Adam Gase – October 12, 2016
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Head Coach Adam Gase
(On the decision making that went into yesterday’s roster moves) – “It probably started on Sunday night. We started talking about if we wanted to make some changes and discussed it Sunday night, Monday, went through the morning on Tuesday, and we decided to make some moves.”
(On what prompted him to make the moves) – “We were doing our evaluation process on certain guys, and we felt like it was time for us to make a change.”
(On whether the roster moves were performance-based) – “Yes.”
(On whether releasing RB Isaiah Pead was numbers-based) – “It was a little bit. Hopefully, we’re going to get Arian (Foster) back here pretty soon. We’re getting pretty crowded back there, and we got to make some moves on some other positions as well. We’re a little bit unhealthy (at) certain spots and need to add some depth.”
(On G/T Laremy Tunsil practicing today) – “He was limited today.”
(On G/T Laremy Tunsil will play Sunday) – “We’ll see how we get through the week. I really don’t know for sure right now, so we’re keeping all doors open. We’ll see how it goes as the week goes on.”
(On how exactly G/T Laremy Tunsil fell) – “I don’t know. I didn’t want to get too deep with him on it. I just know he didn’t play on Sunday. I don’t know. Ask him.”
(On whether he asked G/T Laremy Tunsil about his fall) – “I might’ve. But I was just like, ‘I don’t want to know.’ I started asking him, and then I was like, ‘You know what? I just don’t want to know. I know you didn’t play.’”
(On CB Bené Benwikere and CB Chimdi Chekwa and if his expectation is if they will compete to start eventually) – “I think we’ve got a long ways to go before anybody is going to be able to get caught up that fast, and we’re pretty deep into it right now. There have been a lot of schematic things that we are doing a little different since the last time. Chekwa has been here for sure. Obviously when you’re learning a new defense, it’s going to take a minute.”
(On S Reshad Jones’ status) – “We’ll see. We’ll see how the week goes on. I don’t know how much we’re actually going to see him in practice. It’s going to be a game-time decision for us.”
(On S Reshad Jones’ injury) – “I think we have a groin listed.”
(On whether he was sending a message to the team with yesterday’s roster moves) – “I think it was we wanted to make a change at a few spots, and a couple of those guys were offensive lineman and (at the) running back position. That’s what we thought was best for our roster at the moment.”
(On his message to QB Ryan Tannehill this week) – “Really, it’s, ‘We’ve got to go out there. We’ve got to get the ball out quick (and) do a good job of processing what’s going on. Make good decisions. We’ve got to play turnover-free football.’ That’s going to be key for us – the entire offense – and we’ve got to create turnovers on defense. That’s going to be a big factor for us this game. Obviously, we can’t give them short fields, because it’s tough enough to defend this offense as it is. We have to do a great job on offense making sure that we hold on to the ball.”
(On whether yesterday’s roster moves being seen as a message to the team is a negative team) – “I don’t know. You’d have to ask them. I just know that we’re trying to get the best guys we can possibly get to play on Sunday and play at max effort and do things right and do their assignments right and get guys that are going to play as a group and try to figure out a way to get a win.”
(On if this is something we might be prepared to see going forward) – “Every week’s a new week. In the NFL, it’s hard to keep those seats in that room. There’s a reason why you go through this whole process throughout the season. It’s about trying to figure out who are the guys you want in this organization, who are the guys you want to build with and create something good.”
(On QB Ryan Tannehill’s lack of protection and dealing with it by making plays by escaping) – “Yes, when things are going bad, you have to figure out what your options are. Sometimes play calling can help you in that situation. We got a little bit, towards the end, where we had to try to drop back pass, we tried to do a couple of max protections. He wasn’t able to hold onto the ball for more than basically to hit the back of his drop. Somebody was either hitting him or in his face. It really didn’t matter what we did.”
(On the Steelers using max protection and how are they able to be so explosive when only releasing two guys down the field) – “Because their receivers are really good. That’s why. When you’ve got their caliber of guys and you’ve got a lot of time and their QB can launch it and then he can buy more time, you start to get into scramble-drill type moments, it’s tough. It’s hard to hang with you guys. You’ve got linebackers dropping out after you get play-action protection. You’ve got guys running all over the field and all of a sudden one of those guys finds a crease. It’s a dangerous deal if you let them loose.”
(On if he has any update on TE Jordan Cameron) – “Yes, he was in the building today. We’re still in the (concussion) protocol.”
(On how CB Byron Maxwell is handling the rocky start) – “He keeps coming out and working, I know that. He’s trying to spend a lot of time. He watches a lot of film. He’s always asking questions, he’s really engaged in meetings. He’s trying to figure out a way to contribute and be part of the solution.”
(On who are his first string corners) – “The same guys we had last week.”
(On who would be his first guard off the bench right now) – “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
(On whether the first guard off the bench would be C/G Kraig Urbik or C/G Anthony Steen) – “It could be anybody on the roster.”
(On the challenges Steelers RB Le’Veon Bell gives the linebackers that have had difficulty fitting their gaps) – “It takes the whole group. You’ve got to make sure you do a good job of bottling him up. You can’t let him loose and when you get one guy that gets a hand on him, you better have a whole bunch of guys coming after him. It has to be a gang-tackling effort. I don’t see a lot of teams bringing him down with one guy. His patience is impressive. He’s done a lot of different schemes in his career coming from college to this level here. He’s obviously one of the best running backs in the league for a reason.”
(On if the linebackers need to be slower to committing to stop RB Le’Veon Bell) – “Well if you do that, he’ll make you pay for that too. It doesn’t matter what you do. If you get a glove on him, you have to make sure that you hold on and everyone else has to rally to the ball.”
(On his views on accountability and what would he say to the players about accountability) – “Doing your job. Doing what you’re supposed to do at the right time under pressure. If you do your job, and the next guy does his job, you’ve got a better chance of having success on that one play.”
(On how many of his players he thinks have done their job) – “It’s more than what, probably, I make you guys feel like. It’s just, our expectations, we expect guys to work for perfection. I mean that’s how you win. It’s as many guys as possible trying to do it right so we have a chance at the end of the game. It’s going to be a 2-minute drive one way or the other, and that’s the situation you’re trying to put yourself in.”
(On why the offensive linemen moves weren’t made after training camp) – “A lot of times everybody thinks it’s really easy to just say, ‘Hey, let’s go grab this guy.’ I mean who’s out there? We’ve got a list of guys that we’re always tracking and evaluating. This is part of our evaluation process. At the time, that’s where we were at. That was the roster we went with and we decided to make a change.”
(On the assessment of the new CB Bené Benwikere) – “Well, anytime you get a young player that you have good grades on, and obviously we’re shifting some things around on our roster, we had a chance to pick him up. That’s why our personnel department does what they do. They bring a guy like that to the table and then we sit down, we make a decision and then we add a guy and we’ve got to make another move. It was something that we had an opportunity. We took a shot at the guy. We got him. It worked out for us.”
(On CB Bené Benwikere’s ball skills) – “For us, we’re always trying to find guys that, when the ball is in the air, if we can get our hands on it and we have a shot to get a turnover, that’s what we want to do. The more guys that you have confidence in that can turn the ball over, you want to get as many of those guys out there. We’ve got a couple of guys that have the ability to do that. We haven’t put ourselves in position to do it quite yet. But moving forward, hopefully we can keep improving in that area.”
(On CB Chris Culliver being able to come off of PUP next week and if he’s thinking he’s someone that could help him out after the bye week as opposed to the Buffalo Bills game) – “We’ll see how it goes. I don’t have any definite answers there.”
(On having nine defensive linemen on the roster and what went into the decision of moving DT Leon Orr from the practice squad) — “We had an available spot. We felt like he was the next best guy. We’re just trying to find ways to keep practicing, see what our best fit is for game day, and this gives us another opportunity.”
(On what the process is for WR Jakeem Grant to earn more time on offense and if that takes place on the practice field) – “Pretty much. For the most part, we have certain things that we like to do with him. We’re (not) going to try to put too much on his plate because what he is doing is a big job. I know a lot of people think that it’s really easy to go back there and do what he does; but when you’re a first-year player and we can get him to focus on what he needs to do because he can make game-changing plays – that benefits us. If we find some things on offense that he can do, that’s beneficial. He’s usually, a lot of times when you have a return specialist, you don’t get that. But with him, he’s an actual wide receiver that we’re training and trying to get better and making sure he knows exactly what to do all the time. It’s not easy to pull one of those three guys (WRs Jarvis Landry, Kenny Stills and DeVante Parker) off the field. I feel really comfortable with those guys. We’ve just got to keep building on this thing with those three guys and find ways to get them the ball and give them a chance to make some plays.”
(On if WR Jakeem Grant has ever worked as a running back) – “Maybe.”
(On how RB Kenyan Drake played Sunday) – “He did pretty good. The drop was very uncharacteristic of him. That’s one of the main reasons why he is a valuable piece for us is his ability to do all three phases of the running back position. We’re always going to try to find ways to get him involved and get the ball in his hands but we had 44 plays in the game. We tried to get something going there with Jay (Ajayi). We start pulling guys in and out and now Jay (would have) seven carries. I think he had what, 13? We were hoping to get more like the 20-25 range. Those guys kind of were … (we were) spot playing those guys in certain situations, trying to get them involved a little bit. We were trying to get our running game, something going there with one guy.”
(On how he would describe DE Mario Williams’ performance after five games) – “I think we’ve been a little up and down. We’ve had a couple of games where he’s done well – he’s done his job, he’s had some production here and there. You’re always looking for consistency. I think every position is; every guy. You always want to be able to walk out of the game and say, ‘Hey, we counted on this and we got more.’ You never want to say you got less. It’s one of those things where when you’re in a situation to where you’re playing the run as much as we’ve been because we’ve been behind, teams are trying to run the ball on us. That team last week, we knew that’s what they wanted to do. We signed him, we wanted him to pass rush, and what we haven’t done is held our end of the bargain on offense. We haven’t had any production. We haven’t given our defense a chance to pass rush. That’s the thing we’ve got to change most of all.”
(On if this team has played as they’ve practiced) – “No. These guys practice hard. They do it right in practice. We just have to transfer it into a game.”
(On if it is possible to get RB Kenyan Drake and RB Jay Ajayi in the game at the same time) – “Possibly.”
