Chan Gailey – December 22, 2020
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Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(I wanted to start by asking you about the offensive line. In our eyes, this was their best game of the year, certainly on the ground. What made it so successful, and the success you had with G/T Jesse Davis at guard…) – “I think that the guys that have been playing will continue to play if they are available. It depends on who’s available. The great thing is we’ve got some guys we really trust and like in some back-up roles. If they have to go in there like Mike (Deiter) had to do, he went in there and played pretty good. It’s a plus to have those guys available when you need them. We did some good things in the running game, I thought our backs saw some things really well this week. They were able to bounce outside a couple of times where we haven’t been able to do that before. Our line stayed on the downs really well. Those linebackers – we kind of pushed those guys back into the linebackers and those linebackers couldn’t see the fits as well. It was a combination of several things there, and we had some good downfield blocking too.”
(I wanted to ask you about run-pass options. How important is the run element of the RPO to actually make that style of offense work? When in the college football era did you see the RPO start getting success?) – “Wow. I can’t even remember when that was. It was back in the 2000s when all of that started. The run element is huge. If you don’t have the run element, the PO (pass option) part doesn’t take effect. You’ve got to have the run element. You’ve got to be able to put it in there and run it. Then if they collapse, or they move the linebacker or whatever you’re reading, then you have the opportunity to throw the football.”
(I’m asking about WR Lynn Bowden Jr. and his development, and just how he’s progressed throughout the season. What is it about his skillset and ability to typically make that first defender miss that makes him so dangerous and useful for your offense?) – “I’d say that you can watch kids that come through today and which ones played tag growing up and which ones didn’t play tag growing up. If you played tag, then you know how to make a guy miss. He played a lot of tag, I guess, because he can make a guy miss. I’ve had a couple of guys like that in my career that can make a guy miss and see the field and see the next guy. There are a few of those out there and he’s got that little knack to be able to side step, juke, whatever term you want to use. He’s pretty good at avoiding that head-on collision, that full-speed tackle. He sees things very well and can control his body. His development has not been as quick as he’s wanted, but he had a lot to learn. He had a lot to learn in our offense. He got here late. He was learning what to do and where to line up and how to run the routes and where we wanted him. He’s really, really come on really well in the last three to four weeks. He’s starting to find where he is in the offense and make contributions. When he makes contributions, then that gives us more confidence to continue to use him and it’s a two-way street there.”
(With RB Salvon Ahmed, for him to go undrafted and go on to have the success he’s having, what are his attributes – and maybe what you were just talking about is one of them – his attributes that weren’t readily apparent in college that are showing up now in the NFL?) – “He’s another one. Everybody looks at speed. ‘Oh he’s got great speed.’ But he’s got some awareness about blocks. I think (Running Backs Coach) Eric Studesville does a great job of explaining principles of running. Who you’re looking at, where you think the crease will be, when do you take the crease, when do you look for the next crease. I think Eric does a great job of teaching running backs about the theory of defense and defenders and how they see things. These guys are starting to learn those little things that are going to make the difference in being an average back or a good back, and then maybe eventually a great back when it’s all over with.”
(What has changed either from you or from QB Tua Tagovailoa or the offense as a whole, since the Denver game that has really led to Tagovailoa’s play over the last couple of weeks?) – “I don’t know if you can put your finger on one thing. I think it’s been a combination of him getting more comfortable. I thought Denver did a great job. They did some things that we didn’t plan on and it hurt us. That’s my job. It wasn’t him as much as it was me in that ball game. I think we’ve progressed in learning where he’s comfortable, what he can do, how we can incorporate what he’s comfortable with and what we have available to us, using our personnel better – things like that. It takes time. You don’t like to say that. You want it to all come together immediately, but it takes some time for all of that to happen. I think we’ve been working towards seeing what we can be at some point in time. I don’t think we’ve gotten there. I think we’re still progressing, but we’ve made some progress.”
(You’ve faced Raiders Interim Defensive Coordinator/Defensive Line Coach Rod Marinelli’s fronts before and defenses before. What type of things, coming into this week, you’re looking to see with your offense, especially last week, which you may be able to exploit?) – “We try to look at Rod and I really call upon those other coaches that have faced him because as we talked about a couple of weeks ago, I threw away all of my notes. I don’t have any more notes. I remember when Rod was in Dallas that we played them. I’ll try to think back to that, but it’s just you try to see what they did last week that was different from the weeks before and see where they may be headed with their defense, and you just adjust. This really is going to be a game of adjusting on the move.”
(In looking back at some of the longer runs on Sunday, it seemed that TE Adam Shaheen, TE Durham Smythe and even guys like WR Mack Hollins and WR Isaiah Ford got involved in blocking. When you get the tight ends and receivers involved in blocking, how does that contribute, especially to longer runs?) – “You seldom have a long run without those guys blocking. Unless somebody falls down, you seldom have one of those. That’s something we’ve been working on and trying to get better at each week is how we can control those guys in the secondary, how we can affect them and get them blocked. They’re getting better every week. It wasn’t just yesterday. I thought they’ve been getting better each week doing that. So we’ve got to continue that.”
(Tight ends so often are judged strictly by the number of catches they have, which makes it easy for a guy like TE Durham Smythe to fly under the radar. How do you assess his value to the offense because of his blocking?) – “He really does a good job. He does a lot of things for us. He can play multiple positions, he’s very intelligent, he’s a tough guy. Just coming back from the knee injury he came back from this year, he’s a true tough guy. I feel like he’s very valuable to us as a football team, as an offense. He plays special teams. He does a lot of things to help this football team become successful. I’m glad he’s here. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
