than anybody. So they want to make sure that they do everything right and they’re constantly working on the field, especially after practice and before practice, to make sure that they’re improving every day. That’s a tough group to please. I mean those guys are very, very hard on the young guys and it’s good to see how they work. All the older guys are really taking time to help those guys improve.”
(And finding obviously young defensive linemen is a commodity. Are you encouraged by what you’ve seen? Obviously DT Davon Godchaux at the top and some of the others.) – “It’s tough to go against in practice. I think it’s making the whole team better because on the offensive side of the ball, we’ve got to be on it because they can disrupt practice very easily. When you see the kind of effort you’ve been seeing, it’s been impressive. It starts with those top guys and then it’s working its way down.”
(Regarding QB Jay Cutler, at this early stage, do you measure his progress by the physical, the throws and all that? Or by kind of the mental, the grasp of the offense?) – “We’re so one day at a time right now with him. I mean every play, he comes back and kind of re-assesses things after the series and we kind of talk things out to see where mentally, he can come back and say ‘Hey, I saw that nice and clean,’ or ‘I felt this in the pocket.’ So there’s just a lot dialogue there. I mean it just takes time when you haven’t done it in a while and every day he’s getting a little bit better. Yesterday wasn’t as good as it was today. I thought today he made a couple of throws where he felt good that were challenging plays for him.”
(Where’s that line form right now while he learns the offense between aggression and just executing and keeping it going?) – “I think it’s more just the processing speed. I don’t know if it’s so much learning the offense. (Jay Cutler) has the offense down pretty good. He’s a quick study. It’s just really of knowing what it is and can see it in your head on paper, and then all of a sudden you’ve got four guys rushing at you or they bring some kind of exotic blitz, and just the processing speed of all that. And then still trying to figure out how the receivers’ body language are or run courses, play-action fakes. There’s just a lot of little things that go on just besides saying ‘Hey, I’m going to execute this what was on paper.’”
(QB Ryan Tannehill often talked about not getting too high and not getting too low, kind of staying on course. How does that compare with QB Jay Cutler both up here and on the field?) – “I think yesterday he was excited to get out there and today I could tell that it kind of calmed down for him. It felt probably more normal for him today. I think that first day that he was actually out there, he took four snaps. It’s easier when you … (They were) four easy plays that he knows really well and he could run it any time, 10 years from now. Yesterday we did some more challenging things and the defense was doing a whole bunch of stuff. So I mean, you get amped up for that because you know it’s not going to be a walk in the park. Then today, I just felt he was more into the groove. I know it’s only been that second day; but you could tell there was a different feel from him. He felt better about it and I thought that helped him kind of stay nice and even and get through practice with making good throws, decisions, getting the right Mike points, run checks, all those things. I thought it was good. He was able to just level out today.”
(Is that what you want out of a quarterback, to where you don’t get four touchdowns one week and five interceptions the next?) – “Yes, consistency is the key. Players want the same guy every day. When you know what you’re going to get day in and day out, it just helps the rest of those guys around him. They know what they’re getting. They know ‘if we’re in the right spots, we’re going to get the ball.’ If we have any kind of broken play, he can still make plays. Just that consistency day in and day out is the key to everything.”
(When you look at the receiver position, we all know who the guys at the top are. We also know that there’s a very finite number of positions available on this roster. Looking at the depth, you have so many guys making plays. Are you kind of wondering how difficult it’s going to be to make those cuts?) – “I’m so far from there. I’m trying to get to tomorrow. (laughter)”
(What do you think about some of the guys?) – “I like the way the guys are improving. You can tell that the offense understands what they are supposed to do. The defense is challenging everything – all our routes. It’s been competitive every day. I think those younger guys are starting to feel more comfortable that in this league, everything is tight. It’s a fine line between being open and being covered and the details in everything that you do is critical. We just want to see as many guys do well and give themselves a chance in preseason games to show us what they have. We want it to be hard. We want it to be a group battle to make the roster. If that decision is hard for us, that’s a good thing for us. That’s what we want.”
(Regarding RB Jay Ajayi. Before the hydration issue, it seemed like he was very involved out there. He’s clearly making progress?) – “Yes, I think we’re back to where he was earlier. It’s just now it’s a conditioning thing for him. I don’t even know how many days he ended up missing, but it triples when you walk out there on a day like today. You think that you can just do your normal deal and it smacks you in the face real fast.”
*RB Jay Ajayi remains in the concussion protocol. He is cleared to fully participate in practice.*
(RB Jay Ajayi is still in the concussion protocol?) – “He’s out, he’s out.”
(RB Jay Ajayi is not in the protocol?) – “No.”
(C Mike Pouncey, how did he do? I know the day after is often important. How did he do?) – “He did good. He did good. He didn’t follow my rule of staying off the ground. The first play I looked up, I see (Andre) Branch helmet to the lower back. I about pulled him out of practice. It was good. He did a good job. He felt good. I always wait until the next day to see his reaction to the day before. He was good today. He didn’t feel any after effects of practice. That’s what I keep looking at is how do you feel the next day and then the day after that. It’s a constant, trying to figure where he’s at. We’ve had nothing but positive signs that we’re going in the right direction.”
(This is the first day that we saw G Isaac Asiata with the first team. Was that experimentation? Did he do well in the exhibition game? What do you hope to see?) – “We’re just moving guys around. We’re all hands on deck right now with players. We’re a little thin at o-line and wide receiver right now. (Offensive Line Coach/Run Game Coordinator) Chris (Foerster) does this all the time. He starts moving guys around, especially young players. Sometimes he’ll throw them in that first group, put a little pressure on them and see how they react. That’s really what we are doing. That’s really our philosophy with that group upfront is really changing it up as much as possible. I wouldn’t look into it deeper than that.”
(Speaking of young offensive linemen, T Eric Smith, he’s a guy that when you see him walking around he looks like he lumbers or labors a little bit. But when the ball is snapped, he seems like a different guy.) – “He did a really good job in the game. The defensive ends that he is going against, I know that they’re our backup defensive linemen; but they’re pretty good. He’s had to go against William Hayes, and Charles (Harris). He’s had a challenge on his hands all spring and training camp and he did well. That was good to see. Any time you can find a guy that can contribute at that position, it’s valuable for us.”
(What are some of the things he has taken on and done well?) – “I think he’s just getting comfortable with what we’re doing, offense, consistently trying to hone your craft. It’s just hard. You have so much information going on in your head. (He’s a) young player trying to figure it all out and at the same time, you’ve got somebody trying to drive you back into the quarterback. It’s that fine line of using your intelligence and then your physical ability.”
(Anything you can tell us on WR Leonte Carroo?) – “Yes, he had a hamstring strain. We’re trying to give him a day off there and see how he recovers.”
