Adam Gase – December 21, 2016
Download PDF version
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Anything new on CB Byron Maxwell and his status?) – “Nothing really. No great update. We’re still trying to get him healthier than what he was after the game. It’s been a slow process. We’ll see how he gets through the next couple of days and then we’ll make a decision off that.”
(Are you going to try to practice him tomorrow?) – “We’ll see how he feels. Every day it’s been a little different. One day he feels better than the next. Yesterday he didn’t feel as good as he did today. We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
(Can you talk about G/T Jermon Bushrod? First of all, his willingness to embrace the position switch and then he’s turned out to kind of be an anchor on the line with everything that’s been going on around and all the necessitated changes, what his contribution is?) – When you sign a player that’s been through a lot of the things that he’s been through, whether it be part of an organization that was winning a lot, winning a Super Bowl and then getting an opportunity to go somewhere else and become one of the higher paid players in the league at left tackle, and going through the ups and downs he did there and fighting through injury and then having an opportunity just to come try to help us get this thing rolling in the right direction. He probably could have made some different decisions and maybe he could have gone somewhere else for more money; but the fact that he had some faith in us to try to help him get healthy (and) get an opportunity to play this year, that was a great thing for us because he did have faith in us doing the right thing. He stuck with what he was trying to do, which was get to as close to 100 percent as possible and then to learn a new position was … not many guys would do that. He probably could have had some opportunities to go somewhere else and still play tackle and we felt like we were in great shape with the players that we had and felt like we need some help at guard. He stepped in and did everything he could to learn that position as fast as possible. His leadership ability is really something that’s unique, and the way that he goes about his business as a veteran player is something you want younger guys to see.”
(Has G/T Jermon Bushrod turned out to be an anchor there with the swirl of changes?) – “I think so. He’s fought his way through probably some ups and downs throughout the season where it hasn’t been as easy as, as probably what it looks like right now. When you do change positions, especially going from one side of the line to the other, let alone going outside to inside, it’s just a different view from the positon you’re playing. He kept fighting through it and he tried to learn as fast as possible, and he’s done a great job with that. I know he’s still trying to get better.”
(This is obviously new territory for QB Ryan Tannehill. How has he handled the last 10 or 11 days? Have you learned anything new about him through this adversity that you didn’t know before?) – “It hasn’t been easy for him. I know Saturday was tough with him being out there and knowing that he wasn’t going to play. It’s not an easy thing for any competitor; but he’s done everything he possibly could – or possibly can – to help Matt (Moore) and help anybody else on offense. He has a different vantage point right now. He’s more taken on a role of a coach, almost to help guys. If there is any kind of question, he can answer it. So it’s really … we’ve kind of gained an extra member to helping our guys out from what he sees and he’s spent a lot of time still watching film and trying to help out in any role he can.”
(Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen said earlier that QB Ryan Tannehill has been in the meeting rooms and stuff during the week, when he could just be at home or spending more time with family. What does that say about him that he’s still so …?) – “That he’s committed to what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to win one game this week and he’s done everything he can – especially the last two weeks – to help us on anything that he sees. He’s communicated with me quite a bit game-plan-wise with anything he sees on tape to where he thinks Matt (Moore) would like. He does have the most knowledge as far as he spent so much time with Matt (Moore), when they go through game plans, they both know what each other likes. Him being able to tell me when I order some of the things in situations, he can give me a heads up of he’ll like this, this and this. So he’s been very helpful for me.”
(When we talked to QB Ryan Tannehill on Saturday he said he would know very soon what his short-term prognosis was. Have you gotten any more information?) – “I haven’t. I have not.”
(So there’s still a possibility this year?) – “I don’t know. I take the same approach as almost everything else. When somebody tells me something different, then I’ll react then. But I’m not going to start guessing on how long or when some kind of answer is going to come about.”
(Is it correct though that you still have at least some hope, because you haven’t made the roster move that would suggest [he won’t be able to play again this season]?) – “Right. They haven’t told me that we should shut him down yet. That’s all I know.”
(Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph, he labeled Bills RB LeSean McCoy as one of the best, or the best, ‘make-you-miss’ back in the league. What kind of goes into that, just breaking him down as being able to kind of make guys miss like that in open space?) – “I think he was born with it. He’s legitimately one of … He has such a great feel. I don’t know if you can teach that. The game is really slow for him. Everybody else is moving real fast and you can tell he just sees things that most guys don’t. That’s why he’s able to almost be slow and then kick it in gear and find that space that he needs. If he does get somebody in space, and it’s one on one, the chances of you bringing him down are slim. The percentages are so low. That’s why he is who he is. That’s why he’s been special since he’s gotten in the league. That’s why he’s caused so many defensive coordinators heartache over the years. Nothing’s changed. It’s the same thing that we’ve all seen over his entire career.”
(Some of that patience, that pick-slide motion behind the line of scrimmage, he’s able to kind of make guys miss back there, right? Because of his patience?) – “You don’t see … Even if there’s a free runner, it’s hard to get him in negative plays. You have to not only get one guy to try to get him off track, but you better have a gang of guys coming, because he makes guys miss in the tightest of spots – the tightest of areas. That’s what makes him special. That’s what makes him different and one of the elite guys in the league.”
(I had the same question for all of your coordinators today, but I’ll ask it slightly different to you. They gave me players that have really sacrificed a lot to get you guys here to 9-5. DE Cam Wake’s name came up. They mentioned G/T Jermon Bushrod, QB Matt Moore, QB Ryan Tannehill, DE Cameron Wake obviously. Who are a couple of coaches that have really sacrificed a lot to get you to where you are?) – “I think the whole staff. I mean it’s hard for me to pick one guy out. I know everybody has been grinding, trying to do everything they can to put our players in position. They try to spend the most amount of time possible getting guys ready –game planning. Everybody’s been putting in everything they possibly can to put our players and give them the right information. You have to watch a lot of film, especially this late in the season. There’s so much information out there. It’s easy access with the way that the systems are set up to where you can grab almost anything from any game. It takes time. And that’s what makes it a little more difficult nowadays is there is so much information and it’s not just a four-game breakdown. It’s how many games you’ve played, and then there’s access to the year before and access to film in years past that you may have played a certain coordinator. So it’s a lot of information and you’ve got to find the right things to present to your players and then you have to make sure that you do it in a way to where it hits your players to where they can use it to their advantage.”
(Senior Defensive Assistant/Pass Rush Specialist Jim Washburn obviously, is getting up there in age a little bit. The fact that he came back to help you guys this year, was that a sacrifice for him?) – “I think so. It would have been easier for him to say ‘I’m done;’ but we reached out to him and wanted to see if he’d be interest in coming to try to help us out, get this thing started and rolling in the right direction and help us become an attacking defense. We wanted his presence around here and his ability to help young players get better and help veteran players take the next step. I feel like he’s done that. Him and ‘T’ (Defensive Line Coach Terrell Williams) have worked unbelievably together and that whole defensive staff has meshed well together to put together improvement throughout the year. I know it hasn’t always gone smooth. We’ve had some ups and downs, but I feel like our guys are doing a great job of playing team football.”
(Regarding QB Matt Moore, we like to call him a gunslinger, because he likes to throw downfield. Where is he on the risk-taking scale? It doesn’t seem to me he throws into double coverage or does a lot of that stuff. In your opinion, where does he rank on that?) – “I think Matt goes exactly where we ask him to throw it with the play that’s called. He had some opportunities this last game. They kept pressuring us, and we got a couple looks where they brought one more than what we had in protection, and we were in max protection, so there’s no middle-of-the-field safety, and at that time we had plays called that were down-the-field throws. He hung in there, he made the throws and then guys made plays. They went and got them. That’s why we had so many explosive plays in that game in the limited amount of attempts we had.”
(Does QB Matt Moore have many throws where you’re just like, ‘What in the world was he looking at?’) – “Maybe. (laughter) No, he sees the field well. He does see some things every once in a while where it is off of what we talked about. Sometimes when you do play for a longer period of time – even though you may not be playing, you’re practicing, you’re going through training camp, you’re going through the preseason – but you start to see … Sometimes you just see a guy open. The longer you play, that’s what this game becomes. Sometimes that’s what happens. You saw a guy open, what brought you there? ‘He was open.’ I’ve been around it before. I’ve seen it happen with quite a few quarterbacks that I’ve worked with in the past, and it’s hard to argue with that. You try to reiterate what the progression is. Sometimes they’ll give you the, ‘I completed it, right?’” (laughter)
(It looks like you’ll be in consideration for Coach of the Year this year. Would a personal honor like that mean anything to you in your first season on the job?) – “Right now, I’m just focused on what we’re doing. We’re trying to win this week. That’s really the most important thing. It’s the same thing with guys with the Pro Bowl. I don’t think our guys have … Really, that hasn’t been a focus for anybody. Yesterday, getting that news, I think, almost felt like a lot of the coaches were happier for our players than really they (the players) were. You see those two guys (Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake) be able to make a Pro Bowl team and be on a winning team right now and a chance to win another game this week and they were more focused on what we had going on this Saturday than worried about the Pro Bowl voting.”
(One of those guys being DE Cameron Wake, I’m sure more important to him would be the possibility to play in the playoffs. You weren’t here for this, but you know the losing that he has grinded through. What do you think that would mean to him to finally get his chance after eight years or whatever it has been?) – “Anytime that you go through … All I can speak of is what my experience was when I was in Detroit for five years and went to San Francisco for one – 2009 was the first time I did not have a losing record. I was 8-8 in 2009. And then the next year we went 4-12. It took … 2011 was my first experience of we didn’t have a losing record – we were 8-8 – but we made the playoffs. I remember that feeling of knowing we were playing that extra week. It’s an exciting feeling, because it’s something you’ve never experienced before, and you always hear the stories about how everything amps up another level. Everybody’s getting paid the same. All the big contract guys are irrelevant. Everybody’s making the same amount of money. There is an excitement there. It’s a different feeling when you get to that next round.”
(DE Cameron Wake, specifically, you’ve gotten to know him very well and know what he’s about in terms of his priorities. Do you have any insight into how badly he’s craving something like this?) – “Since the first day I met him, all he has talked about is wanting to win. Individual statistics and things like that, he has never really said anything to me about that. He has constantly talked to me about, ‘Whatever I need to do to make this team win, that’s what I want to do.’”
(What has been the challenge of getting QB T.J. Yates ready when clearly QB Matt Moore is just starting now and he needs a ton of reps as well?) – “We have to use our walkthroughs wisely. (Yates is) a very smart player. He has played, which helps. Really, right now, it’s changing the terminology in his brain. You guys have heard me say this before, nobody is doing anything that’s so different than another team. It’s really getting that language switched in your head. The progressions and the reads are really the same as everybody else in the NFL. That’s really the thing he’s trying to get caught up to speed (with) more than anything is making sure, if I call a play, he knows exactly where he’s supposed to be looking, where he’s supposed to throw the ball.”
(LS John Denney has been in this league a long time. Have you gotten any insight working with him why he has been so successful, why he has been able to stick?) – “He’s one of those guys that have consistently done the right thing. He’s a pro. When you talk about guys that are pros, he’s the first guy that I can think of that I met. I met him very early. Everything that I had heard about him – and now that I’ve seen – is exactly what people said about him. He works. He educates younger players as well, and that’s what you want a veteran player to do. You can see with the two guys he has to work with every day, they have the same mentality as he does. It’s hard for me not to believe that he’s a big reason for the way those guys are. Personality-wise, I’m sure those guys were like that, but they’ve had a great role model to see how to work day-in and day-out, do the right things, making sure that every little detail is covered before they get to Sunday.”
(I think LS John Denney has 40 tackles, maybe three recovered fumbles. Is he athletic? Is there such a thing as an athletic deep snapper – you see him running down field – or does that even matter?) – “A lot of times at that position, it’s really about awareness. It’s about understanding what’s going on around you, knowing where you fit and how you can do your job. Every punt has a little wrinkle of what his responsibility is. When you have a guy like that who understands where he fits in the whole scheme of things, he knows how to put himself in position. If he has to make a tackle, he has been able to do it over time.”
(You mentioned some of the pressures that you all got last week. As a result of pressures, sometimes the quarterback has to let the ball fly a little earlier than he’d like. What does that say about QB Matt Moore’s anticipation, as well?) – “I think it has a lot to say about the receivers being in the right spot exactly at the right time, and the trust factor. Sometimes when you don’t get to practice with guys as much, that could always slow you up a little bit. I think he has seen enough of what our wide receivers do to trust that they’re going to be in the right spots. We did get a little more than probably what we anticipated, but he made the most of it, and it really helped us. I know our third-down percentage wasn’t as good as what we wanted, but he made every one of those count, and they were big plays in the game. Any time you’re getting touchdowns on third down and you’re getting explosive plays, it’s what you’re looking for.”
(We had a chance to talk to C Mike Pouncey today, and he told us that he feels like he can play now, but obviously, understands why he’s not. How tough was that to sit down with a player of that magnitude who feels like he can contribute? And did the fact that he maybe came back too soon the first time around make sense to him that, ‘Maybe I should be smart here?’) – “That wasn’t a fun or easy conversation at all. As a coach, you want to have a guy – especially that’s at an elite level at his position – to play. But the thought process we had was we were not going to risk long-term injury for one game or possibly two games. We weren’t even sure if that was the right thing to do. When you’re getting the answer of, ‘He could be alright, but this could still happen.’ That’s just not a great answer for me. I wasn’t going to put him in that kind of position to where I had to tell him, ‘You might not be able to ever play again.’ That wasn’t going to happen. I want to be around Mike as long as he can possibly go. I do not want to have that conversation with him, especially at this point. I know he wasn’t happy with that, which that’s the competitor in him. I wish he could be out there – not only for him, but for us – but the information that we had, we felt like we made the right decision.”
(Is it correct that C Mike Pouncey came back too soon in October?) – “I was never told that. If he came back too soon, then that was our fault, but I wasn’t told that.”
