Chan Gailey – August 8, 2020
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Saturday, August 8, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(If you could share with us what were you doing when the opportunity came for returning to the Dolphins and why did you do it?) – “I have five grandsons and I was watching them play all the sports that they play and going to school events and playing a decent amount of golf for the last three years. So that’s what I’ve been doing. Why I came back? For those of you that know me a little bit, you know that my faith is very strong and after talking with my wife and my kids, we felt like this is something that we ought to do. This is where we ought to be at this time in our life.”
(Kind of following up on that, can you take us through the process of when you got the call and what the thinking was like, and was there a large part of you that thought “I’m done with the NFL, I’m retired for good?”) – “Right at the end of the season, (Head Coach Brian Flores) called and I was kind of taken aback a little bit; but then we talked about it as a family and we just – I had no idea. I didn’t think so, but we just felt like we were being led to do this and so it was something we felt very strong and very excited and very comfortable with.”
(How much was the fact that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick is here and you’ve invested in him more than any other coach in the league do you think was part of the factor why you decided to come out of retirement?) – “I can’t say it was not a factor. It was. Knowing that I would be comfortable with a player that was here – actually more than comfortable, I’m very excited about working with ‘Fitz’ again – that was something that did a play a part. If it had not been a part of it, it might have been a different story. I don’t know.”
(I wanted to ask you just how have you seen maybe your thought process on offense evolve as the game’s evolved over the years and where is your offensive scheme at this point in your career?) – “There’s two things. One thing, we try to stay balanced. I want to be a balanced offense. I want us to be able to run the football and throw the football effectively. That’s really big in the way I see offensive football; and then the next thing is, to me, you adapt to the players that you have. You have to adjust your schemes and see who you have and that sometimes is even on a week-by-week basis and this year, that may be more important than ever, is to have a system in place that you can adjust to make the players that you have be successful. That’s what I’ve always tried to be about, is putting them in position to be successful.”
(How would you describe the role you expect to have in QB Tua Tagovailoa’s development?) – “I don’t know how to answer that exactly. He’s going to develop quickly or slowly depending upon how much he grasps the offense and how quickly he comes and how he develops as a football player; and a lot of that’s based on health. So there’s a lot of factors in there. I hope I have a big impact on it, but you don’t ever know about that. You have to see how fast and how well a player comes on and then you see what he does. We’ll treat him just like we treat everybody else. We’ll try to put him in a position to be successful when the time comes.”
(Every time we ask QB Ryan Fitzpatrick about you and your relationship, there’s a huge smile that comes over his face and he talks about your relationship football-wise but also personally, so I’m curious if you could describe that personal relationship for us and how have you observed Ryan as a mentor in the way that he leads QB Tua Tagovailoa and QB Josh Rosen?) – “Well that’s the one thing about ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) through the years that I’ve had him, and I had him three years in one place and two years in another (place) – totally different situations. He is a team player. He is a team player and he is trying to be the best he can be and be a great player, but at the same time, he shares his knowledge and he shares his experience. That’s what makes him a unique guy. Our relationship is just like most other relationships. There’s times that it’s very, very good and then there’s other times; but through the years, we communicate well. He understands what we’re trying to get done. We try to put him in position to be successful and allow him to use what he does to help us win football games, and I respect him as a competitor, as a person and certainly as a player.”
(I wanted to ask you as you evaluated QB Tua Tagovailoa prior to the draft – the college film and whatnot – what are some of the things in his player toolbox?) – “You look at the success he’s had; obviously he’s a very good leader and you take all those great players that they had at Alabama, it’s got to come together on the field. You can do all the coaching you want, but when they walk out there on the field, the players play. Obviously his leadership and his ability to throw the football, his touch, game management – all of that type of stuff. There were a bunch of good quarterbacks. We could’ve gotten one of several and we were very glad to get Tua.”
(I wanted to ask you about Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown – it’s the second time now you’ve worked with him. What was it about when you saw him the first time around that convinced you he’d be the right guy to help develop the quarterback room?) – “I was fortunate enough to be Robby’s (Brown) college coach and I knew then how intelligent he was and that he wanted to coach. He’s been a coordinator in small college. He’s called plays. He’s been successful. I have a great deal of respect for Robby and his understanding of football and more importantly, his understanding of people. He really understands the inner workings of a person and how to get the best out of them and how to relate to them. He’s excellent at that.”
(The past three years, have you been doing any football? What have you been doing? And second – completely out of left field – have you ever coached a left-handed quarterback before and does that matter?) – “It’s a challenge to ask two questions at the same time to a coach. You know that. (laughter) The first question, I was doing really no football. My son coaches high school football. I hung out around there a little bit, and I watched football on TV some – college and pro. I watched some games; but working in football or doing anything, no, I wasn’t really doing that. And the second question about the left-handed quarterback: no, I haven’t, and it takes some mental gymnastics on my part.”
(If I could dig in a little bit more deeply – you kind of touched on this – just asked straight out, has your offense changed since 2016, 2015 with the Jets; 2011, 2012, 2013 with the Bills; 2000 with the Dolphins?) – “Has it changed? The terminology is the same and some of the plays are the same; but I think it changed from Buffalo to New York (Jets) because of personnel we had, and it’s going to make another change because of the personnel we have here. So if you ask ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick), ‘is the terminology the same?’ He’d say yes. Are some of the thought processes the same? Yes. But we will be adjusting and adapting to the type of personnel we have, so it may not look the same to John Q. Public. There are some similarities, but there will be things that are different because of the personnel that we have and how we’re going to go about using them.”
(You’ve recently had two guys in your receiving corps opt out in terms of WR Albert Wilson and WR Allen Hurns. Those were both two veterans in that room. Do you feel like you need a veteran to help that young room or do you have enough and what do you think about the skillsets you have in that unit?) – “I can’t tell anything from walkthroughs. Watching film from last year, there’s obviously some talent on the field. They made a lot of big plays the last half of the season and it wasn’t just one or two. We all know about DeVante (Parker), but there were several people that made big plays during the course of the end of the season, so I think that we have a good group and I know that (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores and the front office are always looking to upgrade because every position is going to be challenged this preseason. Nobody’s locked into anything, so we’re open to anything and everything and my job is to coach who shows up on the practice field and that’s what we’re going to do.”
(I wanted to go back to a comment both QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and WR Jakeem Grant made recently about the freedoms that receivers have in your offense. Could you expand on that, maybe talk about how that benefits guys here like WR DeVante Parker, WR Preston Williams, WR Jakeem Grant and WR Isaiah Ford?) – “The great receivers I’ve been fortunate to be around through my years – and I’ve been doing this for 40-something years now – they’re artists. They run a route and they never paint the same picture twice because of the way the defender is, because of the route they’re running, because of whatever it might – the coverage – they paint a different picture every time and if you take an artist who knows how to get open and who knows what he’s doing versus a defender and you try to fit him into a box, that’s where you make the guy less of a player than he really is. I want guys to be able to go out and be creative. I tell them, ‘you’ve got to be where you’re supposed to be when you’re supposed to be there, but how you get there – that’s up to you.’ So we give them the freedom to go get open and then we think we have talented enough quarterbacks that can see that and get them the football.”
