Adam Gase – June 14, 2017
Download PDF version
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We saw obviously another good day from WR DeVante Parker today. He talked to us yesterday about all of the improvements he’s made with sleeping, nutrition – all the things you’ve talked about. I was curious who has pushed him to get him to this point? Has it been some of you and Wide Receivers Coach Shawn Jefferson? Has WR Kenny Stills sort of taken him under his wing at all?) – “I think it’s a combination of Shawn (Jefferson), during the season, putting a really good plan together for him with the strength staff – (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Dave) Puloka, all of that crew, (Director of Sports Performance) Wayne (Diesel), (Team Nutritionist) Mary Ellen (Kelly). There were a lot of people trying to help point him in the right direction; but at the end of the day, he has to do it day in and day out when he’s outside the building. I think he just gravitated to it and stuck with his plan that was made for him during the season. Then once the season ended, he really just carried it on, on his own. To me, it’s evident that he started working on things a lot earlier than probably what he’s ever done, or he’s been able to do. It’s really paid off for him. You see a different guy out there every day. I should say he’s not a different guy every day, but the consistency compared to what we saw last spring. He is constantly moving as fast as you see him on game day. He really treats every day like it’s a game.”
(What did you learn about WR DeVante Parker now that maybe you didn’t know when you first got here?) – “That’s hard to say. I guess I felt like I had a really good insight. Being in Chicago, he was a guy that we were looking at hard and trying to figure out what was the best move for us to make when we were picking seventh. We had the luxury of having two guys on our staff that had been with him – one was Mike Groh, who was our wide receivers coach and then (former Bears Outside Linebackers Coach) Clint Hurtt, who was at Louisville with him, as well. I feel like I was getting a lot of information before ever being here and then once I came down here, I was able to talk to both of those guys and Clint had a lot of really helpful things to tell me to know what to look for to help DeVante and to understand how he saw things, how he operated in college and when he did well and if he ever struggled, how he got over the hump. I think that was really helpful because we were able to relay a lot of that information with (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn (Jefferson) and (Assistant Wide Receivers Coach) Ben (Johnson) and (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen), so we could really try to get ahead of things and try to help him get to where he wants to get.”
(How have you seen WR DeVante Parker’s relationship with QB Ryan Tannehill evolve and grow since he ended last season and into this offseason?) – “It seems like the longer we get to do this and we’re all together every day in meetings and practice, it’s just the communication. When you come in here to watch film, guys talking to each other, giving reasons why they did certain things, what they’d be thinking and if a different coverage would come up on certain concepts. It’s just that constant talking that goes on. That’s really all you want to have happen is you give them an outline of what you’re looking for and you let those guys really take it to the next level and kind of make it their own. You don’t want to just say ‘This is what it is and live with it.’ We really just try to give them that framework and let those guys take it from there.”
(Have you been around similar wide receivers – young wide receivers – to WR DeVante Parker in the past and what this year gives you the confidence that he’s going to get closer to that potential that you see?) – “It’s strange just being with Demaryius (Thomas) and (Eric) Decker when they were rookies. I was coaching wide receivers. I saw a lot of the same … The way that his path has gone is very similar to those guys. There were injuries early in their career, they fought through some ups and downs and once they kind of figured it out, they just found ways to get better every day. I see him doing the same thing. He goes out there with a purpose and every day we watch the film and we see a guy getting better.”
(At this time of the year with no pads, how do you determine run defense progress or success?) – “We won’t really know until we get pads on and we actually start playing some preseason games and the regular season. You try to look at it the best you can as far as run fits and running to the football and just that consistency that you’re looking for in the defense. Everything looks good when we’re in non-pads right now. We just need to carry our techniques and our fits to training camp, and then when we get in a game, we just need to take the next step and do it in games.”
(What was your reaction when it came over the headset to you that bees had taken over the entire red zone?) – “I was standing right in the middle of it. I was starting to see all of those somethings flying around and I didn’t know what was going on, then a couple of guys were freaking out. I was like I guess they’re bees.”
(You called a play, you had WR DeVante Parker running straight into the bees and he made a catch. It was impressive.) – “We were just trying to score touchdowns so he had to run through a couple of bees. He’s going to be alright. (laughter)”
(Serious question, any treatment needed?) – “I don’t think so. It has not been reported to me.”
(Do you feel like you guys are adequately prepared now if a bee attack happens in a game?) – “We’ll be ready for that.”
(Where do you think WR Jakeem Grant stands as a receiver now that we’re near the end of the offseason. We saw some nice catches today and some drops as well) – “I think he’s made some huge strides throughout the spring. I know we were trying to figure out what was the best spot for him. We’re just trying to get him to play as fast as he can. He’s done a really good job of diving into the playbook, spending … You can tell when a guy spends extra time because some of the little mistakes that you would see as a rookie, you don’t see as much anymore. He makes some really good plays. It just comes down to consistency and just consistently making those catches – not only the hard ones but it’s those easy ones that can get you sometimes as a wide receiver where you think you’ve got it but the next thing you know, you have an easy drop and that kind of creeps into your head. When he has those days where he doesn’t have anything on the ground and he’s in the right spots and he knows he did everything right, those are the days you just want to try to keep building off of and see if you can get two, three, four in a row to where you can really start making some leaps.”
(So far, what are you seeing out of the rookie WR Isaiah Ford?) – “When you’re a young guy, you’re just trying to fight to get better and get as many reps as you can. That’s why we try to keep the reps fairly balanced because we don’t want to just throw those guys out there for a couple of reps and hope they get better. We’ve got to let them do it. We’ve got to let them prove it. All of those young guys, they’re all fighting for some spot to stay alive and when we get to training camp, it’s going to be the same thing. Then the reps are going to start changing, so you’ve got to make all of these count in the spring, because this is when you’re really learning because when you get into a preseason game, that’s when it’s really going to count for you.”
(DE Andre Branch was talking about his offseason regimen yesterday and he mentioned MMA and things along those lines – physical therapy. Do you have a preference of what you want guys to do as far as if they’re taxing their body too much or if MMA is too dangerous? Any limits?) – “These guys, that’s their livelihood is their body. I don’t know if I’m really the poster boy for health by any means. Those guys do a lot more studying than what people realize of what’s the best thing to do for their bodies physically, what they’re putting into their bodies. They know that’s how you make your money. That’s how longevity occurs. We happen to have the guy that’s probably legitimately the poster boy for doing it right for a long period of time (Cameron Wake) and making everybody else feel like he’s 38 and he looks like he’s 26. He goes harder and longer than most of the players that we have that are actually 25 or 24. Him coming here was probably a great thing for him to see Cam (Wake) every day and see what he does, then taking whatever he was doing to the next level. He saw every day that there is proof that if you do it right, you can play for a very long time in this league.”
(As it relates to DE Cameron Wake, what did you guys learn last year in all of your research about snap totals versus performance?) – “Are you trying to throw the first five games into my face there? (laughter) I made a mistake. I should have been playing him more early. We were trying to think long term. We trying to think let’s get him the most important snaps during games. When we were getting down, it really put us in a bad spot because we didn’t want to stick him out there and all they were doing was pounding the football. We wanted him in there when teams were passing it, we just kept getting behind, and that was putting us at a disadvantage. That’s when we decided we have to make sure he’s out there more. That’s why we made that switch. We thought we were being smart and it backfired on us. We should have just went with … What we should have done was just let him play.”
(With T Avery Young, an incredibly talented guy. What led to bringing him in and how has he been?) – “When we finished the season, we were trying to figure out what direction we really wanted to go with … You start getting into the discussion of body types, physical ability, what fits in outside zone, we want to be firmer in protection. So you’re trying to figure out the best way to go about it. We did a lot of talking through at what point can’t you run outside zone. We had some long discussions with (Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach Chris) Foerster, (Offensive Coordinator) Clyde (Christensen), we got with the personnel guys and determined that there’s ways to find guys that are athletic enough; but at the same time, we’re not having a group of guys that are 290 pounds. He was a guy that we felt like was worth us taking a chance on as far as working out. He did a good job. We brought him in, got him in the program early. Being with his brother (Willie Young Jr.) in Chicago, that probably didn’t hurt him at all because I got that text and I trust that guy a lot. He’s done a really good job for us. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and he just keeps finding ways to get better.”
(If T Avery Young plays guard for you, how do you grade that level of athleticism that he has for that position and at his size?) – “You just want guys that can move well enough to get moving laterally. It’s really about angles for the most part. It is angles and effort. If guys … If you really strain and you really max out on the effort, more times than not you’re going to be able to do what we need you to do.”
