Adam Gase – August 6, 2018
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Monday, August 6, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Ideally, from a defensive perspective, if you have two high-end pass rushers at opposite sides – I’m obviously speaking of DE Robert Quinn and DE Cameron Wake – how much should it help Cam this year in terms of how much blocking he sees the volume of?) – “I don’t know what the percentages will be at. We have to see how it’s all going to play out. We like our rotation that we have. There’s legitimately eight guys that we can roll in and out. It’s just all going to be depending on inactives and how that’s going to work out. He’s a good run defender. It’s not that we want him to be off the field versus the run either. We need to do a good job of making that we balance this thing out. We want to find that fine line of we don’t want 70 plays a game but we don’t want to get caught like we did in 2016 when all of a sudden it was 15 plays a game.”
(Who’s your starting running back?) – “It depends on what personnel grouping I’m in to start the game. Both (Kenyan Drake and Frank Gore) are going to play. They’ll be on the field at the same time. I don’t know. I’m not worried about it. It’s not something that I’m losing sleep over.”
(With that said, what went into the decision to list RB Kenyan Drake and RB Frank Gore as an or?) – “Just to be an asshole. (laughter) I mean both of those guys, they both deserve to be on the field. Every game is different. I like what both of those guys bring to the table and they work well together.”
(Have you been surprised at all with what you’ve seen out of RB Frank Gore or is it pretty much what you expected when he came in?) – “I’m not surprised. He’s just been proving everybody wrong for so many years. You just never doubt that guy.”
(Having TE Mike Gesicki listed as the fifth-string tight end, is that just rookies having to earn their way? Or is that the order that you’re probably going to play them in games?) – “I mean it’s just … we go with the three wide receivers … I wouldn’t look too deep into this depth chart. With him, it’s really that we have two different sets of tight ends. We have guys that we call our Ys and a group that’s the Fs. They’re really like split in half. You only can put so many positions on there. I wouldn’t look too much into the tight end thing.”
(What has kept LS John Denney around for so long?) – “The guy is in unbelievable physical condition. I think he’s the ultimate pro. He knows how to work with other guys. It’s been a short period of time but over the last three years, everybody that we’ve ever brought in (even if) they’re not with us during the season and just here in the spring, he does such a good job of helping those guys learn how to be professionals. He takes a lot of pride in making sure that … You never hear about our guys being quirky or different as far as our kickers and punters. Everybody kind of falls in line and he does a good job of leading those guys and showing them the ropes and how to do things.”
(What is going to be your approach with LB Raekwon McMillan in preseason games? Does he get as many snaps as other starters or do you think he might need a little bit more work?) – “We’ll have those discussions here in the next few days. We kind of started throwing some ideas around but we haven’t put anything in … nothing is in Sharpie yet.”
(With TE MarQueis Gray, he’s kind of been the one guy that’s been consistently working with the starters when he’s been healthy. What have you seen from him in Year 3 in your system and Week 3 of training camp?) – “I think mentally, he’s right where he wants to be because it’s more of he’s reacting and not thinking. When you first get thrown in at that position, there’s a lot of things going on because you’re involved in so much. You’re working with different guys all of the time – tackles, another tight end, a receiver might come down that you have to do something with, pass protection, the routes. You have to be sharp. You have to be able to pick things up. I think the longer you’re in one spot, it helps you as that type of player. He’s to the point in this offense to where he knows what to do and now he’s able to work on, ‘What’s my technique?’ Physically, he’s very strong. He can move very well. He’s able to play two different positions for us, which there’s a lot of value there. And then him being one of our best special teams players, it brings … Like right now with him as a starter, we’re probably going to lose a little bit on special teams because he’s going to play more snaps at tight end.”
(With that position … Your base formation is two tight ends. How important is it to have an in-line guy?) – “It just depends what you’re doing. I think we’re mixing things up quite a bit so we’re trying to still get a feel for what we’re going to pare it down to. We’re doing a lot of different things right now just to keep throwing stuff at guys, keep them studying and keep them engaged. We don’t want guys being like, ‘Oh, we did the same thing again.’ You get bored with it. So we keep throwing things at them and then once the season hits, we’ll be able to pare it down and say, ‘Here’s our bread and butter. These is going to be our second-tier runs. We always want to put as many guys as we can in the best position possible. That position is one of those positions we have to look hard at to say what can or can’t we do?”
(At what point in preseason do you narrow it down and say it’s this guy and this guy against each other for the last spot at this position?) – “The last week. I mean it can go all the way to the wire. That’s the competition part of it. That’s why you want guys to just keep competing every day. You never want to have a guy feel relaxed and say ‘Hey, I’ve got it.’ You don’t want that mindset. Most guys don’t have that mindset in this league. You just keep competing every day. That’s why every year we start, we say the same thing. Nobody cares about what you did last year. Nobody cares about how many years you’ve been in the league. It’s a fresh start and you have to go prove it all over again.”
(How much of the work you do this time of year with the depth chart, with reps and taking guys in and out has to do with managing entitlement and motivating and stuff like that?) – “I think we’re trying make sure we get the guys that don’t know, or that are new, as many reps as possible, whether that be a rookie or a free agent that we’ve brought in. At the same time, we’re trying to give guys opportunities to win jobs or compete for jobs. It’s a fine line. The tight end position is a good one to look at. We’ve been moving those guys all around. When Durham (Smythe) is going with the threes and then all of a sudden in the next period he’s going with the ones, we know he needs to get used to going against Cam (Wake) and Robert (Quinn) and William (Hayes) and (Andre) Branch. We need him to understand it’s going to be a little bit different when you start going against some of these guys that emphasize the pass rush or are good run defenders; but at the same time, you don’t want to just have six plays where it’s a hard lesson to learn. You want him to have success. You want him to kind of work his way up to that point. It’s tough to manage sometimes because it’s not always going to be perfect, but you’re just trying to do the best job you can to make sure that everybody is kind of getting their shot.”
(You have a lot of depth obviously at receiver. Did the body of work of what you saw from WR Jakeem Grant last December and in the offseason and now make you think we have to get him on the field some? Or is that not clear in your mind because you have so much depth?) – “We’ll just kind of see how it plays out. He’s going to have some kind of role. He did a lot of good stuff. I’m a big fan. The more receivers, the better.”
(CB Taveze Calhoun is a guy who seems to be around the ball a lot. He has two interceptions and a fumble return in practice recently. Have you noticed him more for the big plays or as much for his fundamentals?) – “When these guys are competing after that first group, I think those kinds of plays stand out because you notice it right at that moment. That’s why you have those personnel meetings and you sit down and you talk to the position coach and you talk to the coordinator and get the personnel department in there. A lot of times you’ll see something like that … At least in the past, I’m just going off of ‘Hey, this guy has made some of these flash plays.’ ‘Well, he needs to get better at these three things because those could be detrimental down the road.’ You’re not always looking exactly at the outcome. You’re going, ‘Okay, what’s the big picture?’ It’s my favorite word, ‘What’s the process going to be?’ That’s really what we have to focus on. We can’t just get caught up in, ‘Hey, we saw a couple of flash plays here.’ It’s the consistency, because that’s what this league is about. It’s all about consistency.”
(Going back to the whole issue of starting and not starting and all of that, do you think we make too much of it?) – “Yes.”
(What about the average player? Does the average player really care much about it?) – “None of them start. Whoever is on kickoff starts. Nobody says that though. (laughter) You should just put the kickoff and kickoff return team on the front of the game book. (laughter)”
(I think it was a week ago today, the offensive line had a tough day. I remember you seemed agitated afterward. Has the line play improved – your first group – since then? Where is your mindset…) – “It wasn’t the first group. We made a mistake on one of the sacks. The defense did a really good job on the first third down of they had everybody covered. We just talked about when that happens, we just have to roll. Ryan (Tannehill), I would love to see him run, get down and get the first and we’re good to go. The first group has been pretty good. It’s just sometimes when we go with these different protections, everybody’s got to be on the same page. We can’t have any miscues there. With that, with what you see pressure-wise on third down and different fronts, we have to be really good at making sure everybody’s assignment is correct. When we get that locked down, we feel good about the talent that we have and what those guys are able to do. Really, it’s that chemistry. I feel like it’s coming along well, we just have to tighten it up just a little more.”
(What do you like about WR Rashawn Scott? I know that receiver room is loaded with guys but what is it going to take for him to make this team?) – “I brought this up last week. He doesn’t look around. He’s not worried about anybody else but himself. I’ve always appreciated that about him since he’s been here. He’s a competitor. Right when you think he’s … He’ll be back against a wall and he finds a way to fight himself into the mix. He’s doing the same thing again. He’s making big plays, he’s not making mistakes. He’s doing a really good job on special teams. He knows how to get to that level where all of a sudden now everybody is kind of talking about him. Now it’s going to come down to how are we going to play in the preseason games?”
(How tough is that, do you think, for young players to block out the depth chart, the 53-man roster?) – “Guys will fail because of that. They get so hung up on counting what’s going on. It’s a long time from the start of training camp to the preseason games. There’s so much that can happen. We went through it last year when you lose some guys and all of a sudden the next guy has to step up. That’s why we focus on we have to get better and worry about doing your job the right way because all of a sudden when your number is called, you better know what to do because now there’s your shot.”
(You mention WR Rashawn Scott and how he can kind of block and fight through all of that. Is that rare or is that common?) – “I would say it’s closer to rare than common. I think you want to try to find as many of those guys as you can. You have to talk to guys sometimes and say, ‘Hey, this is a starting point. It doesn’t mean anything about the last day.’ That has to be our point of emphasis.”
(How many conversations like that have you had in the last three weeks?) – “None. These guys don’t … They just work. This group, it’s fun to coach these guys. Meetings, on the field, these guys don’t complain. They just put their heads down and they grind.”
