Ryan Tannehill – December 26, 2018
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Wednesday, December 26, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(How would you describe the way your relationship with Head Coach Adam Gase has evolved and where is it now?) – “It’s great. I think I’ve spoken on it a few times this year. It’s just gotten stronger over the years. I feel like he came in early and let me know that he had my back. He’s been consistent with that throughout our time together, through the ups and downs of being out last year and dealing with that. Everything we’ve dealt with over the past few years. We’ve been through a lot of ups and downs and he’s been great through the whole process. I feel like we’re as good as we’ve ever been.”
(What does that mean to you to have Head Coach Adam Gase in your corner? At this point, I assume you know he’s going to be in your corner.) – “It’s huge. Any time you have a coach that supports you and does everything he can to make you the best player you can be, that’s what you want. You want a guy that’s going to drive you to be the best and help you be the best football player you can be.”
(Can you talk a little about the importance to you about finishing strong this year and playing well against the Bills?) – “It’s huge. It’s a big game for us. Obviously, a division game on the road. We all know how the road has been this year for us and we’d like to finish strong. A division game in Buffalo, a chance to finish the season 8-8. It’s a big opportunity for us and we want to finish the season strong.”
(I know there’s a game left, but do you look back at a disappointing season for you, a missed opportunity? What would you classify 2018 as?) – “Any time you don’t reach your goals, it’s going to be a bit of a disappointment, obviously. We wanted to be competing for a championship and getting ready to go into the playoffs and obviously, that’s not where we’re at. It’s frustrating. It’s disappointing. A lot of emotions go into that, but we can’t stop and think about that at this point in time. We’ll have a chance to do that once we finish the season; but right now, we’re just focused on doing everything we can to get ready for Buffalo.”
(What would you say to people who have concerns about your durability because you’ve had injuries the last three years?) – “I really don’t care what people outside this building think, honestly. As long as my teammates believe in me and the guys upstairs know that I’m going to do everything I can to get my body right and be out on the field and give everything I have. I’ve played through injuries throughout my whole career. Obviously, (there were) some that I couldn’t the past couple years. I look at those things as things that are out of my control. I can’t do anything about it. Injuries happen in football unfortunately, and you have to be able to fight through some. If you can’t fight through it, then you do everything you can to get back on the field as quickly as possible.”
(You’re a team guy and you always take accountability, but Head Coach Adam Gase said something this week that stood out about you – ‘nobody helps him.’ Do you ever in a quiet moment think ‘I wish my receivers were healthier, I wish I got more effective blocking’ be it from backs or tight ends or your offensive line? It would seem like human nature to go through your mind, ‘Why don’t I get more help?’) – “No. You can’t look at the game that way. I think you have to control what you can control and do everything within your power with what’s given to you in every situation in life, and especially in football. If I always played the what-if game or ‘Would’ve, could’ve, should’ve,’ then I feel like I wouldn’t be growing as a person or as a player. I always just try to focus on myself and what can I do better. If there was an opportunity to maybe move in the pocket or throw a little bit further to the right or whatever it may be, obviously you want to try to be really critical on yourself. That way, you know you can control that.”
(There’s been a lot of conversation stirred up about the fact that Adam Gase sits on the sidelines when the defense is on the field and sort of works with you guys in terms of adjusting what you’re going to do on the next series. Can you talk about what the process is like?) – “Usually, I come over to the sideline and sit with (Offensive Coordinator) Dowell (Loggains) and go through the pictures. Adam gets the pictures handed to him closer to the sideline. Usually he is closer to the field so he can kind of keep an eye on what’s going on in the game and also look at the pictures. Then we’ll convene if we have anything that we need to adjust going forward. Usually he is not over there on the bench with us. A couple of times throughout the game, he’ll pop over; but usually he’s up closer to the sideline. He gets the pictures on paper and we look at the (Microsoft Surface) and just try to get on the same page moving forward.”
(How do you compartmentalize the uncertainty about what’s ahead after this week, whether Head Coach Adam Gase will be back or whether you’ll be back?) – “You can’t think about it. Like I said, you focus on what you can control. What’s the good in wondering and pondering and wasting time thinking about it? It’s out of my control right now. I’m focused on winning this one game in Buffalo and doing everything I can to prepare myself and prepare the guys around me to go out and play well and win this game. Once it’s done, then the powers that be will make those decisions and we’ll go from there. Right now, we’re just focused on doing everything we can to get ready for Buffalo.”
(Turning off that noise is part of the job description?) – “Yeah. It’s easy for me because I don’t watch much TV or do much of the social media thing or anything like that. You focus on what’s in front of you, what you can control and just block out the outside noise. At this point in my career, I’ve had a lot of practice at it so it’s not too difficult.”
(Obviously, if it were up to you, you’d want to be back next year. Is that safe to say?) – “Yes, of course. I love this organization. I love the guys on this team. I love competing with the guys on this team. I’ve been here my whole career and love South Florida. I love what South Florida brings to the table. I’d love to be here.”
(I wanted to ask you about WR DeVante Parker. Since you’ve been back, he’s been utilized sparingly and in the rotation and out of the rotation. What’s going on there in terms of the chemistry and relationship and his productivity?) – “Honestly, it’s a little disappointing that we haven’t been able to utilize him more and get more out of him. I think he’s a very talented guy. He’s had some big games. I think in Houston, I don’t remember how many yards he had, but he had a big game. You kind of see the talent he has. He’s kind of making plays sporadically throughout the season. Honestly, he’s been doing really well in practice. I feel like our chemistry is really good right now. He’s running extremely well in practice – fast, moving in and out of his cuts. I feel like he’s finally getting fully healthy again where he can comfortably run. His shoulder, I think, kind of bothered him a lot of the season. He’s a tough guy. He played through it but obviously wasn’t 100 percent. I think he’s finally starting to get over all of that and we’re seeing it on the practice field as far as him playing faster and making more plays. Hopefully, we see that on Sunday.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said the same thing in terms of the practice field. Why isn’t it translating to the game for WR DeVante Parker?) – “Well, It’s tough when you’re not getting too many reps. He’s splitting so much time right now, at least the past week – maybe two weeks – he’s kind of been splitting more time and that’s kind of been at the same time as he’s getting healthy. I think those things kind of go hand in hand. If you’re not getting the reps, it’s tough to get into a rhythm and really stand out. Hopefully we get him going this week.”
(Going back to the injury situation for just a second, is there anything that you can do, will do moving forward to try to eliminate them? Is there any change that you need to make in your offseason preparations to try to cut down the injury rate for yourself?) – “No. I don’t think it’s preparation things. You look at how it started and it was a hit to the knee. Then in 2017 it was because the knee had been hit, it was partially torn and then it tore all the way. (It wasn’t like) I didn’t really rehab it or do anything about it. I rehabbed it just as strong as it could be and then it happened. And this year with the shoulder, I just got grabbed. It’s something you can’t plan for, you can’t account for. You just try to be as strong in those positions you can be in. Moving forward, it’s about controlling the game and not letting yourself get hit. Being able to get the ball out, move effectively in the pocket and throw the ball away and get it out as quickly as you can if you’re not going to be able to get the ball off. It’s a balancing act, though because you can’t just throw the ball away anytime somebody gets around you. You have to be able to stand in there and take some hits and make the throw when you need it downfield. Just knowing when that time is. All right, are you going to be able to get this throw off or you’re not, and being able to either protect yourself and get down in the pocket or get the ball out and throw it away.”
(Do you not worry at all about the future, whether it’s here or not, just because it’s your personality or because you know in your mind, ‘I’m an NFL starting quarterback. I’ll be starting somewhere next year. Hopefully here, but I’ll be starting somewhere.’ Does that go into your thinking at all?) – “I don’t know. Honestly, I haven’t put a whole lot of thought into it. I have a lot of belief in myself. I know what I can bring to the table, wherever it is. But, yeah, I want to be here. I want to finish my career as a Dolphin and win a championship here. That’s what they brought me here for, and that’s what I want to do.”
Adam Gase – December 26, 2018
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Any more clarity on CB Xavien Howard and whether he’ll go this week?) – “He’s going to go through practice this week. He would have to feel … He would really have to push me for me to let him play.”
(CB Xavien Howard would really have to push?) – “He would have to tell me he absolutely, 100 percent, wants to play and feels great. We’re not going to put him out there if he has any kind of pain.”
(Do you have any feelings about CB Xavien Howard playing in the Pro Bowl?) – “I mean I haven’t even thought that far ahead. We’ll see wherever his health is at the time. If he’s healthy and wants to play in it, I don’t see why we would hold him back.”
(So CB Xavien Howard is still coming back a little bit from the knee injury?) – “Yeah. I just don’t want him going up … If he has any pain, turf … We need to be smart with that.”
(With the situation in regards to LB Kiko Alonso, what went into your decision to play him and not play him, and how did you think the defense did without him?) – “Here’s what happened with that. We worked him out before the game. He wanted to go. A lot of us weren’t really sure because he didn’t look great. It wasn’t like he was ‘this close.’ There was still a little hobble and he looked a little stiff. We didn’t really have anybody else to put up. We had a couple of linemen that were healthy and Isaiah (Ford). We just felt like if there was an emergency and we needed him to finish a game, he was there. We didn’t think it was the right thing to do to put him in the game.”
(The growth that you’ve seen from LB Raekwon McMillan and LB Jerome Baker, they’ve both had moments in games where they’ve looked pretty decent but then they’ve also had issues where they’ve struggled – misfits, not exactly sticking to their assignments. What is the hope there that the seasons you’ve invested in them is going to do what?) – “Well, I think they’ve improved as the year’s gone on. I can see Raekwon, his leadership, has really showed up for us. The way he practices, the way he plays in games … When things have gotten tough, he’s been the guy that steps forward. ‘Bake’ I think is one of those guys; he just plays ball. There might be some times where maybe there’s some undisciplined thing that he does but he ends up making the play. That’s the fine line in defense sometimes, where you can go off the reservation slightly but when you are fast and you’re able to tackle, you can make up for that and you correct it when you get to the sideline. I do feel like those guys are trending in the right direction. Those guys play as hard as you can ask guys to play.”
(You’re near the end of Year 3 here in your relationship with QB Ryan Tannehill. There’s been many ups and downs and injuries and so on. How would you describe your relationship with him at this point?) – “I think it’s a good relationship between player and coach. I want him to have success. I want him to do the things that he wants to accomplish individually but as a team as well. At that position, you take a lot of the bullets. Sometimes you don’t get all of the credit when you might deserve it. I think we’ve just been so all over the place. One game we’ll do well on offense and then we’ll just be non-existent one game. That’s where it can help at the quarterback position. You make an off-scheduled play or you do something where it just sparks the rest of the group. Sometimes we have that and sometimes we don’t. I think this whole last couple of years, we’re healthy and then we miss a season. Then we get him back, we play well in a couple of games, then we had a couple of rough games and then he gets hurt and he’s out five weeks. Then he comes back and plays pretty good and then we’ve had a couple of rough games of late.”
(Is it the rough patches that in some ways make the relationship stronger? Is that where the bonding really happens?) – “Yeah, I mean that’s … You’re under fire all of the time. Between the head coach and the quarterback, you’re not missed. Everybody knows where you are and what you’re doing and how you’re handling things.”
(I guess QB Ryan Tannehill was named the team’s Ed Block Courage Award guy today. Thoughts on that?) – “Yeah. Watching him come back from that knee injury, he was excited to get out there and get going this season. Whatever he had, he gave it. To see him come back and look good moving around, running and all of those things, there were just no limitations.”
(What’s the next step for QB Ryan Tannehill next season?) – “The biggest thing is stay healthy. It’s hard for me to get too down with the injury he had against Cincinnati because he was loading up to throw a ball down the field and a guy got him right in a bad spot. That’s what got him for that period of time. We always just have to keep working on pocket, anticipation, getting the ball out on time. (We can work on) making sure that when things don’t go right, how do you avoid adding to that mistake? I think we’ve had some games where we’ve done that and some games where we haven’t.”
(As far as QB Ryan Tannehill being 30-years old with three injury interrupted seasons, what are the odds he will have a healthy season?) – “I don’t know. I’m not a great odds maker. I just know when I got here, (people were saying) ‘He never misses a game. He never misses any snaps.’ Then it flipped really fast.”
(A lot of people are making an issue about you sitting on the sidelines while the defense is playing, to draw, script up or look at film. It’s not something people generally see from head coaches. What are you trying to get accomplished there?) – “It just depends where we are in the game. Just remember, it’s not hard to see that I’m on the headsets with the defense. I can hear everything. I can see what’s going on. There’s pretty big screens on the field. It’s not like I can’t see anything. I hear everything going on. A lot of times I’m trying to get the next series ready so I can tell those guys ‘Here’s what’s coming. Here’s what I’m thinking going into the next series.’ And then I’m just trying to make sure I’m aware of what they’re doing on the other sideline. ‘Here’s what they’re doing down-and-distance-wise. Here’s what they’re doing personnel-wise.’ You go through all of those pictures and you get a feel for how they’re calling a game. That’s important to play calling. I’m not the only one that does that. The guy in L.A. does it a lot (Sean McVay), and they’re all right.”
(Can you talk about the positives and negatives of spying a quarterback and the challenges of keeping Bills QB Josh Allen in the pocket? Because he got outside the pocket a lot in the last game.) – “A little bit. (laughter) It’s good when you have somebody that can catch him when he escapes the pocket. The only thing that can hurt you is you have one less rusher or one less guy in coverage. If you’re using a linebacker and he’s sitting in the middle, he’s just watching (the quarterback) and all of a sudden guys start running across the field and he’s not paying attention to that stuff, so you lose a guy in coverage where you can take some things away. If you get into that whole quarterback spy game, you don’t have that.”
(Didn’t you guys have a spy last game?) – “Every call is different. It’s not like you go ‘Every call is going to be with a spy.’ You’re not going to do that. If you’re pressuring, you’re going to have guys in certain zones. A lot of times when teams are in man-to-man coverage, that’s when you see it because that’s when they can do the most damage.”
(Do they have any designed runs for Bills QB Josh Allen?) – “Most of them were drop back, everybody is running out of there and then we let him get out of the pocket.”
(It seems like you want to make clear there is not too much on your plate calling plays and still running a game as well.) – “No. We haven’t had a lot of mismanagement of games. We’ve got a lot of people that are involved in game-day management. I just have to make the decision. We’re talking through stuff all of the time.”
(Is there anything you’ve learned then about how to manage your time on Sunday?) – “Yeah. It slows down the more you do it. Year 1 to now is … I can’t even imagine. If I went back and was able to watch myself in Year 1 compared to now, it was probably a nightmare in Year 1.”
(What did you think about your running game this year? Were you able to use it the way you wanted to use it?) – “It’s like almost everything. It’s been so inconsistent where one game it feels like we’re really getting some good, explosive plays, we’re blocking guys well, guys are executing things well. And then some games like last week it just felt like we could never get to that second level. It always felt like it was at the line and then we’d be at the line of scrimmage and a lot of times we squirted out of there, but that wasn’t happening. They did a really good job of … It just felt like they kept bottling everything up. Even when we tried to move outside sometimes, then we’d get pushed back, now the backs kind of get cut off, we try to cut up the field, and now it’s minus-1 or -2 yards. It hasn’t been as consistent as you want it to be.”
(Was it effective in getting you to play-action?) – “It was. We had some good stuff in play-action. The one time, unfortunately, that they covered everybody, Ryan (Tannehill) didn’t have anywhere to go with the ball. I hate to say this, but we probably should’ve just taken a sack there, which I’m sure at that point he had been sacked quite a bit and he’s trying to make a play in that point of the game. We just can’t throw a pick-six there.”
(All season has it been…) – “It’s been … Sometimes it’s good. Some teams it’s good against, some teams it’s not. Some teams do a good job of getting out of there on play-action and getting into windows.”
(You were happy with RB Frank Gore? I think 62 percent of his carries were on first down.) – “Yeah, Frank helped us a lot. Our third downs were shorter. I wish we could’ve used that to our advantage. I think when Frank touched the ball on first and second down – first or second down – we were like third-and-6. If he didn’t, we were like third-and-9. Frank just has an ability – and it’s one of the reasons why he’s one of the leading rushers ever – is there might be nothing there and all of a sudden you’re second-and-6, second-and-5 and then it’s third-and-2. He could get something out of nothing.”
(You talk about Year 1 to Year 3 for you. Does that learning curve change over time? Is Year 3 to Year 5 going to be the same kind of thing?) – “Yeah. Every game you go into you learn a ton of stuff. It’s the same thing I tell the players, there’s 10 things you come out of the game and you’re like, ‘Okay, that happened.’ There’s things that come up that you may have never seen yourself. Maybe you’ve seen it happen to somebody else and kind of be like, ‘What would I do in that situation?’ When you start seeing things live and it’s happening fast and you’ve got 40 seconds or less to try to make a decision and make the right one, it moves pretty quick.”
(How important is this for you, the coaching staff, the players collectively to put away last Sunday and last Monday and look forward to the last game?) – “It’s the same mindset going into every week is you start fresh and your goal is to win one game. Our goal is to go on the road and win a game and try to finish the right way in the division and overall record because 8-8 sounds a lot better than 7-9, I know that. Just like last year, 7-9 sounds a lot better than 6-10. We’re focused on that. I feel like the guys did a really good job at practice today. It was good to see them flying around and enjoy being out there. They just know it is the last week that this team will be together. It’ll never be the same.”
(I wanted to ask you about the running game. Obviously, there’s going to be an adjustment without RB Frank Gore, but why can’t you get those sustained early runs or why couldn’t you, maybe it was Jacksonville’s defense, get those sustained early runs in first and second down last week?) – “What were they sixth in defense? It was a tough defense to run against. We tried to stay, or at least I tried play-calling-wise, to stick with the run game, because I didn’t want to get in one of those deals where now Jalen Ramsey starts getting a little nosey and then we get some kind of issue where he jumps one and gambles, because he can. We were trying to stay consistent with that, getting third-and-shorter situations. The penalties killed us, because we were second-and-20, second-and-15. When that happens, it’s hard to recover from that stuff. Think about, especially over the last three years, how many times did we recover from a negative play on first or second down to convert on third down? It’s rare. You really have to do a lot of things right the next two downs.”
(WR DeVante Parker, he’s kind of been present, but not really productive. Is that injury? Is that practice performance? Is that a chemistry issue?) – “I feel like he’s practiced probably as good as I’ve seen him practice over the last three years (with) his speed, detail of what he’s doing. And for some reason when we’re getting into the game, I don’t know if he’s trying to be too perfect and it’s slowing him down. I feel like we have routes sometimes where he knows cold and then I’ll see what I see at practice. It’s just one of those things, just cut it loose. Don’t worry about making a mistake. If you do, it’s the quarterback’s job to find you and put the ball on you and then go make a play after the catch.”
Adam Gase – December 26, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Buffalo Media
(Watching the Bills the last few weeks, what do you see in their passing game and how it has maybe changed the second half of the season?) – “I feel like Josh (Allen) is getting way … He’s so much more comfortable ever since he’s come back from injury. Now that he’s kind of realized that he is a big man for a quarterback, he does have speed to be able to beat people, him being able to run really can tighten a lot of teams up because the last thing you want to do is keep giving first downs up to him as a runner. Now what that does is those passing lanes become a little cleaner. It’s tough to always look, especially when you play New England at their place to say, ‘Why wasn’t this the same as it was in the previous games?’ They’re always tough to play up there. (Patriots Head) Coach (Bill) Belichick always does a great job of taking away your strength and making you beat them a different way.”
(The Bills have dealt with this a little bit in terms of third down and red zone. I know every coach wants to run away from excuses, but your third down and red zone, the precision and the timing that’s required … Obviously, on third down it’s been tough for you guys. Your receiving cast has been a revolving door. It makes it seem like it’s going to make it very hard to be precise on third down. Would you agree with that? How much of a struggle is that?) – “I would say this: I think a lot of our struggles have come … When we struggle in third down, it’s because we’ve struggled on first and second down. We put ourselves in a really poorly manageable position to where it’s third-and-7-plus. When you get third-and-7-plus in the NFL nowadays, the defensive coordinators are so creative. They’re causing so much chaos and havoc. Pass rushers know that you’re not running the ball. Those guys are coming off the ball with one intent and that’s to get to the quarterback. When you at least stay third-and-5-and-manegeable, and I’m not saying everybody does this, but at least there’s the threat of, ‘What if they do run an inside zone? What if they do run outside zone? What if they run zone-read?’ There’s at least that possible hesitation to where now that rush isn’t as dynamic as what it is third-and-7-plus. Plus, your quicker-game-type routes come into effect when you’re in third-and-shorter and some of your rub routes and type of things like pick plays to where you can spring guys open and have a short throw and get a conversion.”
(The flip side of that on defense, having only seen three or four of your games including the Bills game, you’ve got quality corners and an ability to take away quick, easy throws. Not take away, but defend them reasonably well. Would you say that’s been a challenge there on defense not getting into enough third-and-longs?) – “Right. When we’ve had success … The previous two years, we’ve had … In 2016, we did a really good job of teams were in third-and-7-plus so much. I think we were ranked seventh or something like that in third down. Where last year we moved way back, but the year started out right to where the first six games, everybody was in third-and-long, we were getting off the field and we weren’t taking advantage on offense. This year it’s been we haven’t done a good job on first and second down. The opponent’s run game has been able to do way too much against us. We’ve been trying to get that fixed for basically the entire season because we’ve allowed way too many explosive runs, which has allowed teams to basically go first down, second down, first down so much. And then when we’re getting to third down, it’s third-and-short. And when it’s third-and-short, that puts the advantage to the offense.”
(Today’s practice, CB Xavien Howard and S T.J. McDonald practiced today? Were they limited or what was their status today?) – “Howard was limited and T.J. didn’t participate.”
Xavien Howard – December 26, 2018
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Wednesday, December 26, 2018
CB Xavien Howard
(How do you feel in terms of returning from the knee injury?) – “I’m feeling good. I’m trying to push it this week. It really just depends on how I feel this week at the end of the week. I’ll go from there.”
(In terms of the progress, what have you been doing to make progress with the injury?) – “I’ve been doing a lot of rehabbing. These last two weeks, I’ve been trying to get on the field. More on the field and grass and just try to go over the stuff that I do as a DB.”
(How important is it for you to finish the season on the field?) – “It’s very important. I want to go out there and be able to help my team win. At the end of the day, I just want to finish where I left off at and show them that we still can get the job done.”
(How important is it that you guys try to go out there and push this win for the coaching staff and everybody, considering things are a little bit on the unstable ground?) – ‘We just want to finish strong. We just want to go out there with some of the guys in the locker room and coaches as well and just have a good last game. Like coach said, 8-8 sounds better than 7-9. We just want to finish strong.”
(Being voted team MVP, what’s your reaction and thought on that?) – “It’s great to accomplish those goals. I just really want to build from there and keep going.”
Adam Gase – December 24, 2018
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Monday, December 24, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Have you gotten any indication from Owner Stephen Ross if you’ll return as coach next season?) – “We haven’t even had a discussion about it. It’s been business as usual for us. I just keep doing my job until somebody tells me different.”
(Do you look at it as you’ll be really upset if you don’t get a chance or do you look at it as this is life in the NFL and I’ll handle this unemotionally? Do you have any feeling?) – “I’m going to worry about this week. Those types of things I don’t really worry about.”
(How do you think you’ve done during your time here?) – “I’m still here. I don’t need to lobby for my job. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about Buffalo.”
(When will you talk to Owner Stephen Ross about that?) – “I don’t know. If he says there’s an issue, then I’ll know. But every conversation I’ve had with him, we’ve just talked about what we didn’t do and what we need to do going forward on our week-to-week conversations.”
(What is your biggest regret about this season other than the obvious that you’re not making the playoffs?) – “I mean I wish everybody wouldn’t have gotten hurt. That would have been nice.”
(That can’t obviously be glossed over. You have lost a lot of significant players. All of that being said, without asking you to throw anybody under the bus, do you believe that you, General Manager Chris Grier and Executive Vice President of Football Operations Mike Tannenbaum overestimated the talent here?) – “No. We lost good players. You know we don’t have a 90-man roster, right? There’s 53 guys. It’s not like you’ve got a minor league system where you’ve got a huge stable of guys backing up the starters. It’s thin rosters. Every team is. You’re hoping you can stay as healthy as possible. We’re living in a little bit of a fantasy land now thinking there’s a whole bunch of guys waiting in the wings.”
(Do you feel that it has really caught up to you, especially in the last couple of weeks?) – “I thought yesterday, we knew the game was going to be like that. We knew it was going to be low-scoring. We couldn’t turn it over. We did twice. We had an opportunity on a short field when they fumbled and we didn’t take advantage of it. We had a really bad series, then we missed a field goal. We knew the game was going to be 13-10, 14-10, somewhere in there if we were going to win it. Everybody looks at Jacksonville’s record and forgets they were in the AFC Championship last year and forgets they’re a top 10 defense. We knew what kind of game it was going to be. We did, the people that actually study this stuff. Outside of that, most people don’t realize that.”
(You were addressing the depth a minute ago and the fact that you don’t have a 90-man roster, but looking strictly at your first-stringers, was there any overestimation of them?) – “The guys that are or aren’t playing?”
(The guys that you had at the start of the year, for example.) – “I mean there’s a reason why we started 3-0, because all of those guys were there. Then when we started losing guys throughout the season, we’re trying to patchwork things. We had a little time there where we’re trying to get really used to the guys that are playing, so we were shuffling some lineups. That’s what happens. Then we kind of had some good games where guys were starting to gel a little bit. Then we have another wave where we’ve got to switch some things around. We just kept trying to adjust with what was going on.”
(You’ve been one of QB Ryan Tannehill’s biggest fans and it’s not all on him. But just your disappointment that he’s not maybe where you’d want him to be at this point in his career, especially in your system for three years?) – “Really, for us, the biggest thing is just our consistency as an offense. It’s like we’ll have the New England game and then we’ll have yesterday. We’ll have Minnesota. We haven’t found any consistency in the entire offense. Everybody is always going to blame the quarterback. We just need everybody doing their job and then you can really evaluate the quarterback. We really haven’t had the consistency we need on offense to even look at what is Ryan, really. Nobody helps him and then he starts to try to do more than what he should and then that hurts him.”
(As you look ahead, are you comfortable with the idea of QB Ryan Tannehill as your quarterback, say, next season?) – “I’m not looking ahead to anything right now. I’m looking at Buffalo. That’s the way the league is. I can’t worry about next season, offseason, all of that type of stuff. We need to finish this season out the right way, which is we’ve got to go on a road trip, go play a team that knows us well, that we know well, and it’s going to be a tough game because they’re going to want to play well in their last home game and we have to be prepared. We’ve got three days to get ready and we’ve got to go to work.”
(I know you said you’re not going to lobby for your job, but do you think you’d be inclined to give Owner Stephen Ross a plan of how to fix what went wrong?) – “Yeah. I mean, we’ve been talking about it for three years. It is what it is. We had a lot of good things going on. We lost some players. It happens. It’s the NFL.”
(You mentioned after the game yesterday regarding the battle in the trenches. You said that Jacksonville was more physical than you were and then you added, ‘We knew that coming into the game.’ Outside of changing personnel, is there anything you can do to rectify that other than changing personnel?) – “We didn’t play the way that we needed to play for that game. We didn’t play as physical. We needed to make sure that we played at the top of our game against what those guys were, that defensive line. We had to go out and we had to run the ball a certain way. We had to make sure our double teams were good. We couldn’t get moved on those. We had to make sure we were the ones moving them. And we started out the game better than what we finished the game. Like, we executed our double teams. When you’ve got two guys hitting one guy, you’re going to get movement and then when we’re kind of taking bad angles and we’re getting split because we’re not hitting at the same time, then it was bad. And it cost us because our running backs were getting hit in the backfield. A lot of times, I know you want to say it’s personnel, but really a lot of it is fundamentals, techniques, things like that. That’s what can help you. That’s what helps you overcome when you’re playing guys that might be a little more talented than you, but we didn’t do that yesterday. That’s why we won some games here is because we’ve used the things that we’ve talked about in practice, in meetings and sometimes we don’t always do it.”
(For the Buffalo game, will it be business as usual as far as who plays?) – “Yeah.”
(And how you use your players?) – “Yeah.”
(So QB Ryan Tannehill will go?) – “Yeah.”
(Because obviously injuries were a big factor, if I’m hearing you correctly, do you believe that without question you deserve a fourth year as coach?) – “That’s not my choice. I do my job until somebody tells me different.”
(Your 15-game snapshot of the season?) – “I don’t know. I’ll tell you know after the next game. We’ll do a 16-game snapshot. (laughter)”
(A couple of player things on a more uplifting note: CB Jalen Davis had some good moments in his first extensive action. What impressed you about him, and is there anyone else you’d throw into that group of guys who maybe caught your eye?) – “He’s one of those guys that you watch him in training camp practice and he is one of those guys that just gives you everything he has. He’s not afraid of anything. He’ll go out there, he’ll execute the defense, he’ll play aggressive. He’s not the biggest guy that we’ve got, but he’s aggressive and he can make plays. He can tackle, he can get PBUs (pass breakups), he can get picks. He has really good ball skills. He plays multiple positions. He was a guy that we were excited to see get an opportunity. It was good to see ‘Steph’ (Stephone Anthony) and Mike (Hull) get out there and play with that group of linebackers. We had a lot of guys that had to step up yesterday on defense because ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and Kiko (Alonso) not going, it kind of was unfortunate. I know Kiko tried. We didn’t feel good about it.”
(With CB Xavien Howard, had you felt going to the stadium yesterday he would play?) – “We felt better about it on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday than we did Saturday and Sunday.”
(And what do you do with CB Xavien Howard this week? I know you said business as usual?) – “I mean, if we can go, he’s going to go. We’re going to try to win the game.”
(Along those lines, QB Jay Cutler, I guess you could say last year made a business decision the final game…) – “No, that was my decision. We talked about playing young guys and all of that stuff, but I’ll never do that again because I’m not going to hear about 6-10 again. I’d rather go 8-8.”
(So QB Ryan Tannehill starts?) – “Mhm.”
Laremy Tunsil – December 23, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Postgame – Jacksonville
Miami Dolphins LT Laremy Tunsil (transcribed by Anthony Gutierrez)
(The success you guys did have on the road, looking towards the future, do you see the pieces here to turn this around for this not to happen next season?) – “We’re just going to go in the offseason and just work. I don’t know. I’m going to leave that up to the coaches to make that decision. But the people we have here now, we’re going to come in the offseason and work.”
(What is the message to the team going into this final game, because a lot of times these guys are just playing for jobs. I know you’re out here every week playing for a job.) – “Play our ass off, plain and simple. Don’t worry about the next thing. Worry about the next game and play your ass off.”
(How disappointing is it to lose a game like this?) – “Of course nobody wants to lose a game like this. It was a tough game, definitely when you see on the opposite ball that the defense is playing their ass off like that, and we come out playing like the way we did on offense, it’s kind of disappointing.”
Bobby McCain – December 23, 2018 (Postgame)
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Postgame – Jacksonville
Miami Dolphins CB Bobby McCain (transcribed by Paige Jefferson)
(Tell us what happened.) – “We didn’t do enough. It’s a tough pill to swallow. It knocks us out, with the little hope we had. Now we know we have Buffalo up. The only thing we can do is finish out strong. This was tough. We didn’t do enough.”
(Was there a message after the game? Did the players talk?) – “No. I didn’t feel anything different. We called it up, we had our words and then that was it.”
(Considering the road record when you look ahead – I know you have one more game left – but it seems like there are pieces here that could make this a successful franchise and make a playoff.) – “There is a lot of talent in this locker room. There are a lot of good players – really good players – on all three phases of the ball. Us putting it together as a team, as a unit, that’s what we have to do. All year we haven’t played collective football. We haven’t played together as a unit –offense, defense, special teams, playing off each other. There were some games with some spurts here, some that’s down. There’s too many ups and downs. Just like today, there’s too many ups and downs. Like I said, we didn’t do enough.”
Raekwon McMillan – December 23, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Postgame – Jacksonville
Miami Dolphins LB Raekwon McMillan (transcribed by Daniel Chavez)
(This team had been so successful at home up until today and you had so much on the line, where did things go wrong?) – “We’ve just got to finish the game. We went in, I think it was 7-7 at half or whatever it was. We’ve got to come out in the second half and make plays and we we’ve got to keep them out of the end zone.”
(Even though the odds were against you guys being able to make the playoffs, does the realization hit now that there will be no playoffs?) – “No. I don’t even think about that. I’m going to take it one game at a time. All I wanted to do is win this game and see how things panned out. We didn’t finish it in our end, so we’ve got to get back to the drawing board and go back to work.”
(Is there a sense on the players’ part that there could be a lot of change, given that you guys missed the playoffs?) – “No, we don’t worry about that. All we can control is things that are going on on the field, and things that are going on on the practice field.”
