Adam Gase – November 9, 2016
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Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(So TE MarQueis Gray was not out there today?) – “Yes, it’s more of a precautionary thing. He just needed another day to just kind of get his body right.”
(What’s your assessment of Chargers RB Melvin Gordon?) – “He’s made a lot of strides in a short period of time. Obviously he has been their bell cow this year and obviously that’s what they wanted when they drafted him. Now with a couple guys have gone down, it’s even more on him as the year’s gone on. He’s really risen his play and probably is exactly what they thought he was going to be when they drafted him. He’s tough. He’s a tough guy to go against. He’s got everything you want as far as speed, size. He can do all their protection stuff. He’s a tough guy for us to go against.
(Him and RB Jay Ajayi are from the same draft class. Do you see any similarities in their game?) – “I think they’re a little bit different styles for the most part. They do a little bit of a different scheme than us. But I think they’re similar in the fact that both of them seem to have found their groove as far as sticking their foot in the ground, getting vertical, and using speed and power to help them get through the line of scrimmage.”
(Anybody on that defense you recall from your days in Denver giving you a hard time?) – “Yes, I mean there are a couple of guys that are still there. Obviously their defensive coordinator, we’ve gone against each other like eight times over the last few years. So we know each other fairly well. They’re very disruptive up front, for sure. It seems like there’s great energy going on right now with their front. They’re playing a lot more coverage, so that front four is getting to the quarterback and they’re stopping the run and they’re making things difficult for teams going against them.”
(Are there things you need to do to Chargers QB Phillip Rivers beyond what you would do to a normal quarterback?) – “He’s always been a tough guy to go against. I know there’s been a few times that we’ve played him and had a lead on him you feel like … you feel good going in to the fourth quarter and then all of a sudden you look up and there’s four minutes left and it’s a one score game, or it’s three points or they’ve taken the lead. I just know he’s a relentless competitor and he seems to find a way to get his group playing well. He’s had a lot of changes especially the last four or five years where either guys have left in free agency or guys have gotten hurt. He’s had a lot of moving pieces and he makes it work.”
(What did you learn working under Chargers Head Coach Mike McCoy in Denver the time you were together with him?) – “I think the thing I learned most of all was just about getting everybody involved in what you’re doing game-planning wise – how to handle the day as far as being a coordinator. He was very open with me every day (about) why he would do something – meetings, preparation for a game plan, practice, all those type of things. So I think he really did a good job of teaching me the day-in, day-out operation of being a coordinator.”
(Why didn’t you go with him?) – “Because I became the coordinator in Denver. We were pretty good.” (laughter)
(With WR DeVante Parker still battling that hamstring injury, what’s the expectation as far as him being able to play through that versus maybe trying to rest him for a week?) – “Yes, I mean that whole group, they’re all banged up out there battling through a lot of things. When you’re coming off an injury and then you feel good, and then you might have some minor setbacks here and there, it’s frustrating for a wide out because you want to be 100 percent. It’s just never going to happen. You just have to figure out the best way to push through and just try to give max speed as much as you can. I mean, for whatever reason he tightened up a little bit in the game and it made it real hard for him to get going down the field and really kind of cut. Today he felt better (and) was running around. Last week, we had a really good day – one day – where he almost looked like someone I hadn’t seen before. Right now, it’s hit or miss on every day and we just have to keep doing things that can help his body feel as good as it can when we hit Sunday.”
(Does WR Kenny Stills had anything lingering from the illness or is he back to full health?) – “I don’t know if he’s back to full health but he looked a lot better today than he did on Sunday for sure.”
(How did CB Chris Culliver look today?) – “He’s doing good. He’s progressing and he’s doing more and more every day. He’s taking reps with the defense instead of just doing scout team. I know for him it’s probably exciting to kind of get going with the real defense being called, not just working off of cards for the scout team or just doing one-on-ones. I’m sure he’s excited just to be in that fray of competing in a real period for that side of the ball.”
(Are you optimistic that CB Chris Culliver will play Sunday?) – “Yes, we’ll take a look at it. We’ve got to go the rest of the week and we’ll just keep evaluating what we want to do there.”
(When a player like Jay Ajayi says he gets stronger with more and more carries as the game goes on, how is that possible?) – “I think sometimes its rhythm. It was something I learned a couple of years ago – and I never thought of it that way with the o-line and the running backs – you start running similar schemes and they get a better feel of how the defense is playing their blocks and the running back has a feel of how he needs to start looking at how the linebackers are flowing, how the safeties are fitting, and you get in a little bit of a rhythm. I feel like with him, he is a big guy that, I think he can feel it wearing on the defense. I think it juices him up a little bit. I don’t know if it’s an adrenaline rush for him as the game goes on (or what). He seems to really get stronger as we kind of get going in that third quarter and when the fourth quarter hits, it’s almost like another gear that kicks in for him.”
(When you look at RB Jay Ajayi’s size and strength and also consider the tread. He didn’t play much last year, and he didn’t play much earlier in the season. How do those two things factor into his ability to potentially take on a consistent workload the rest of the way?) – “It’s hard for me to say. When you play that position, it’s such … It’s one of those things where it’s about recovery throughout the week. What are we doing with him at practice? How many reps is he taking? Is he taking a lot of hits on the days we have pads on? And how the game goes. We’ve been lucky that he’s come out of these last few games to where he’s felt pretty good. Leading up to Wednesday, I know he’s working hard to make sure that he maintains his body as far as how he feels when we get practice going again. Every guy is different. It’s really a week to week deal for how he feels. Obviously, we want to give him the majority of the carries; but at the same time, we probably need to be a little smart just as far as, if he’s carrying the ball 25 to 30 times every game, what’s that going to do to him?”
(I noticed that Damien Williams touched the ball on 50 percent of the snaps that he was on the field. How cognizant are you to utilize his skill set?) – “Well, a couple of times it’s just the ball went there because of what the defense did. On that third-down conversion, he was far from the primary guy. It ends up going there due to what they did on defense. He just seems to be a magnet for big plays. I don’t even know what the ratio is for every time he touches the ball; it just seems like something good happens. It’s nothing that’s by design. Obviously when you’re running the ball, sometimes I’m calling a play and I find out at the last second that he went in for Jay (Ajayi). Sometimes it’s just luck.”
(We talked at length about WR Jarvis Landry’s fire and your desire to get him the ball, and his desire to be involved in the game. We talked to QB Ryan Tannehill about it today a little bit. He said that he’s got to be careful because sometimes people look to him and maybe some of his theatrics draw focus to him a little bit. Would you agree with that? And have you ever talked to him about the fine line between intense and kind of out of control a little bit?) – “I think that there are a lot of us that have a certain way that we deal with things. I know there is some times that I know you can’t see it, that I’m losing a little bit of my mind. Everybody handles it different. We all want to sit here and be able to say we want everybody to act like everything is alright all of the time and you’re not frustrated or upset about anything; but everyone has a different way of showing it. I don’t want him to worry about that. I want him to be who he is. Over time, the longer you play this game, you start handling things different. That’s a young player who is competing and wants to do everything he can to help this team win.”
(Any update on TE Dion Sims?) – “Yes. He’s still technically in the (concussion) protocol and until they give us the green light that he’s cleared to play, then we’ll just keep going about the process they have us in.”
(When you say you’ve got to run the ball this week and stop the run. Is that over-simplification or are those high priorities because of the specific opponent?) – “I think as far as the defense goes, we just have to play good defense. You don’t really necessarily know how they’re going to come out and play us. I mean we could say they’re going to run the ball but they’re going to do what’s best with what they feel like they can beat us. If that’s throw it 60 times a game, that’s what they’re going to do. Stopping the run is going to be important for us because it’s going to allow us to get ourselves in third-and-longer situations, which our defense does a good job when they get in those kind of situations. Then offensively, we just need to do a good job of making sure we’re staying on the field. The last thing we need to do is give Philip Rivers 14 (or) 15 possessions because we’re going three-and-out and our defense is out there 80-some plays. The biggest thing for us is, when we do run the ball, we just need to be efficient, and when we throw it, we need to be efficient.”
(With CB Lafayette Pitts, what did he do to get that promotion from the practice squad and how can you see him helping the defense and special teams?) – “I think he’s a guy that we’ve been really excited about since training camp. Really, probably even before that. He’s really shown up. He’s got a little swagger to him to where you feel confident with him and he competes every day in practice. I know he gives our receivers fits as far as any time we do any kind of scout team. He competes. And then when we do one-on-ones he shows the right things and he competes on balls and gets his hands on balls and attempts to have an interception. He’s a tough guy for our guys to go against and we like the attitude he brings and we feel like he has good knowledge of our defense. Going forward, we’ll just kind of see how this week plays out. I don’t necessarily know who’s exactly going to be the guys dressing for the game yet. As we progress forward, we’re going to try to keep getting him better.”
(The term game manager has been thrown around a lot in the NFL with quarterbacks. QB Ryan Tannehill has been mentioned as such. Just curious of what your thoughts are on that term. Do you think it is positive, negative?) – “I look at it as the quarterback’s job is to make sure he puts his team in the best position to win a game. I mean I’m sure Alex Smith really doesn’t care how many times he goes to the playoffs as long as he’s going. Call the guys game managers. Their job is to win.”
(With TE Thomas Duarte, what was his path to making the roster?) – “Well we got a little, obviously we were surprised last week as far as it looked like Dion (Sims) was heading in the right direction and wasn’t cleared. We felt like that was the best thing for us because both our … ‘D.J.’ (Dominique Jones) was fairly healthy but ‘Q’s’ (MarQueis Gray) been kind of on and off and we just want to make sure that we had options available because we did want to play a little bit of the two tight end package and not just lean completely on the three wide receivers. We felt like he was a good insurance policy going into that game, but he’s done a lot as far as getting better (and) nderstanding the offense better. We’re seeing improvement in the run game. We obviously feel really good about him in the passing game. His pass protection is getting better. He’s just shown signs of improvement for us and we want to do the best job we can to stay in-house and be able to move guys up and give them the opportunity they deserve as far as being on the active roster.”
