Dowell Loggains – June 6, 2018
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Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Offensive Coordinator Dowell Loggains
(Of course playing time obviously is really important to guys, but starting is important to some veterans as well. They admit as much. You’re going to have a receiver – even on days you’re starting three receiver sets – you’re still going to have a receiver who is a worthy NFL starter not opening games. How do you make that decision if ultimately you say it’s an WR Albert Wilson/WR Danny Amendola decision as far as who opens games as a third receiver? Not to say it’s automatically those two, but what would lead to how that decision is made?) – “We’re so far away from that. I completely understand the question and it’s a great problem to have as a coach when we are deep at a position like we are there. Those guys are working really hard, competing. I’ve been really, really impressed with Albert Wilson and Danny Amendola. Their work ethic, they’re both very professional and very quarterback-friendly. The quarterbacks have a high trust level in both of them. The thing is we have … We’ll watch the tape, we’ll game plan, we’ll figure out who’s the best matchups that week. It could be we’re in 13 personnel to start the game or whatever, and both of those guys will get plenty of time.”
(With your tight ends, what have you seen from TE Mike Gesicki and TE Durham Smythe? At this point, obviously, it’s natural to see the veterans out there more with the first group. Is that a function of them knowing more or have Gesicki and Smythe maybe not done enough to this point to get more first team?) – “Number one, everything in this league is earned. You’ve got to earn it. You’ve got to go out there and do it. Coach Gase is a believer in working. You guys know him. He’s a grinder. He came up a unique, hard, long way and he believes that everyone should go that route. We’re expanding both their roles and figuring out what they do well. That’s a process in itself, especially when you get two new, young guys; but they’ve taken the stuff very quickly. They’re both really intelligent guys. They work at it. So, they’re coming along the way we want to. We’re just going to keep doing stuff with those guys, especially Mike. Mike is a little bit unique. Durham is a ‘Y’ and Mike G is more of a … We’ve got to find out exactly what he can and can’t do and what he can and can’t handle early. As the season goes and the offseason goes and training camp, his package will expand and his routes will expand as we found out what he can and can’t do.”
(I know a lot of this predates your arrival here, but for a while now we’ve been waiting to see WR DeVante Parker’s performance match his potential. What are you seeing out of him now that might give you confidence that he’s going to fulfill that potential?) – “He was a guy coming out that we graded very high, in Chicago. I thought he was a good football player there. I’ve been really impressed since I got here with his work ethic. The guy spent a ton of time here in the offseason. We have a really good support staff. We’re very fortunate that way. We obviously weren’t allowed to spend a lot of time with him as a coaching staff, but he was in the building grinding and doing the things he needed to do. I’ve seen a very professional guy that’s trying to get better every day. The thing to him from us (is) we keep reminding him, ‘Keep stacking good days. Keep stacking them up. We’ll count them at the end. Just keep improving each day.’ We try to give him stuff to work on and he’s done that to best that he could right now.”
(In your experience, how important is players mentoring other players and can they often impart wisdom that you can’t impart?) – “I think it’s part of every good football team. (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase and the coaching staff can only do so much and peer accountability is more important than anything. When it becomes their team, then we’ll be a good football team. Every good football team … I’ve been part of 13-3 teams and I’ve been part of 6-10 teams and the difference was the veterans on the team. They created a culture in the locker room and they held people to the standard and the accountability that needs to take place to win. Yesterday we didn’t have our best practice offensively. Credit to the defense. We just didn’t have the urgency that we needed to and missed a couple small things. It starts to create sloppiness. The message to all of those guys was, ‘(Daniel) Kilgore, (Danny) Amendola, (Ryan) Tannehill, (Josh) Sitton – all you guys that are pros, that are veterans – Frank Gore – we can say it as much as we want, but until it becomes your football team and you guys talk about it and you guys hold these young players to a standard, all we’re going to do is talk about it. We can’t go on the field and affect change like you guys can.’ And that’s why Coach Gase did what he did. He built the team he wanted to coach.”
(Has WR Jakeem Grant showed you that he’s done enough to earn a spot in the receiver rotation? I don’t know if it’s a three or four man rotation.) – “I don’t know that right now, but I do that Jakeem is a good football player. He shows up every day. He’s an explosive player and I don’t just say that because we see eye-to-eye literally. (laughter) I really have been impressed with the kid. He started flashing at the end of the season. We had a high grade on him coming out of Texas Tech. Coach (John) Fox really liked him as a returner coming out. Obviously (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase and (General Manager) Chris Grier and those guys drafted him before we could. Just the potential that he has as a playmaker, I think he has done a really good job continuing to grow that way. You keep expanding his route tree. He’s short in stature, but he does not think he’s short. He does not play short. He plays like a big person. His mindset is that and he’s had a really good camp so far.”
(What would you like to see more of from WR Jakeem Grant, whether it’s expertise on the outside or better in the slot or anything?) – “I think he has the ability to play a lot of spots. I think when you first see him, you’re going to label him a slot, because everyone sees that. He is a long-striding, explosive athlete. Very much the case of a guy like in Atlanta, Chicago and we had in Cleveland – Taylor Gabriel. He’s a long-striding, explosive player. So, he has the ability to play on the outside and be good there. He can change the game in one snap. We just need consistency. He needs reps and to keep working. He’s doing a really good job with every opportunity he’s been given so far.”
(RB Kalen Ballage looks fast. I know it’s not in pads, but fill me in a little on some obvious things you already know noticed and not some obvious things he’ll need to do to play on Sundays.) – “The obvious thing is what you guys see. When he walks through the door, you draw them up like that. He’s big, he’s good in protection, can catch the ball, can be a matchup issue in the passing game. But it’s kind of like what we talked about in the draft in that process. You want guys and you really like a guy that can play on all three downs. You don’t want to be limited by smaller stature guys that you’ve got to take out on third down or a guy that … (Kenyan) Drake is a guy that can play all three downs. I think Kalen fits that vision as well. He can catch the football. He can be a weapon out of the backfield; but he’s also big enough in pass pro. Where he needs to grow is the NFL game and nickel protections and learning that stuff, because that’s obviously the biggest transition in the NFL is going in there and you’ve got odd defenses and you’ve got spinners and floaters and trap blitzes and all of those things. He’s got to master that stuff. The more exposure that he gets, the better he’s going to get at it.”
(Were you surprised that RB Kalen Ballage last until the fourth round?) – “(General Manager) Chris Grier could answer that better than I can. I liked him and was really fired up when we drafted him.”
(Without listing the entire roster please, could you tell me is there a guy that you walked in and you thought, “This guy just does everything right. This is one of our guys?”) – “The new additions definitely. I’m trying to think. Ryan Tannehill. That’s an obvious. The new guys we brought in. The guy that I think has made the biggest improvement from Week 1 to Week 2 is Jesse Davis. He’s taken a huge jump. The first week he got beat on his hands a couple of times. He’s really drilled the right way, he’s practicing the right way. I’ve seen a jump in his performance to this point. I’m excited to get him in training camp and we put pads on and see what he does that way.”
(Obviously it’s so hard to judge offensive line play this time of year. With your tackles, any impressions of T Laremy Tunsil and T Ja’Wuan James and how they’ve looked initially?) – “Really athletic. Really athletic. It’s shown up, just their ability. They’re young kids, too. Both of them are young; but they have the ability to really move and they should be good in pass pro. The thing that’s really going to help them and Laremy is going to talk about this experience five years from now is going against Robert Quinn every day. You can’t put a value on that. You’re facing one of the best edge pass rushers in the game one on one for 30, 40 snaps a day and it’s going to make him better. It makes you go to practice with an intent and purpose, because if you don’t, then he will expose you.”
(In the practices we’ve seen, QB Bryce Petty has maybe been a little more consistent with accuracy than QB Brock Osweiler. Of course, we haven’t seen all of them. Overall, who do you think has been the most consistent among those two and QB Bryce Petty among your backups?) – “I don’t want to compare anyone right now. What Brock has is unbelievable command of the offense. He was in it. He got to learn from the best in the game – No. 18 (Peyton Manning) – and when you watch his huddle etiquette, his line of scrimmage procedure etiquette, he does an outstanding job there. Bryce is a guy that is extremely talented. He’s got talent. We’ve got to coach him hard and get that stuff out of him. He’s got some things in his footwork and those things. We’re working really hard to get consistent and create more accuracy for him. It’s something we talked to him about is there’s not enough time in the offseason anymore. The rules, they are what they are. It used to be in January we start working with these guys and February, and they just grind quarterbacks. It’s hard now. Every Monday when he’s off and every Friday when he’s off and on the weekends, he needs to keep working on his drops and the consistency in his footwork, because if he gets that part of it all right, he has enough talent in his upper body to play.”
(I meant QB David Fales. I misspoke. It’s hot outside. Fales is a little more consistent than Brock, as you probably suspected, as far as what I was asking?) – “Yes, sir. I understand. I’m trying to stay away from the comparisons with those two. David has been consistent. He’s played within the system. David is a guy that if you say, ‘Hey, this is a progression, but this is an alert. If you get it versus quarters, you can take it.’ He’s taking it. He’s going to be aggressive in the timing of plays. He did have the benefit of being here. The offense has been tweaked a little bit even since I was with (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) in Chicago in 2015 and when Fales was with us then. So he does have the advantage of being here last year and understanding those things. He’s playing at the highest level I have ever seen him play. It’s a credit to him, because he’s done a lot of stuff in the summer, in the offseason with the strength training stuff. He’s worked really hard to get stronger and be a more accurate passer with more power.”
(One more thing just on TE A.J. Derby, just the skillset. Obviously, he can catch the ball. Do you have any sense for him as a blocker from tape, from Denver last year?) – “Well, he’s an Arkansas guy number one, so I’m a little biased. (laughter) That’s one area he has to improve. The thing he has … As a former quarterback at Arkansas, he’s got football IQ. He’s got awareness in zones. He understands how coverages are going to play out. One thing that we definitely have to work with A.J. is his blocking and running off the football and doing those things at a higher level. In the passing game, he’s been good so far.”
