Adam Gase – July 31, 2016
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Sunday, July 31, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On where his excitement level is with spiders today but pads tomorrow and how much that will tell him about things he doesn’t know yet) – “I think today’s a good start because we had the shoulder pads actually on. The things we didn’t have (were) the leggings in – which you can still get some good contact. You saw today a couple of good thuds there and that’s what we’re looking for, especially down here in this weather. If we can practice like that and get great work, that’s valuable to us just because there’s a different feeling when you get the lowers on. The heat – I mean your body temperature goes way up and if we can practice like this, it’s great; but now moving forward into training camp, we should be in full pads almost every day and we’ll really see where we’re at.”
(On if he talked to DE Dion Jordan yet and the details of that conversation) – “I have. I had a brief conversation when he first came in. It was very generic as far as, it’s exactly what I told you guys. I told him he has a fresh start with me. Whatever’s happened in the past is irrelevant and moving forward his job is to do everything that he’s been told he has to do right. Like I said yesterday, that checklist is fairly long. So (he’s) got a lot of steps going forward and we’re here to support him. I think we have a great group of people to try to help him moving forward.”
(On the decision to put DE Dion Jordan on the Non-Football Injury list) – “Obviously you guys know about the knee injury (now). Him coming in here, that was news to us. So when you don’t have contact with somebody for as long as we did, you don’t know every little detail (about) what’s going on. So that was the decision that we had to make and we’ll see how everything goes moving forward.”
(On if DE Dion Jordan gave him any sort of feedback from what he told him or if it was more of a one-sided conversation) – “He was really good. When you’ve been away from this for so long, I think he was really excited just to get back in the building. He was there early. He was trying to meet as many people as he could. Like he kept saying to me, he felt like he was walking into a different building. It looks different. There’s a lot of different faces for him. I think this is a good fresh start for him and it’s a chance for him to just start his career over.”
(On the status of DE Dion Jordan’s knee and how long will it take) – “Well right now, it looks like it could be kind of the Xavien Howard timetable. We’ll see. Now that he’s back with us, we’re going to feel better about being able to get that rehab process going and hopefully speed it up as fast as possible so we can get him out there when the league allows us to actually get him out there.”
(On if he would be surprised if DE Dion Jordan starts the year on the NFI list) – “That’s hard for me to predict right now. We’re going to have to see. This is going to be one of those things where everything’s day to day right now – especially with him. We’re still gathering information every day. I feel like we get a different phone call of, ‘Okay now you can do this, and now you can do this and this box is checked.’ So we’re really taking this slow and we’re gathering information as we go.”
(On moving RB Arian Foster off the PUP and how he looked today) – “I think he was really ready to go. He did a conditioning test the other day just to kind of see where he was at and how he felt. I know (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach) Dave (Puloka) came back to me and he was like, ‘He absolutely annihilated this thing.’ I think he (Foster) was trying to prove a point to us like, ‘I’m ready to go.’ We just need to be smart. I mean he’s coming off a major injury and we have to do a good job of making sure that, not only with the reps – and I know I’ve said this before with Cam (Wake) – of understanding how much he’s working in individual. We have to keep an eye on him because the biggest thing for us, it’s the duration. It’s training camp. It’s the preseason. It’s the regular season. We have to do a great job to make sure we’re doing the right things with him.”
(On the appearance that they have to keep RB Arian Foster off the field because he’s so eager to get reps) – “Yes, it’s a new offense for him. I mean the best way these guys learn things is to get out there and do it. He hasn’t had a chance to do anything and today was his first chance to actually get a rep. So I know he was itching to get in there and I think he, personally, has a lot to prove. He wants to show, ‘I’m coming back from this thing. I’m going to make something of this opportunity.’”
(On what he likes about CB Brandon Harris and CB Rashaan Melvin) – “I think we’re looking to find guys that we feel comfortable with bringing in. We work guys out. We’ve done some research on a lot of guys in the past. We’ve worked a lot of guys out in the spring that might not necessarily make headline news, but we put on the back burner and then they may come back up. I think right now, our defensive staff feels comfortable with the moves that we’ve made. We’re looking to give guys (an) opportunity, and we want competition. If we feel like it’s time to move on from somebody, we’re going to do it and try to bring somebody else in and say, ‘Alright, we’re going to give this guy a shot.’ Obviously, (Harris) wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t (with Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph in Houston). We’ll see this going forward of what guys can slide in there and make a difference.”
(On T Branden Albert getting a rest day) – “Considering the fact that we have so many young guys, we’re probably not going to have a ton of guys sitting out. I’m just trying to be a little bit proactive, especially with him. There are a couple guys on my list, but every time I’ve brought it up to them, ‘I’m thinking about doing something,’ I’m getting some negative feedback from them of, ‘I’m fine. I don’t need a rest day.’ But I think we do have to be smart as far as understanding that the season is long and we need guys for the duration. Making it to Week 8 or 9 doesn’t do anything for us. We got to be smart. We’re trying to use all our information. The fact that these guys are combative as far as wanting to be out at practice is a positive.”
(On how the players have responded in training camp so far) – “I haven’t heard any complaints. Guys have just been working. It’s the third day. You don’t know until you get 10, 11 (practices in), (a) couple days off, and all of a sudden you’ve got those three days before you play a preseason game. That’s when everybody starts hating each other. (laughter) Right now, I think we’re in great shape. It’s going to be (about) moving forward when it gets really tough. It’s going to be (about) how we respond and how we practice, what’s the tempo. We’ll know more the longer we go.”
(On DE Mario Williams getting a fresh start in Miami) – “Absolutely. Whatever has happened with him in the past, for me, I really don’t care. I know the guy that I had to actually go against in 2014, and I know how we had to game plan for that game. I think it actually … That team snapped a quarterback that had a 51-game touchdown passing streak, and we didn’t throw one that game. It was a tough defense to go against, because that pass rush was coming, and he was one of the main reasons why it was occurring. For us, going forward, whatever happened last year, I really don’t care. I just see the guy that’s out there working every day and trying to get better. I feel like he’s going to be an impact player for us.”
(On whether CB Bobby McCain is full go for practice) – “He’s full go. We’re good to go with him. He did everything that he needed to do, and we’re ready to roll with him.”
(On RB Arian Foster as a pass catcher) – “I think anytime we have a guy (that can catch the ball), that gives us options. When I watch him run routes, it just looks so smooth, and he looks effortless. It almost looks like he’s not running fast, but for some reason, guys struggle to cover him and then he pulls away. You don’t see many times where, if that ball hits his hands, that it’s on the ground. When you got a running back that can do that, it’s a great matchup, because a lot of times you have linebackers on the running back. If you’re a really good running back that can catch the ball, they start putting a safety on you. Now all of a sudden you got a linebacker on a tight end. Now the matchups start becoming issues at other spots. The more he can do – and the more our running backs can do – the more it opens up things for other positions as well.”
(On QB Ryan Tannehill’s passes in training camp so far) –“It’s really the first day that we pushed the ball a little bit down the field. I think there were a couple nice plays. At the end of the day, I keep looking at a lot of these throws … Guys need to make plays. If the ball is up in the air, we need to go get it. His biggest thing is getting that timing, so we have to run full speed at every snap. When we do get a chance to throw a takeoff route, we got to throw it correctly, but we have to be running at the same speed that we’re going to run in a game. You can’t create timing by going half speed in practice and then in a game be like, ‘Well, this one’s overthrown. This one’s underthrown.’ If you don’t have (any) sense of timing, how are you going to judge anything? I feel like right now, the way that our receivers, tight ends and running backs practice, they go full speed all the time. I feel like our sense of timing is going to get better and better.”
