Adam Gase – November 17, 2016
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Thursday, November 17, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Opening statement) – “I’ll start off here with, you guys probably saw on the injury report (that Mike) Pouncey didn’t practice today. He ran into some issues with the hip again. (It’s the) same one and we’re going back through the evaluation, getting him with the doctors and things like that. We haven’t ruled him out for this week at all. So we’re still trying to figure out the exact details of issues and where we’re at with that. That’s kind of where we’re at with him right now.”
(Is it something C Mike Pouncey suffered in practice?) – “I don’t know if it’s been bothering him for a while. He’s kind of one of those guys that just grinds everything out and you really don’t know anything and then yesterday he kind of pulled himself out and said he didn’t feel right. (We) pulled him out and right now we’re trying to get more information.”
(You’re already down obviously one starting offensive lineman. C Anthony Steen I guess at center?) – “We’re going to shuffle some things around. We’re working a couple of different lineups right now. We’ll try to figure out what’s the best way to go into this game with. Obviously we have a very big challenge this week with this group and we just have to figure out what’s the best lineup for us for this game.”
(Is this a situation where you could possibly rest C Mike Pouncey up until game day or would you feel comfortable playing him without practice?) – “Yes, I mean if he didn’t practice at all during the week and played on Sunday, I’d be alright with it. That’s where he’s at as far as a pro, where he can actually do that. In this case, obviously we still have some information to gather and try to figure out where we’re at for Sunday.”
(Is there any concern that this is career threatening for C Mike Pouncey in this situation?) – “I wouldn’t go that far. I mean just want to find out if he can go this Sunday and then, if for some reason he couldn’t, what’s the next step.”
(So you’re not at home, you don’t have all of your facilities and stuff like that. Do you have to go searching for an MRI place?) – “No. I mean that’s the one good thing about when you’re involved in the NFL, there’s a lot of resources and our training staff has a lot of people they know throughout the country and it’s fairly easy for us to know where to go and we have plans when you do go on the road like this of where you’re going to go if something does happen. So we have a lot of things at our fingertips.”
(With C/G Anthony Steen, where’s your comfort level if he has to start based on his performance earlier this season?) – “Very high. He did a really good job when he was in there. When you play that position, you’re really kind of the mouthpiece of the entire offensive line. You’re setting everything up. You’re an extension of the quarterback as well. He did a good job. He knows our offense in and out. Obviously for the period of time he was in there, he did what we asked him to do, and we had a lot of pieces moving in and out and he handled that fine. Now it’s a different challenge for us just because we had been on a little bit of a roll here with that group and now we’re going to have to make some changes and figure out what’s the best lineup for this week.”
(This kind of pales in comparison, but you’ve been asked a lot about CB Chris Culliver. He clearly thinks he can play, and you guys don’t seem to be at that point yet. What’s the disconnect?) – “When I’m ready to say he’s active, he’ll be active. I think that’s pretty much the last time I’m going to talk about that.”
(You don’t know right now whether C Mike Pouncey is in or out, needs surgery or doesn’t?) – “Correct. I’m talking … This is very early stages where we’re at right now.”
(With WR DeVante Parker, we’ve gone over this back and forth with the hamstring. Have you figured out what causes it to flare up?) – “I want to say he may have been a little inconsistent as far as his preparation throughout the week earlier in the season to where one week we’d have a really good week, everything was right on cue, he did everything right as far what was going into his body and how he’s practicing. I think the last three weeks, for sure, he has been very consistent. He has put himself – him and (Wide Receivers Coach) Shawn Jefferson and (Assistant to the Head Coach Jay) Kaiser has actually been involved in this too with the sports science guys – is they’re on a very strict regimen as far as what they’re doing every day. They set up his schedule to where he has been very consistent with that, and you can see that has really paid off for him, because every day looks the same. I think the fact that he has really embraced that – and he has done a good job of making sure the recovery, sleep, hydration, the way he’s eating – everything he’s doing is really paying off for him right now. He needs to continue doing that throughout the rest of the season.”
(When WR DeVante Parker is hot and cold, back and forth, does that prevent you from calling plays for him?) – “The only time that you’re trying to figure out if he’s healthy or not … That was earlier in the season, because we did have a couple games where we felt like we were in good shape leading up to the game, and then Friday or Sunday, something just didn’t look right and now all of a sudden you have to change gears to where last week, we felt good all week. And then when we hit Sunday, we were really confident that he was going to be able to be a guy that could impact the game. I feel like if we can consistently get that weekly performance from him, we script those openers or how we want to go through our red zone or third down (and) we can put him high up on the list as far as a guy that’s going to contribute for us.”
