Adam Gase – September 5, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Tennessee Media
(As you look at this team, the Titans, they didn’t have QB Marcus Mariota last year. How different are they with Mariota and how difficult is it to figure out what he might be doing with this new offense?) – “It’s a lot different and it is difficult because there are a lot of options that can take place to where it could be just normal drop-back pass., it could be zone read, it could be play-action where if we’re not really doing a good job with our rush lanes and something opens up, he takes off. That becomes an issue. He’s got a lot of weapons to go to. And then you throw in the run game, with Derrick (Henry) and him kind of working it back there, there’s a lot of problems for us.”
(What kind of added dimension does RB Dion Lewis give the Titans this year?) – “I think the underrated part of him is him as a true running back. When he runs the ball, he does a great job. He was a guy that we actually looked at in free agency, so I was able to watch a lot of the … It’s one thing when you play a team, it’s another thing when you go into free agency and you study a guy. I don’t think I ever realized how good of a runner he was between the tackles. He’s tough. He runs the ball like a bigger guy. That’s probably the first thing that surprised me. And then he’s really a tough matchup in any kind of pass concepts. When he gets out in open space, he really makes it difficult for guys to cover him.”
(How is QB Luke Falk getting acclimated to South Florida?) – “Well I’ve only seen him … Today was my first day being around him. We were flying through our meetings today, so I haven’t had too much of a chance to really talk to him because we’re off and running right now.”
(One of the backs you did end up signing was RB Frank Gore. How is adding a veteran to that locker room helped incorporate the culture that you want to establish?) – “Frank has been great for us, I think not only in the running back (group but) just other guys who really have looked up to him in the past. Frank has been around for a long time. We were together 10 years ago (in San Francisco). It’s crazy how he hasn’t changed much. He looks as good as he did when we were together 10 years ago. There’s a big difference though when you’re his age now and where he was when I was with him before. He does a great job as far as knowing the right time to say things to guys about how to work and how to prepare in meetings and how to handle the volume of an NFL playbook. I think he’s done a great job in our locker room and in the running back room. I think him and Kenyan (Drake) do a great job playing off each other, talking about stuff. Some of our younger guys, they’re smart enough to lean on him a little bit.”
(Is it hard to expect or get an idea what to expect from a brand new offensive coordinator and a brand new scheme? How do you go about doing that?) – “It is tough. You try to go off of what you see on tape. You try to go back to where the heritage of his offense (is). It’s not an easy task. You’re going to have to have a lot of in-game adjustments and make sure if they start doing something that we weren’t prepared for, we’ve got to make sure that we adjust on the sidelines and our players have to handle that.”
(Have you ever crossed paths with Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel and how tough does it also make the fact that you’re dealing with a new, first-time head coach, so there’s not much of a track record there as well?) – “I haven’t had much interaction. I think we’ve met each other a couple times, but that’s the extent of that. Really, it’s tough. When you’ve got an offensive coordinator that doesn’t have a lot of tape out there of what he’s doing and the way that Mike handles in-game adjustments in situations and stuff, there’s not a huge booklet out of that on him right now. It’s going to be the same thing for us as a team. We’re just going to have to make sure that if something comes up and they do something that’s different for us, that we have to adjust quickly and really just get everybody on the same page.”
(Does it help you some that they have players that you’re familiar with that you know their skillset and what they’ve been able to do over the years, especially guys they’ve brought in like RB Dion Lewis and CB Malcolm Butler?) – “Yes, it probably helps a little bit just because we at least know who those guys are and we’ve played against those guys. But really, we’re not going to have an exact knowledge of what they’re going to be doing schematically. They didn’t really show a ton in the preseason. On both sides of the ball, we’re just going to have to do a good job of rolling in the game and do what we’re going to do and adjust to what they do.”
(You’ve got some new weapons on offense, I guess a big wide receiver and tight end and of course having QB Ryan Tannehill back also. Should we expect a much different look to the Dolphins offense this year than last?) – “I think every year this offense kind of changes. Adding the pieces that we have, we’ve got a lot of different guys that we can get the ball to. I think that kind of was our first step. We like our skill guys and we like our guys up front. Hopefully, that’s going to help make a big difference in our season this year and really the production that we have on offense, because we haven’t really done anything the last two years.”
(We asked you about RB Dion Lewis. What about RB Derrick Henry and how he complements what Dion does and vice versa and the challenge that comes with trying to stop two different backs?) – “Obviously, they’ve got different body types. But when you’re dealing with Derrick, you better have a lot of guys coming to meet him wherever he is on the field, because it’s rare to see one guy take him down. He’s big, fast and physical. That makes him very hard for a defense to prepare for, because you can’t really simulate it in practice and we don’t have anybody that’s that size. I don’t think many teams do. We have to do everything we can to make sure that we got everybody running to the ball and try to swarm him as fast as possible.”
(How much harder does the acquisition of DE Robert Quinn make it to prepare for you defensively off the edge with both him and DE Cameron Wake now on either side?) – “It’s been a good thing for us. We’ve had some great work in training camp practices and really dealing with those guys all spring. Those guys do a good job of playing off each other. Defensive fronts – the good ones – they all work together. They all kind of set each other up. I think this group, they do a great job. (Defensive Line Coach) Kris Kocurek does a great job making sure that these guys are all working together.”
(How has RB Kenyan Drake adjusted to becoming the lead back in your offense? I know last year you parted ways with RB Jay Ajayi and he took on a lead role. How is he accepting that role?) – “He just kind of moved in there and really we just … We didn’t really miss a beat. He creates plays when we really don’t have anything. He’s a different style of back. He’s a bigger guy with really good speed. It seems like when we call a play that’s not really ideal in a situation, he finds a way to make it a positive play or an explosive play. He’s done a great job as far as his evolution of learning the offense and what he knows know compared to what he knew two years ago. He’s really made huge strides.”
(Did you guys look a lot at QB Luke Falk going into the draft?) – “Yes. We brought him in (as a 30-visit). He was one of the three guys we brought in. Baker (Mayfield), Josh Allen and Luke – those were the three guys we brought in. We spent time with him and he was one of the guys that I was interested in.”
(How much can you learn or glean from a guy that had spent time with the Titans for a while in the preseason?) – “I think if you’re dealing with a guy that’s five or six years in the league, it’s one thing. But when a guy is a rookie somewhere, you’re trying to find your way to the building, you’re trying to make sure that you’re on time for everything, you’re trying to fight to just make a roster spot. To me, it becomes difficult. If you start asking a young guy questions like that, you’re not going to get very far.”
(Do you guys figure you’ll keep four quarterbacks for a while or is it hard to say at this point?) “We’ll see how everything goes. One of the things that we talked about this spring was developing quarterbacks, especially some young guys. We kind of got caught in a situation last year where we lost our starting quarterback, we had an older backup, brought in another older guy and we want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
(As you try to replace the production that WR Jarvis Landry brought to you last year, do you expect a lot of guys to step up and make it a cooperative effort to replace that production?) – “The way that we’re kind of spreading the ball out, I see it as we’re going to have a lot of different guys touching the ball. That’s why we brought all these guys here. I like the way this group is working. I like the way the quarterback is spreading it out. That’s really what this offense has always been. Really everybody has had about the same numbers in the past. There’s never been one guy that’s just exceeded the other guys.”
(You had a lot of success with QB Ryan Tannehill in 2016. Things kind of came off the track last year. Does having him back in your scheme, does that allow you to unlock things a little more with him in that offense?) – “We had a whole spring and half a training camp where we were going in a certain direction. Then when he got hurt, we had to switch gears and it was almost like starting over, which is bad timing when you’re going into a season. Him being here the whole spring, all training camp, playing four preseason games – or three preseason games – and now heading into the season, that allows us to continue doing what we’ve been working on since the spring.”
