Adam Gase – August 3, 2018
Download PDF version
Friday, August 3, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We’ve seen a lot of encouraging things with QB Ryan Tannehill and TE Mike Gesicki the last couple of days. How encouraged have you been?) – “I think once we hit the red-area period, I think it was that third or fourth day of camp, you could see Mike started really feeling comfortable. I think we’ve had more success on the field on third downs (and in the) red area with those two guys developing some chemistry. I think him taking so many reps over spring and the beginning of camp has been good for him. He’s playing fast. He’s not thinking. We have a good feel of some of the things that at least our starting point with him, what we want to keep working with him on and see if we can really accelerate him and his growth and give him more as time goes on. But right now, I like the way they’re working together. I like the way they’re making plays. Ryan has had some good throws and Mike has done a good job of if there’s any kind of error, he’s a big target that can go up and get the ball.”
(Tomorrow we have the scrimmage coming up. What’s it going to be like in terms of format? What should fans expect? Secondly, what are you going to be looking for out of that?) – “Really, it’s the dress rehearsal for our preseason games. We try to keep everything close to what we’re going to do in our preseason opener – how players come out of the locker room, how we do things pregame, our pregame meal at the stadium. It’s all of those little things to where if you’ve been here you’ve gone through it before, it’s not as big a deal. If you’re new, it’s like your dry run. Understanding how to get to the stadium, where do you go, where do you park and then locker room, what we’re doing, how you get stretched out before the game, the routine pregame with everybody on the field, who comes out when. And then when we hit the scrimmage, it’s the same format we did last year. We’ll get some individual, get some 7-on-7. We just keep it as close to the game as possible. We do the 7-on-7 a little longer and then when we hit those team periods, all three groups will roll through. It’s really just a move-the-ball period, really. It’s really like practice for us. We get the headsets on. We just can’t do the sideline adjustments. That’s really the only thing missing from the whole scrimmage experience.”
(Any live tackling?) – “I haven’t really gone through it with the guys yet. To be determined.”
(I wanted to ask you a question about the new changes to tackling. I’ve watched the video and it’s kind of vague except for you can’t hit with the crown of your helmet. Do you think some of those calls when you get into the course of the games will be subjective and how will that impact coaches?) – “I’m not sure. It’s a hard question for me to answer because I haven’t gone through a game this year yet. I will say this: having the officials here, we were keeping track of whether it be a thud period or live tackling in practice to where we were wondering, ‘Is this what we’re talking about?’ or, ‘Is this good?’ or, ‘Is this bad?’ We went through that yesterday. There weren’t a ton of them, but we got some really good feedback. I think the way our coaches are coaching right now, they’re doing the right things as far as we’re emphasizing wrapping up, which that’s what you want anyways. When we see some of these guys throwing a shoulder in there, that’s when you kind of get that head start to lower. When you wrap up, you’re going to see what you hit. And that’s really what our point of emphasis has been is see what you hit and just make sure we’re not dipping our head down there. We’re not trying to overemphasize it, but those are our coaching points. I think guys have done a really good job of trying to follow through with what we’re asking them to do. Really, the toughest thing is when you see some of the pulls, the bigger lineman and they try to get lower, that’s where you have to avoid dropping your head.”
(With DE William Hayes, he has obviously been around a while. So if he’s out for a minute, do you think he’ll be fine when the season starts rep-wise and all of that?) – “Yes. I’m never worried about him. We try to hold him out of practice every once in a while just because we know how hard he goes. We know how much he loves practicing. He likes every step of the way of football. We have to remind him of his age sometimes, that he’s not 22 anymore; but he doesn’t want to hear that. We try to protect him from himself sometimes, but he’s a warrior. He’s an old-school football player. He doesn’t like missing time. He doesn’t like getting special treatment. He doesn’t want to have anything to do with that. He knows what to do. We’re not worried about that. When Sundays come around, we know one guy for sure is going to set the edge.”
(After practice, your kids are out there, a lot of players are out there with their kids. What do you think that means to them? What does it mean to you? Is it beyond just take your kid to work type of situation?) – “I think it’s that you’re gone … You go such a long period of time … When you’re in camp, you’re not home at night. You’re staying at the hotel. It’s nice to go to work and you’re on the field and then afterwards, get your kids on the field and be able to run around and let them have fun. I know my kids love coming out here and they’re usually with the wideouts and hanging out with those guys. My son thinks he knows a lot right now, so that’s awesome. (laughter) I get a lot of good information from him. He crushes me more than anybody. (laughter)”
(How long do the kids usually stay up here?) – “You see most people’s kids probably 30 minutes. They’re here most of the time. I think towards the end of camp, a lot of people show up later so they can see, whether it be their kids or their wives or girlfriends, after practice. I think they did a good job of setting everything up to where it’s good with the tents and making sure nobody is sitting out in the sun.”
(Is your son supplying game-plan ideas?) – “No. Well, he thinks he does. He’s got like eight guys on the field. I’m like, ‘You’re missing a couple.’ (laughter)”
(We’ve seen TE Mike Gesicki time and time again make catches on contested passes in the end zone. Besides his height and his size, what special skill does he have allow him to do that?) – “I think it’s one of those … You guys have seen his basketball highlights. Guys that can go up and get a ball and put it in the hoop. (It’s the) same thing here. He just has unique timing. He knows how to box a guy out. He knows how to keep his position. If a guy is draped on him, it seems like … That was the first time we saw him not get one against Xavien (Howard) today. A couple of us were calling for a flag. It’s good though. It’s good competition. I think the corners and safeties, it’s good for them, because we have a guy in our division that’s very tough to cover and anytime we can get work against your own team that could carry over to Sundays, that’s a plus.”
(QB Brock Osweiler has been better this week. Do you think some of the tweaks you and Quarterbacks Coach Bo Hardegree have made have maybe started to be reflected more consistently in his mechanics?) – “I think so. With Brock sometimes it’s just kind of getting in a rhythm. With him, David (Fales) and Bryce (Petty), really we’re trying to give those guys all a fair shake at this thing. They get two and three and occasionally four, but it’s just that rhythm. That’s why I like some of these 2-minute periods, some of the stuff we were doing where David took six straight (snaps). Those are good for those guys because it starts to feel a little bit more like a game. I always love the looks when we’re doing call-it periods and Brock has three plays and I call two runs. That’s something that irritates those guys, because they’re like, ‘I only got three plays. Give me something to really do something in the passing game.’ I think it’s all about the rhythm. That’s why I think these preseason games are going to be critical for these three guys. It’s really going to be, ‘Alright hey, make the most of your drives.”
(I saw WR DeVante Parker jump up and catch one high over two defenders. What are some key points for him when it comes to contested balls and also improving as a red-zone threat?) – “I think it’s just the timing (and) fighting through the holds. That’s what happens is you can’t be held. Everything’s not going to be seen. When it gets to tight quarters and you get a bunch of bodies around him, you have to time it out right, you have to be strong going to attack the ball and use his length, use his vertical. He has all of those. On paper, you have all those traits. Just keep repping it and put him in positon as much as possible. I think we had one a couple days ago. It didn’t work out. This one, it was good to see him really have a tough catch because there were more defenders than there was the last time we had one of those. To see him go up and get it, that was good to see.”
(WR Rashawn Scott had a couple of nice catches in practice. How would you evaluate his progress?) – “He’s one of those guys. He keeps doing his job. He stays in his book. He’s really good in meetings. He’s going to give you everything he has on the field. He fights. The thing I love about him is he never looks at anybody else. He’s not worried about, ‘Alright, where am I on the depth chart? Where do I stand? How many reps?’ When he’s put in there, he does everything he can to make a play.”
(You obviously have a lot of numbers at wide receiver. What does WR Rashawn Scott need to do to sneak his way in there?) – “It’s going to be the preseason games. Make plays in preseason. I have to give these guys opportunities. We have to be good up front and be able to protect in these preseason games so we can throw the ball and mix that in with the run game. We’re doing some evaluating with the quarterbacks, so if we have to throw it a little more, then we’re going to throw it a little more.”
(With QB Ryan Tannehill, we obviously saw the picks yesterday. He had a really good bounce-back day today. Is he a guy that as soon as he comes off the field, it just washes away?) – “He’s doing a better job of that. He doesn’t hang on interceptions, at least from what I’ve seen. That’s what you have to do. The better ones in the league, if they make a mistake, they try not to ever repeat that mistake. I think a lot of these guys have just a long library. When you see the really good quarterbacks that have played for a long time, you’ll have to go back years and say ‘I screwed that one up 10 years ago.’ That’s what you’re hoping for. You keep banking, like ‘Alright, I’m aware of that. That’s not happening again.’ I think he’s done a good job of not letting things bother him. He knows when a guy made a really good play. ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) made a really good play yesterday, and I think he just moved right on.”
(Kickoff and punt returner, is that a preseason determination or do you have a pretty good idea right now?) – “I think we have a pretty good idea, but at the same time, we’ll give a guy his opportunity. It’s just like when how (Kenyan) Drake got started. We felt like Jakeem (Grant) was going to be our main guy and we kind of went with him and Drake back there because Drake earned his spot and it paid off for us. It got him really going in his career.”
(With T Ja’wuan James, what kind of growth do you want to see from him this season?) – “At this stage of his career, I think he just needs to use his experience that he’s gained over this time and really start to maximize what he knows so now he can just use his athletic ability. He’s a very good athlete, he’s done a good job adjusting kind of to what he was taught the last two years to kind of what (Offensive Line Coach) Jeremiah (Washburn) is doing. There’s a little bit of a change. I think he looks really comfortable with what they’re doing right now, and it’s just him and Jesse (Davis) getting that chemistry going together. We’ve seen a lot of these – that’s where the league has gone with these pick games and them trying to get the guards and the tackles on different levels. We just have to keep working on that. I think they’ve done a good job. I don’t know if they’re quite where Laremy (Tunsil) and (Josh) Sitton are right now as far as that chemistry, but I think it’s coming along. We’re seeing steps throughout this camp of positive improvement. If we keep doing that, our line should be one of our strengths this year. I think the run game has kind of shown up for us to where these guys are really doing a good job getting on their blocks and sustaining their blocks.”
(With substitutions, obviously you want to see different guys with the ones for chemistry reasons, offensive line, defensive line. In the case of corner, when Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke and Defensive Backs Coach Tony Oden run it by you eventually during the day and decide who will take first-team reps that next day, is it based for them and you primarily on who played best the previous day among the guys in the mix?) – “I tell the position coaches, ‘you make the decision of what you think is best for that group that day.’ When you get into situations, kind of like with the d-line sometimes, when you’ve got multiple guys that are battling it out for a spot, it might be who had the best day the day before and that’s the starter the next day. I guess I just don’t get hung up with the whole starter thing. To me right now it’s all about reps, experience, matchups, how you play him when the ball is thrown your way. We just want to keep mixing it up. We want to give guys the opportunity to compete for that spot. I think they’re doing a good job of rotating that around and doing that, and we’ll kind of see how it plays out.”
(So are we to assume that CB Torry McTyer – because he’s gotten four days with the starters – out of all of the guys, has been – when you watch the film – has been the top performer?) – “So far, that’s what it’s been. That’s what those guys do. They watch tape all day and if something changes from one day to the next, they’ll make an adjustment. He’s out there right now and unless somebody else has a better day, then he’ll just keep going out there.”
