Adam Gase – November 29, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Denver Media
(Can you just say where QB Jay Cutler is right now in his recovery, where he is in the concussion protocol?) – “He’s out of the protocol. He has been cleared and he’ll be the starter on Sunday.”
(You’ve had your own issues at quarterback. How do you deal with change? They’ve used three guys here and are going back to QB Trevor Siemian this week. How does that affect you or a team when you prepare?) – “It just depends how big of a deal you make it. I think in our situation, we’ve just been … We’ve had a couple games where Jay has went out of the game. Our guys are used to Matt (Moore). He has been here a long time. He filled in last year for Ryan (Tannehill). So, for us, we just kind of keep going. Not a lot changes when one is in over the other. It’s really just about how that group handles it and if they can handle the sudden change ups that certain guys like certain routes and concepts. Maybe there’s a little difference in cadence; but that’s about it.”
(You guys are obviously not the only team in the league that has dealt with some offensive line issues. When you’re looking at film studying other teams, are there any kind of common threads you see in some of the offensive line struggles around the league this year?) – “I think a lot of it has to do with just the way defensive lines are being built nowadays. The defensive ends are so much more athletic than the offensive linemen. It’s just a tough matchup. You go against guys that really a lot of these guys are linebackers as well, and now all of a sudden you start getting into their sub packages and they become defensive ends. They’re just a lot faster off the ball and they’re a lot more aggressive to go after the quarterback.”
(Does playing the Broncos have any interesting feelings for you?) – “Well, it depends if I’m going to give you a soundbite or not. (laughter)”
(So, what’s it going to be?) – “This week it’s … We’ve lost a few games in a row. We’re trying to win one game right now. Whoever we play, that’s … Our focus has just got to be about winning one game. It’s always fun to see a lot of the guys you either worked with or coached. After that, it’s pretty much nameless, faceless. You’ve got to focus on doing what you’ve got to do to win the game.”
(What are your thoughts on QB Trevor Siemian and can him actually going to the bench and then coming back, can that help a young quarterback?) – “Yes, it really can, because you get a different perspective. You get to see somebody else operate the offense. When I watch him, I love the way he throws the ball. It seems like he doesn’t really put a lot of effort in it. The ball comes out nice. When he has got time in the pocket and guys are running and finding some windows in there, he really spins it good. He can really cause some issues because when they run some of their deeper stuff – just watching them over the last couple years – he really puts the ball in some tight windows. When he has time, he can cause a lot of problems.”
(What have you learned now that you’ve been the head coach for a couple years that you wouldn’t have known? What becomes more obvious to you in terms of your coaching development that makes more sense?) – “Just looking at the last two years, I think the thing you never anticipate is how much time, really, you lose to prepare for games compared to being a coordinator, because of multiple things that you have to deal with. Really, the whole job becomes time management. You just have to be very efficient with what you’re doing. Your staff has to take a lot off your plate, whether it be game planning certain areas of the game plan in meetings. You always feel like you’re doing something. There’s never a time where you’re just sitting there, just relaxing. It’s just constant movement throughout the entire day.”
(What do you take most from your time with Broncos Head Coach Vance Joseph?) – “We’ve known each other since 2008. We had worked together before. Being together last year, seeing how far we both have come and how much we’ve learned, it was great for me to be able to sit with him. We would just talk a lot of football and lean on each other with how teams could attack us or how a defense would attack our offense and vice versa. He was always a close friend of mine. It was fun to work with him again for that one year. Him getting a head coaching job, that wasn’t very surprising. Just being around him and realizing how sharp he was and how good he was with our players. Our guys loved him and he held those guys accountable. Things didn’t always go perfect for us, but he was such a grinder and battler. He kept those guys in the right frame of mind to help us push through that end of the season last year.”
(Why did you decide to hire Broncos Head Coach Vance Joseph as your defensive coordinator in 2016?) – “I think it was just that I had a lot of trust in him. I had gone against him multiple times and always felt like he was a problem. He always knew … I felt like he always knew what we were doing. He just did a great job preparing his guys and they were always tough games, no matter who we had on offense, it just always seemed like it was a challenge. Just knowing his knowledge of football, the guys he’s worked under and how he came up in this profession, he was just a guy that I trusted and I knew last year I was going to have to hand it over to somebody that could take it and run with it, because I wasn’t going to have enough time, and he was somebody I trusted enough to do that.”
(Did you learn anything in 2010 in Denver that you take with you to deal with any struggles now?) – “I think that whole 2009-10 period was a great experience for me. I saw a lot of good. I saw some things that made me realize (I needed) to do it a little different. If things aren’t going right, it’s about kind of resetting the clock and coming back in the next week, getting a good week of practice in and then going out on Sunday and trying to find a way to win the game. Our guys are doing a good job of preparing and guys are doing a good job of practicing hard and trying to do all of the little details right to prepare for the game. We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve had opportunities to close it out and we didn’t quite get it done, and we’ve had a couple of games where we haven’t played very well. When we played a good team, they beat us and I just keep seeing a group of guys that keep trying to do it right and that’s really what you’re looking for guys to do, just so it gives you a chance on Sunday.”
(Is that resetting the clock part one of the hardest things to do?) – “It’s probably easier for coaches because once you basically are done with the players on Monday and you start working on the other opponent, you’re moving on. You don’t have time to sit there and sulk about whatever happened or feel good about whatever happened, so players get a couple more days to relive everything and they’ve got to hear it from probably a lot more people than coaches do, because we’re up here working; but when they come back here on Wednesday, it makes it really easy to just get it going and get ready for the next week.”
(You were pretty blunt about your team earlier in the season. Is that always a tough thing to go public with?) – “It’s probably something that I shouldn’t do. (laughter)”
(You’ve been blunt with me before. You never felt bad then.) – “I get a little upset sometimes and lose my head. I was just not very happy with the way we were playing after that Baltimore game and it was just one of those things where it was a controllable factor that I just felt like some guys weren’t handling their business the right way. I got asked a question and I was honest about it.”
(You’ve moved on from players in the middle of the season, even high-profile players. What’s your philosophy about when it’s time to, basically, cut bait with guys like that?) – “I think the way I look at it is, we’ve got to do whatever we need to do to make sure that we’ve got 53 guys that are on the active roster that are committed the same thing. It makes it easy for me when I know I’ve got to look at a guy like Cam Wake, (Ndamukong) Suh, Kiko (Alonso), Lawrence Timmons, Reshad Jones – all of those guys on defense – when I’ve got to look them in the eye and say, ‘Hey, this is the best move for us. I’m doing this for our team to put us in the best position.’ I just have to know that everything I do, like Cam Wake is not looking to rebuild. He wants to know, ‘What are you doing to help us win right now.’ I just feel a responsibility to guys that have been here for a long time or guys that have been playing for a long time to get it done right, and sometimes that’s moving on from somebody.”
