Adam Gase – August 23, 2016
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On if DT Earl Mitchell is at risk of missing the season opener and how DT Jordan Phillips has played in his place) – “As far as Earl (Mitchell) goes, I think we’re on pace to where we feel good about that first game of the year. I think there would be a chance that we could say that fourth preseason game but I think a guy with his experience and knowledge of this defense, I think we feel pretty good as far as what he can do on the field. That’s not really a question. It’s just about getting him as close to 100 percent as we possibly can before the first game. And then Jordan (Phillips) has done a good job. The one thing that I noticed about him from the Dallas game was he was really moving well once the plays kind of start happening and it was going sideline to sideline, he was trying to get to the ball. Even in practice, I’ve noticed that he’s been one of those guys finishing quite a bit down the field, trying to do what the coaches ask him as far as tagging off there at the end. For a big man like that to run 20, 30 yards down the field to tag off the runner and then come back and do another rep, that’s what you want to see out of that front. I know they preach it. You guys hear them yelling all the time on the field as far as chase the ball. I think he’s trying to do exactly what the coaches want.”
(On where DT Jordan Phillips is from a conditioning standpoint and if he can play 40 snaps a game) – “I don’t know if I could put a number on it but I feel like he’s been good with everything we’ve asked him to do. I haven’t seen him really tap out or pull himself out of the game. He’s come out when he’s been asked to. They’ll give him a number of, ‘You got five in a row,’ and then he would come off the field in the preseason games. As we get going, we’ll see what it ends up being as far as how many actually snaps in a row he takes.”
(On how he feels with his defensive tackle depth excluding DT Ndamukong Suh) – “I think when you get in a situation in the NFL, you’re always looking for depth. Ideally you’d love to be able to say on your roster, ‘Hey, I have two starters and then I got two guys that could start for another team. Or they are really, really solid backups.’ That’s what we’re going through right now is how good can we get those interior players that are backing up obviously (Ndamukong) Suh, and whoever else ends up being in that other spot when we get to the first game. I do think this – we do have some guys that are trying to fill that role. We’re still in that evaluation stage. Hopefully once we hit that Seattle game we’ll have a really good feel of who we really have.”
(On how far behind CB Xavien Howard is) – “Well, on that position, I wouldn’t say he’s far behind mentally because he’s dialed in to what we’re doing. Now it’s just going back and refreshing his mind, ‘Here are some of the looks I’m going to see; some of the adjustments that I actually have to say when I’m out there.’ Those are kind of the learning curve for a young player like that at that position. But for the most part, he’s playing one-on-one coverage a lot of the times. At the end of the day, that’s his strength and I’m sure the more we’ve talked about it with (Defensive Coordinator) Vance (Joseph), we’re going to try to lean on his strength of just matching him up with somebody and letting him go.”
(On what was the thing that caught his eye the most about CB Xavien Howard) – “I think the fact that he gets his hands on a lot of balls and then when he does get both hands up to make a play on the ball, he usually catches it. I think even (Tony) Lippett’s kind of the same way, if you get in the range and they get their hands on the ball, they end up intercepting it. When you’ve got corners that can actually have production on the ball and turn it over, that’s what you’re looking for.”
(On if he prescribes to having starters out in the third quarter of the third preseason game so you can make halftime adjustments) – “That’s ideal; but you just kind of see how it goes. It was like last game – we didn’t want to put a timetable on it. You just tell everybody to just be ready to come out and play in the second half and then if we make some kind of adjustment, then we change our mind, then we do it. You want to have flexibility. Like that first game, that was my mistake as far as saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to go eight to 10 plays.’ We probably should have stayed in another drive with the ones. That’s why the second game we just said we’re going to play and then when we feel good about it, we’ll take everybody out. I think this game we just go in, plan on playing after the second half and then if anything changes, then we’ll change it.”
(On how he goes about improving the tackling) – “That’s the whole NFL. You turn on tapes of a lot of other defenses too, this is what it is. It’s a race to see who becomes the best tackling teams in football as you go throughout the season, because the only live work you really get nowadays are in games. Unless we want to start doing live out here and taking a chance of somebody getting hurt in practice, I mean it’s really not something that’s going to happen. We have to make sure we’re great on technique. We have to get tight to them. We got to run our feet. Those are some things that we have to do a better job of. I know the coaches are really trying to do a good job of correcting things on tape. We have some drills that we felt like were helping us. We’re not taking our drill work to the games and we just need to do that. That’s going to be a big emphasis for us this game.”
(On if it’s the same thing with the run blocking) – “Yes. The only way you get good at it is you do it in those preseason games. That’s why trying to run the ball when we get out there – we got a little pass happy there towards the end (at Dallas), but that will happen every once in a while in a preseason game – but we need to rep in live games. This week, obviously, you try keeping it as balanced as you can so we can get it on tape, see where our deficiencies are and then correct them.”
(On how much WR DeVante Parker can elevate the passing game if he can stay healthy) – “I think he’s a guy that causes problems for teams because … The one thing I learned about him last week – because you can watch tape but you just don’t really know how a guy attacks – we run a slip screen and he caught that thing and stuck it right up in there. You didn’t see any kind of finesse about that and I think that was the one part I didn’t know about him – seeing that and knowing that he’s good in short, intermediate and down the field. You’ve got a three-level guy and if we can figure out a way to keep him rolling and practicing and keeping him healthy throughout the year, that’s only going to help our offense. The biggest thing for us is (that) we need him to practice because we need the timing with the quarterback. We need that feel with the other players on the field. We have to find a way to keep those soft tissue injuries out of the mix.”
(On if he’s discussed hydration issues with WR DeVante Parker) – “That’s something that’s preached so much in our building from top to bottom. I think he’s done a better job. I know he kind of was giving me a hard time about it. He’d always have a water bottle or Gatorade or something, just constantly hydrating after that last one. But I think it’s really hit him as far as this is real down here. It is legitimately … if you do not hydrate down here, you’re going to have issues. Everybody that’s either been out on that practice field or you guys watching them and you’re out here enough to know, if you don’t take care of yourself there’s going to be a problem.”
(On if he would like to get RB Isaiah Pead more first team work) – “I would love to. Our plan last week was to try to slide him in there to see how we’d go with him and see if we could get him a couple of touches. It almost felt like more of a 2-minute mode there in that last one where he was in, so he didn’t really get a chance to run the ball. We’ll just keep trying to slide him in there just to give him that opportunity to run behind that first-team line. Ideally, you’d like to give all those guys that opportunity just to see how it would look because that whole group’s done a great job, as far as no matter who’s been in the game upfront, what quarterback has been in – they’ve all taken advantage. It’s going to be one of those deals where it’s going to be a tough decision for us as far as how many (running backs) do we keep and if we are going to stay heavy there, just because those guys have been so productive for us and they do everything right. I just think that consistency they’ve shown has been really impressive.”
(On what goes into his mind when he has to make 15 cuts next week) – “There’s a lot that goes into it because you’re thinking about the fourth preseason game, kind of what our decisions are going to be there (as far as) who’s playing. Then you have to kind of start thinking of who do you want to make sure that you have on the roster so when you do your final cuts, they’re available for you as far as possibly getting them back on the practice squad. Because other teams, they’re doing the same thing that we do. As soon as that waiver wire comes out, that personnel department, they don’t go home. They sit there, they grind, they go through their information, they start watching tape on guys and they start looking where we feel like we might be light in a certain position. There’s a lot of work that goes into it and you have to be somewhat strategic as far as who you possibly let go this first round. You’re hoping you make the right decision on guys and, at the same time, you’re hoping those guys get a chance to get somewhere else. It’s a tough deal because when you start developing these relationships with these guys, cutting these guys is not easy.”
(On if he feels like he has a third tight end) – “I think we got a battle going on right now. Obviously I’d love for one of those guys to really separate themselves so we felt great about it. But right now, I think it’s just we’re clumped in together there right now and we need somebody to kind of step up.”
(On if he’s made a decision on whether DE Cameron Wake will make his debut) – “So I asked him this today just to make sure that we have no clarification. So what we are going to do is he’s going to make sure he goes through warmups, he’s going to get ready to go and we’re just going to see how he feels before the game. It’s going to come down to really just him and myself, before the game saying, ‘Hey, we’re rolling or we’re not..’ I’m going to kind of put it on him just because he knows how he feels and once he feels right then we’ll get him out there.”
