Chan Gailey – September 29, 2020
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Tuesday, September 29, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(These network studio shows on ESPN, NFL Network, have a lot of time to kill so they were all talking in recent days on whether QB Tua Tagovailoa should be playing. One former player, Ryan Clark, the former safety, made the point that even though QB Ryan Fitzpatrick should be the starter at this point, there should be a package for Tua to get him game experience just in case Ryan goes down, so he’s not thrown in first time and taking an NFL snap. Have you guys discussed that or do you believe a package for Tua every game would be disruptive to your offense?) – “I think that that’s a question for (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores. He talks about all personnel decisions and things that we are thinking and trying to get done during the course of the season.”
(I know that your unit matches up against the opposing team’s defense. I get that. But when the opposing team’s offense is averaging 37 points a game, do you feel like there is any since of we have to produce this game maybe more so than other games because they are going to score a lot of points and we need to do the same?) – “That would be assuming that they are going to score a lot of points against our defense. I think our offense has a lot of confidence in our defense. But the objective every week is to score one more point (than the other team). I don’t think we feel any more pressure one week than the next week. We don’t think about that. We think about scoring every drive. That’s what we think about. Until we accomplish that, we haven’t arrived. Our mindset is we need to score every drive.”
(What is the challenge for the offensive coordinator? What is the challenge like with TE Mike Gesicki trying to make the most of the very interesting combination of tools that he has?) – “You want to create situations where he has creases in zones when it’s zone defense, and then you want to get him in a position where he can win one-on-ones because most of the time he is going to line up against a strong safety or a linebacker. So you’re trying to create as many positions or places for him to line up and execute the things he does best. That is a challenge week to week because defenses are different. We have to go out and see how the defense is playing and then get it situated. Some weeks it works out and some weeks it doesn’t.”
(Have you seen enough from T Austin Jackson and G Solomon Kindley – three games of tape now – to say you know what, I know these guys are going to be good NFL players; in fact, I think they have what it takes to be in the NFL for a long time?) – “Well, obviously those two have played pretty well thus far. They’ve got a lot to learn. To say a guy is going to be a player for a long time, I wish I had that ability. I’d make a lot of money; but I don’t have that ability. They are playing well right now. They need to continue to improve, which they can. They do have that ability though. They do have the ability to become a very good player before it’s over with.”
(I wanted to ask about the other rookie offensive lineman, G/T Robert Hunt. It seems like since the first snap of practice, we got to see that Kindley was the starter and Hunt was coming off the bench. How would you assess how he’s developed since then and what does he need to do to get on the field?) – “Hunt has done a good job. He really has. He’s a good athlete. He’s a strong player. He’s a very strong man. He’s got some more learning to do, which they all do; but he especially has some more learning to do. To learn the speed of the game, we’re trying to work him in at goal line and get him some snaps and get him some plays, so that he knows better the speed of the game and what it’s going to take to play there. He’s another good athlete. The thing right now is the continuity and the communication with our offensive line has been pretty good. We’re trying to keep that going.”
(I wanted to ask you about RB Myles Gaskin. At what point in training camp or maybe before – I don’t know – at what point did he start to emerge as a guy who was going to be more or less a go-to back for you?) – “I’m not sure we had in mind who was going to do what going into training camp. The only guy we had any experience with – Eric Studesville, our running backs coach, knew Myles and thought he was going to be a good player. But we just kind of let it work itself out during the course of training camp the first couple of weeks. He’s been the most productive. The most productive guys play the most right now. That’s just the way it is. Whether that continues, we’ll see; but that’s the way it’s proven to be thus far.”
(I wanted to ask you, QB Tua Tagovailoa’s stop in college, he dealt with three different offensive coordinators. I want to know, his mastery of your offense, where do you think it is right now? And are there any principles or any schemes or anything that you incorporate in your offense that maybe resembles something that he’s used to seeing at Alabama?) – “There have been a few times where he said, ‘we did something similar to that.’ But every offense is unique and really it’s a language and it’s a learning process that he is going through. The great thing is he gets to sit there and listen to one of what I think is the greatest minds in football and that’s ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick). He gets to listen to him talk about defenses, talk about protections, talk about all of that football stuff that you don’t really get in college. It’s a different game here than it was in college and he’s picked it up very well thus far; but he’s still got some more to learn, which I think he will tell you the same thing.”
(Do you think either RB/WR Malcolm Perry or WR Lynn Bowden Jr. are able to help you at this time or is there still too much for them to learn and polish to help you yet?) – “They both look like they are going to be pretty good football players. You would like to get them on the field and get them involved; but the guys we’ve got on the field right now are being fairly productive. You’d have to force something to make that happen and probably before we get through with the season, we’re going to have to count on one of those guys to come in and do something for us. I think that them just learning – Lynn hasn’t been here very long and Malcolm is converting to wide receiver, so they both have a lot of things to learn yet about the game. I think they have a chance to be good players; but when they get involved, I couldn’t give you a timetable on that.”
(Thursday went well. What are some of the things you took away, that you kind of learned, from Thursday?) – “I leaned this, and I thought this all along but I thought the players got a better sense of confidence of what we are capable of. That’s what I want them to come out of that game with, is ‘this is what we are capable of, guys.’ If we go execute and we do little things, we’re capable of putting points on the board and going down there three straight times. There is no rule against that. You can do that. Let’s keep that confidence level and prepare for this week and get ready to go for the next one.”
