Adam Gase – November 1, 2017
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Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Not looking long term but right now are the Dolphins better off? Why are they better off without RB Jay Ajayi?) – “I think it was just time for us to move on. We’ve had conversations about kind of what we were going to do down the road. (We) felt like this was a good opportunity. We were kind of putting some feelers out to see where other teams were at and we’ve got some younger players there that that we feel like we were going to move forward with, and that was kind of the decision we came to.”
(Do you feel this team is better than what it was a couple of hours ago?) – “I like where we’re at right now.”
(As far as RB Kenyan Drake, would you envision him becoming your lead back or do you expect to split with RB Damien Williams?) – “We’ll see how it works out. We’re going to go through practice this week and see what fits. I like the three guys that we’ve got – their skill sets – and we’re going to be able to maximize what they do well.”
(What has QB Jay Cutler been able to do? What’s he capable of right now?) – “Really, we’re going to kind of see how it goes in practice today. That’s the biggest thing for us – see how he feels during practice, after practice, moving into the next day. I know Matt (Moore) took a lot of shots last week and he’s trying to recover from that as well. I mean he’s still a little sore. He took probably way too many shots. We’ve just got to kind of see how this week goes. I know Matt’s always ready to go and we’ll see how Jay feels.”
(You were talking about it as a pain tolerance issue a week ago. You may know more about it now.) – “Yes, I mean that’s the thing.”
(Is it medically safe for QB Jay Cutler? Is there some concern with him playing as far as doing further damage?) – “No. From what basically I’ve been told is, it’s going to come down to how painful is it going to be when we start throwing and moving around the pocket, getting hit and that’s really what’s it going to come down to is how much pain is it? We won’t know. When he runs on Monday and throws a little bit, and says he feels pretty good, he was trying convince me that he could go. I feel like he’s feeling okay, but I thought it was the right decision to start Matt (Moore) last week and really give (Cutler) more time get healed up.”
(So if QB Jay Cutler takes another hit in the chest, ribs, does that expose him to bigger, further damage?) – “It sounds like we’re going to be okay in that area. It’s just really … I’m sure it’s not going to feel good; but as time goes on … We’d like to avoid those shots. I mean that was a pretty violent shot. The guy came down with all his weight on his body. I mean that was a big hit. We need to do a good job of making sure that he’s protected. Hopefully we have a good sense of urgency.”
(Was there an effort made to acquire a veteran back yesterday after dealing RB Jay Ajayi or are you looking seriously to signing one now or are the three guys you have enough?) – “No, we didn’t inquire about anyone else and we’ll just kind of see how it goes from here on out; but as for right now, I like the group I’ve got.”
(What are you looking for from your running backs that you’re not getting in that position so far?) – “I think really what we’re looking for is really – not just that position but all positions on offense – is the consistency and making sure that you’re doing your job down in and down out. We’ve been way too inconsistent and I think that’s obvious. The three loses we had, we’ve basically been shut out three times. When you go through those tapes, it’s very glaring for us – not only as coaches but players. When we watch it together everybody … I mean it’s no secret when somebody makes a mistake because we’re watching it together and we’re going through it as a group and coaches are correcting their guys. Everybody is aware of who’s either screwing up or not making the right play or not making the right read. Everything’s pretty much an open book in the offensive room because we’re doing everything as a group.”
(Did you talk to RB Jay Ajayi, and if so, can you share anything with us?) – “Anything that we do is always going to stay in house. It’s never a fun situation. It’s never fun for a guy – even though it’s a great opportunity for him, going to a team that’s probably one of the best teams in the NFL right now – anytime that you’ve been in a place for a minute, you really always envision that you’re always going to be there forever. We just all know how it is. Coaches change, players change, that’s the nature of the business.”
(What disappoints you most about the RB Jay Ajayi tenure, your relationship with him and how the whole thing played out over the course of a year and a half?) – “We’ve had ups and downs, but that (happens with) a lot of players. It’s just (about) getting on the same page and sharing the same philosophy of how we want to do things. I think he tried to do what we were asking him to do a majority of the time. He had a lot of really positive games. He had some really, really good ones. It was just time for probably us to go separate ways.”
(Was there a message sent to the other players on the team with this trade?) – “I don’t know. That’s something you’d have to ask those guys.”
(Was there a message you were hoping to convey to them?) – “I don’t think I was thinking of it that way. I was just trying to find some ways to make sure that we could move in the direction that we were looking to move into, not only for this year but the future. We needed to figure out what we want to do going forward, see what we have and give guys opportunities. Really, at the end of the day, we need the offense to play a greater role in these games, and right now we’ve really been holding this team back. I think there’s really a great sense of urgency right now. We watched this last game, really, as an entire team. There’s nothing that nobody doesn’t know right now. Offense, defense, special teams, when you watch all three phases together, the defense sees where we’re making our mistakes, the offense sees where the defense is making mistakes, and then really special teams is together a lot, so there’s nothing hidden there. It’s probably a good thing that we did that. There’s a great sense of urgency right now.”
(Do you have a sense of whether RB Kenyan Drake could be a guy who could carry 15 to 20 times a game and be productive? Obviously you have to see it, but what’s your sense of that? What skills would lead to that?) – “You’re speculating. We’ll see how it goes between that crew and how the game plays out. The way you envision a game to go from week to week and how it plays out, usually it’s hard to be dead-on. Every game has a different story to it and a different feel. We’ve been seeing some different defenses then what we’ve been anticipating. Defensive coordinators have been doing a good job and when we’ve had to adjust, we haven’t done a very good job with it. We’ve got to be on it.”
(What’s your level of optimism that C/G Ted Larsen will be able to play Sunday?) – “We’ll see. We’ve got to go through this week. It’s hard for me to comment on it without going through practice.”
(When did you first start thinking about dealing RB Jay Ajayi?) – “I don’t really know the exact moment.”
(Within this season? After the season started?) – “Conversations come up all the time where you start talking about, even in the spring, you’re always planning years in advance, because it’s no secret that we’ve got some guys coming up contract-wise. We’ve got some guys coming up contract-wise and it’s going to be a lot of money. You’re trying to figure out how do you put the puzzle together, and that’s what you’re trying to figure out. What’s the best thing to do for the organization? Conversations come and go throughout spring, summer, training camp. It’s moving pieces so much. When opportunities come up, you act on them, you do what you think is best for the organization and move on.”
(Obviously, WR Jarvis Landry was not traded. How do you feel about – at this moment – about whether you hope he is in the long term eyes of the organization?) – “We told him a while ago … I can’t remember when everybody was saying that we were trading him but we told him a long time ago he wasn’t going anywhere. We have a vision for what we want that wide receiver room to look like, and we expect him to be a huge part of that. However it works out down the road, that’s hard for me to say, because I don’t negotiate the contracts. I’ll blame (Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Mike (Tannenbaum) on that one. I like that group. I like that group a lot. I think we have not only a lot of talent, we have a lot of guys that are trying to do it right, and they fight through the entire game. I think that’s why we see some moments where things look really good. We’ve just got to find ways to improve. We’ve just got to keep being on the details and make sure we’re accountable to each other.”
(You’re obviously aware of everything going on but with Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum and General Manager Chris Grier working the phones, when do you like to be brought in to decide whether or not to pull the trigger on a trade? At what point in that process?) – “There’s constant dialogue. When we play a Thursday game and you’ve got that time to really kind of think about a lot of things, there’s probably a lot more conversations going on there than say if we would’ve played on Sunday. Then things move a little quicker. We had some time to think about what we wanted to do going forward and what was our best steps. Thursday to Monday, it’s an eternity when you get waxed like that. You go through a lot of things. You watch a lot of film. You try to figure out what is going on.”
(Did talks with the Eagles commence after the Thursday game or before?) – “I don’t know exactly when they started. It wasn’t like Thursday, Friday morning or anything like that. I can’t really say what the exact timeframe was.”
(When a back is constantly looking to hit the home run, does that have an effect on the flow of the offense and is yardage kind of left on the field at that point?) – “It can. It’s great when it happens because it’s not an easy thing to be patient. Just watching a lot of football this weekend, watching other teams play, you can see when guys get tired of waiting for that explosive play. Then you see some guys call games that are very patient and can hammer out the 2, 3 (yards) and convert on third down. Our biggest issue has been we haven’t put ourselves in great position on third down. We’ve been in a ridiculous amount of third-and-10, third-and-11-plus. The percentages of converting those are so low just league average-wise. We have to … Right now, every yard we can get to get us in third-and-6 or less are really the steps we need to take.”
(What specifically on RB Damien Williams and on RB Kenyan Drake give you confidence that you have enough for now at running back – each of those two guys, what skills?) – “When you’re around guys over a two-year period, my confidence level is obviously going to be higher than probably your guys’, because you’re not around them every day, you’re not in meetings with them, you’re not in practice every day with them watching them work. Damien has impressed me from the get go. I was told when I got here that when the lights come on Sunday, he’s one of those guys you want with you. He has done nothing but make plays for us. Kenyan, we really feel fits the mold we’re looking for in that backfield. I like those two guys working together. And then Senorise (Perry) has knowledge of this offense. He has been with me enough to … When you know what a guy can do – what he does well – there’s a comfort level there. With those two guys, I like the fact that they’re able to catch the ball, they’re able to run good routes, they’re able to run the ball both inside and outside, they’re physical. It’s just something that we like their skillsets.”
(Do you anticipate play calling changing in the running game because of the change in personnel?) – “Well, it’s hard to do that because really, it’s more than one guy. Surprisingly, some of the things, it’s flipped so much over the two years that we’ve been here where Jay (Ajayi) wasn’t a big fan of the outside zone and then he had a lot of success there and really started to like it; and the other guys have been a little back and forth as well. Really, the good thing is they have the ability to run all phases of the run game – whether it’s outside, inside, gap scheme, dive plays, things like that. It’s just really how that game is going and what you’ve really planned. That style of running game can change throughout the game.”
(You had a lot of things you were upset about with particularly the offense last week. When the guys came back, did you sense a different approach or a different mentality towards some of the things you addressed?) – “Yes, we’re just not going to stay the same. We’re not going to keep doing the same thing and bang our head against the wall. We made some changes with how we’re meeting, how we’re going to walk through, how we’re going to schedule things, how we’re going to practice. We’re going to make changes. I’m not talking about personnel, I’m just talking about the way we’re going about things and the way that we’re teaching, the way that we game plan. That’s what we should be doing. If we sit here and do the same thing over and over again and just keep saying it’s execution or I’ve got to call different plays and things like that, then we’re really kidding ourselves. At the end of the day, we’ve got to find the right way to teach, we’ve got to find the right way to learn and then we have to find what allows us to execute best on Sunday.”
(Have you sensed a different approach from the players though since they’ve been back?) – “I do sense a sense of urgency, from the offense especially. Just kind of with what we’ve been doing with our walkthroughs and the way that I see guys in meetings, they know that the mistakes we’re making, they’re unacceptable; and we need to get this fixed. I sense a sense of urgency from the coaching staff as well.”
(What do you need T Laremy Tunsil to do differently or better?) – “I think those few days off helped. This is a physical game and when you’re playing that position, you always want to have all of your quickness and athletic ability and as the season wears on, it just kind of slows down for you a little bit. He really had a tough matchup last week. There’s been a lot of good. For us, it’s really just about that constant consistency week in and week out, play in and play out, of just knowing that side is good. That’s really why you draft him. When you’ve got a guy with that kind of athletic ability, you anticipate that and you expect it. There are spurts in a game where it looks really, really good, and then there will be a few plays where you wish he would have done better. The good thing is he’s very prideful. He wants to do it right. It bothers him a lot when he doesn’t do something right or when he gets beat. When you see that from guys, then you know you’ve got a chance to get them better.”
(The overhaul that you just described and the way you go about doing things, would you describe that as a bigger overhaul than you’ve ever experienced midseason with any of the teams you’ve been with?) – “Not necessarily. Every year has been different. I don’t think I’ve ever really done anything the same for an entire season, whether it be coordinating or these two years. I think there’s always going to be some kind of an adjustment, and that’s kind of the NFL season. It’s such a long year. When things kind of start going off track, your job is to go find solutions, whether that means you’re making some changes in how you’re going to do meetings or do extended walkthroughs, you spend more time up here at the building, guys start working together when we’re not here. Things have to change for us to be able to have some success on offense.”
