Adam Gase – November 29, 2018
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What kind of progress have you seen from TE Nick O’Leary? It seems like the past few weeks his numbers have dipped from earlier weeks.) – “I think we’ve just been using some different personnel groups. We’ve been playing all those guys. We were heavier with two-tight end packages last week but we were playing all three of those guys. He keeps doing a good job in the run game. He’s been open in the pass game; the ball just hasn’t gone to him. He’s done a really good job. His blocking has really been strong for us, helped us in the run game a lot. His pass protection, the same thing. Whenever we throw him the ball, he’s reliable.”
(Not that TE Nick O’Leary would tell us, but have you noticed any pep in his step this week facing the team that gave up on him?) – “I mean, I haven’t noticed any change in him since the day he got here. (laughter)”
(What is it about Dolphins-Bills that brings out a little extra? There was a fight at the end of last year.) – “I don’t know if that was really … It seemed like that once incident. It was just goal line and everybody was just in a mosh pit. There was probably some trash talking and a late hit just kind of started the whole thing up. It just got carried away.”
(I know the Bills felt that hit on S Aaron Williams had them pretty hot as well. Is there something about these two teams, or no?) – “I don’t think so. You might want to ask some of the players about it.”
(What has WR Danny Amendola meant this year?) – “He’s been extremely reliable in third-down situations. He’s done a great job on the field as far as practice habits, what he does on game day, the intensity he brings. He’s almost in a different world on game day. The way that he carries himself in the locker room, in meetings, on the practice field, it’s ideal. You want every player to operate like that. I know Danny has gone through different things in his career to where he’s had ups and downs. That’s probably part of the reason why that’s how he’s become who he is right now. When you’re a veteran player, that’s what happens. You see a lot of things and you might adjust the way you do things. I know the way that he prepares his body to get ready for a game, he feels like that’s changed over the last few years that have helped him a lot.”
(What would it do to your offense if WR Kenny Stills has to play that slot spot?) – “Going into a game, if that’s more the case, us knowing going into the game, that helps us because now we can tailor really what we’re doing to him. And that does change a little bit. Him and Danny (Amendola), they’re different players.”
(How often do you have players that can play all three spots or know all three spots as a receiver?) – “There’s probably usually one or probably two guys max that know all the spots and be able to do them – go from outside to inside – and be good at it. It’s hard to find guys that are built that way.”
(WR DeVante Parker came to the team with a lot of hopes and potential. You’ve had him for three years. Why, outside of one game at Houston, has he not been able to be that guy more consistently?) – “I think the injuries have hurt him. That’s probably about as obvious as anybody in this room … I know everybody knows that. I think anytime you miss practice time, that hurts. The hardest thing for me is just in my time, there have been some really good games where he’s done a lot of stuff that we’re looking at, ‘Hey, this graded out really well.’ And it might not be a game where he has a ton of catches, a ton of yards; and he’s doing things right, the ball is just not going to him. To me, it’s just all about consistency. Being able to be out there – availability – that’s really the No. 1 thing in this league. If you can be a guy out there 16 games and you’re doing the right stuff, usually you’re going to be productive. The physical traits are there. I like the way he’s been going the last couple of weeks. We could have had some other opportunities for him last week, we just didn’t get it to him.”
(When the season started, you said that you expected to keep three quarterbacks throughout the season. You guys have held true to that. You’ve had a hell of a lot of injuries. Have there been times you thought, maybe this is a luxury we can’t afford?) – “I don’t look at it as a luxury. That’s what we’re going to do. If we find guys we like, we’re going to keep trying to develop them and spend as much time with those guys as we can. The last three years, we’ve lost quarterbacks. We’ve just got to keep finding guys that we like and try to develop them. This year, when we’ve had injuries, we’ve been able to replace those guys. It hasn’t been somebody like sitting around that we have like an extra guy that we might not be able to get up. I don’t know how to explain it. It just kind of worked out to where it hasn’t been really a discussion or a worry.”
(What have you see from QB David Fales that he’s been able to stay on the 53-man roster throughout the season?) – “To me, I like David’s anticipation. I like the way his brain works, the way he sees things. He like what he does in practice, what we see every day. I like the way that he just keeps coming along, just keeps working.”
(I wanted to ask you about the pass rush. You guys have 18 sacks on the season. I know you value pressures just as much as you value sacks, but this team is built to rush the passer. You’ve got a lot of resources put into that position. How come it’s not more effective than it could be?) – “I think it has been. That’s why we have all these interceptions because the quarterbacks are throwing the ball a lot earlier than they want to, and we’re getting turnovers because of it. So the quarterbacks, instead of getting sacked, they’re rushing their throws and we’re picking the ball off. It’s working for us. We’ve had opportunities for more sacks. We’ve just got to finish the play. But I do think that that pass rush forces quarterbacks to panic a little bit and get rid of the ball sooner than they want.”
(What, if anything, have you said to TE Mike Gesicki since the turnover against the Colts?) – “Nothing. He knows that’s one of those things that can’t happen, especially with the amount of time we spend on ball security. That might be the second fumble we’ve had by a non-quarterback. He’s got to be able to catch that, take that hit and we’ve got to be able to keep moving on that drive. That was a big drive in the game.”
(In general, what would you like to see from TE Mike Gesicki over the last five games, and also going into his second season?) – “I’m not going to go to the second season yet because I’m worried about this week. I just want him to carry over what he’s doing in practice. We’re seeing a lot of good stuff on his releases, we’re seeing him make a lot of good plays in practice. He’s got to build on that, carry it over to the game, execute it the same way he does out here and just take it one week at a time, just keep getting better every week.”
(With LB Raekwon McMillan, what are some things you’re seeing that he’s doing really well and some areas you think he needs improvement?) – “Just the more he sees, the easier it is for him to react fast and go make plays. There’s so many things in the NFL that offenses do now, that you have to be prepared for a lot of things. He’s got the mind for it. You can see, he’ll see it once and then the next time he has it, it’ll trigger a little bit faster and make a play. He’s just got to keep at it as far as studying the game, reacting. He’ll get to the point at some point in his career where he won’t need to see it one time to react. He’ll just go do it. He’ll understand the rules inside and out to where he doesn’t only know his spot, he knows everybody else’s. He knows where everybody is going to be and sometimes what happens when the game is moving fast and guys are in different places, you don’t always know where everybody’s at. That’s why that continuity on defense is so important on that second level to where those guys are always on the same page, they trust each other and they can do their jobs.”
(The holding call on DE Andre Branch that wasn’t called, is that a play that you turn into the league? If so, exactly what happens?) – “There’s nothing we can do about it now. That’s all I got for you.”
(But what happens when you do turn in certain plays to the league?) – “They tell you what they think it should have been and that’s it. They can either say, ‘Yeah, we think we missed it.’ Or, ‘Hey, this is why it wasn’t called,’ or ‘This is why it was called.’ I mean, it doesn’t do anything now.”
(So, what do you think of that? In the NBA they have the last 2-minute reports but the team can’t do anything about it.) – “We’re heading down a bad path right now. (laughter) Nothing. We can’t do anything. You can be mad all you want, but it’s not going to change anything.”
(DE Andre Branch said he was going to start flopping and he was only half-joking. Would you advise for that or against that?) – “I don’t know if you’re going to get calls. It could be a double whammy. You don’t get a call and the next thing you know, now it’s even worse because maybe he can run past you. I think he’s just got to stick with what he’s doing and just keep making it hard on offensive linemen, keep trying to disrupt the passer.”
(How did DE Charles Harris play in his return?) – “I thought he did a good job. He played with great energy. He was playing fast. There were a lot of good things … He did a lot of the dirty work, which is something we’ve noticed, especially at practice. We’re seeing him doing a lot of things in the run game that looks really good. He’s been very reliable. Since he’s been back, he seems stronger, he seems thicker. I know he spent a lot of time in the weight room when he was hurt because he couldn’t do anything as far as running as much as he wanted to. He was real excited to get back and every game … He’s a high-energy guy for us.”
(Back to LB Raekwon McMillan, considering he missed the time with the knee, has his play met your expectations this year?) – “I don’t know. It’s hard to even remember what I was thinking however long ago when we started. I think he’s done what we were hoping … The way he developed, it seems like we’re headed in the right direction. We just want to keep stepping him up and keep taking the lead and him, Kiko (Alonso) and ‘Bake,’ (Jerome Baker) just keep playing together and keep learning how they’re going to play together. When we get in situations, we just need them to step up.”
(Just to clarify one thing, was TE A.J. Derby down last week because of health? Did you want to see TE Durham Smythe? A combination of the two?) – “It was a little bit of those other three guys are probably the healthiest guys we’ve got on the team right now. He’s still … (Derby is) still not 100 percent. I mean, he’s working as hard as he can to get there. We’ll see what we do this week. I like all four of those guys. Every week is a tough decision. If they’re all four healthy, that’s a tough decision. You almost want to figure out, how do I get them all up? Because they all can do something offensively. They all can do special teams stuff. There’s a lot of value in that room.”
