Chan Gailey – September 7, 2020
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Monday, September 7, 2020
Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey
(I wanted to ask what went into the coaching staff’s decision to name QB Ryan Fitzpatrick the season-opening starter?) – “I think first of all, all of those kind of questions go to (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores and not to me. He is the one that makes the final decision on that; but I think last year’s play and this year’s preparation and play played a lot into the decision.”
(The opportunity to get a player like WR Lynn Bowden Jr., how do you see his skillset kind of fitting in? And we asked Head Coach Brian Flores earlier, he kind of plays that – it seems like that versatile role like WR Malcolm Perry. How do you see his skillset fitting in the scheme?) – “To be honest with you, I don’t know a lot about him. I didn’t study him coming out. All I know is what Coach Flores and (Wide Receivers) Coach (Josh) Grizzard said to me about what he can do and what he’s capable of. It’s going to be somewhat of a wait and see for me because I just don’t know enough about him.”
(You’ve had more than a few trips to Foxborough in your career, I was wondering – probably some good and some bad – what makes that place so hard to win?) – “They’ve got good players is one thing. When you have good players, it’s hard to win; I don’t care if you’re home or away. They’ve won a bunch. They believe they can win and you have to go fight your rear off to go win up there. It’s always been a tough place to play, but the good thing about it is the players on the field that get to go play the game and make the difference. Our crew went up there last year and won, so I think they’ve got a great belief about what they are capable of doing.”
(What were some of the key factors that went into the staff’s decision on who to go with at right guard and right tackle?) – “I think you look at the overall play during camp of guys. You look at the maturity aspect of things, you look at the athletic aspect of things. When you take all of that into account, you come up with the best five that you can get on the field. That’s not just right guard and right tackle, that’s the whole line. It’s every position. Coach wants a lot of competition and I think we had that. You’ve got to make a decision. You can only put 11 of them out there. There may be more that are capable of doing it, but you can only put 11 out there.”
(What do you think of the camp that WR Preston Williams had, and obviously the concern about his health before camp, it seems like he answered a lot of questions or doubts throughout camp?) – “Yeah. Some days he look great and other days you could tell he wasn’t 100 percent; but there were more really good days than the bad days. We tried to rest him, and I think he’s in a really good place going into the first ballgame.”
(I wanted to ask you about the tight ends that you have in your arsenal. A lot of people would say that TE Mike Gesicki is one dimensional, TE Durham Smythe is one dimensional and then you have TE Adam Shaheen who’s kind shown me that he can do both. How important is it that you don’t telegraph what you do with tight end use?) – “It’s very important. You don’t want to get locked into doing one thing with guys like that. You have to show some versatility, so a guy like Mike that’s envisioned as just a receiver and not a blocker, we’ve worked hard to help him get better as a blocker and I think he’s done that. I think we’ve also done the same thing with Durham. We’ve worked hard with him to help his receiving, and he’s worked hard at it, and I think he’s gotten better at it. Hopefully we’ve got balance there, more than people might think at this point.”
(We know you know QB Ryan Fitzpatrick well. I was hoping you could give us some insight on what value you think he still provides for the team both on field and off field?) – “Well, his leadership is unbelievable. His understanding of the game is right up there with the best. He understands not only what we’re trying to do, but he understands what the defense is trying to do, and that gives any quarterback a leg up when they can do that. It wasn’t necessarily that way our first year together in Buffalo; but he’s gotten to the point the last six or seven years where that’s been a real asset for him. His leadership, I think his accuracy has improved since we were together last, and I think his knowledge is great. The other thing is he loves the game. He’s a competitor. He wants to win and when you have a competitor at quarterback, that goes a long way.”
(I wanted to ask you about your plans for Sunday. Are you going to be on the field or upstairs? What do you see as the benefits to either one?) – “I’ve always – when I hadn’t been a head coach, when I was a coordinator – I’ve always been upstairs. The calmness of being able to think through the next series, of being able to look at the pictures and think about things without somebody coming up to you and telling you that they were open on the last play, ‘why don’t you get me the ball,’ and all of that stuff, it’s great to just sit there and think about how you need to go about beating the defense the next time out. You can spread out and just have some calmness is what I like about it.”
(What do you enjoy most about calling the ball plays on game day?) – “That is a great question. You’re in the business because you like to win. Everybody says they want to compete; but no, you want to win. That’s what you’re trying to do. You compete in order to be able to win. If you don’t compete, you won’t win. So yes, you want to compete, but I love winning. It may be winning a series, it may be winning a half, but ultimately you’re about winning the game. The good thing about it is, over the years, I’ve realized the most important thing is that at the end of the ball game, to have one more point than the other guys. That’s a successful day because if we go out and win 15-14, you guys will say how bad we are on offense and write but we won. If we win 43-42, you’ll talk about how great we were, but we won. The biggest thing is to go win the game. I like winning. That’s what I enjoy about play calling is winning. I don’t think I have all of the answers, but hopefully I have enough to help us win.”
