Kenny Stills – December 20, 2018
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Thursday, December 20, 2018
WR Kenny Stills
(How would you describe the challenge against the Jacksonville cornerbacks and where do you see them as far as where they rank among the best in the league?) – “It’s going to be a challenge for us, this group of guys. Not just in the secondary but up front as well. We know that. We’ve been out focusing and practicing hard this week and hopefully that shows up on Sunday.”
(Your thoughts on Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey?) – “He’s a great player.”
(And Jaguars CB Jalen Ramsey’s persona?) – “I don’t pay too much attention to anything else. I focus on him as a player and I’ll be ready for Sunday.”
(As a general rule, do you like going against chatty cornerbacks or does it make a difference?) – “I just go out there and play, regardless of who is out there.”
(How big is it for you guys to finish your home schedule out with a win?) – “It’s big for us every week to try to find a way to get a W. It’s just another week for us in our home stadium. We take a lot of pride in winning at home but regardless of where it is, we have to figure out ways to win.”
(How do you explain what happened this year on offense? I know there’s two games left.) – “As far as…?”
(I think you’re 29th in yards or something like that.) – “We’ve been in situations to win games regardless of whatever our ranking is and we haven’t found ways to do it. I think that’s more of the focus for us is just figuring out ways to finish games and get victories.”
(Did the injuries really hurt you guys or is that just an excuse?) – “I mean, yeah. Injuries are going to hurt. But every team in the league is dealing with injuries and it’s about your depth and how well those guys can play. Like I’ve said, we’ve put ourselves in position to win games or have a chance to win and we haven’t closed out games, and we have to figure out a way to do that these last two weeks.”
Minkah Fitzpatrick – December 20, 2018
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Thursday, December 20, 2018
S Minkah Fitzpatrick
(Is safety your best position do you think?) – “I don’t know. I think just being out there on the field wherever I’m at and wherever I’m called to be, that’s where I’m best at.”
(Throughout the course of your career going back to Alabama, where did you play the most? Was it safety?) – “Nickel.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said it is amazing how you’ve been able to handle everything for a rookie. Have you ever felt like your head was spinning at all this year? Has it been second nature to do all of these things because you’ve done them before?) – “I don’t think my head was ever spinning. I don’t think I’d be doing it if my head was spinning. The coaches do a really good job of helping me prepare. My teammates do a really good job of helping me prepare. It’s a lot but week to week, I kind of know what I’m doing going into the game. (There were) maybe one or two times I didn’t know early on in the week and we had to change things up, but that’s football. You’ve just got to adjust, do what you’ve got to do and everybody helps prepare. (We have to) make sure we’re doing what we’ve got to do to win the game.”
(At Alabama you really knew nothing but excellence and 7-7 this year is good but it’s not playoff good. How has the season been for you to deal with on a personal level?) – “Obviously I’m not happy with that but I think there’s a lot of things that we could learn from this season as a team and to improve on next season. I can’t really compare my past seasons to this one. It’s a different level (and) a different ballgame. I do take a lot of things I learned in college at Alabama and try to apply them here. But like I said, I don’t think anyone would be excited about being 7-7 or 8-8, whatever it may be. We have to keep moving forward, keep learning, keep pushing and get better.”
(You don’t have a whole lot of experience in losing I guess was the point of the question.) – “Yeah. I don’t.”
(What have you learned and how important is communication in the secondary in the NFL?) – “It’s important on any level – little league all the way up to the pros – because the secondary, that’s the last line of defense. So if something busts up there, you’re going to get exposed. A d-lineman can make a mistake and a linebacker might make up for it, or a linebacker makes a mistake and a DB makes up for it, but if a safety or corner makes a mistake, you’re going to know it was them on the spot. So it’s really important that we’re all on the same page. We have a saying: ‘If we’re all wrong, we’re all right.’ If we’re on the same page, if we’re doing something wrong, we’re all right. As long as we’re on the same page and moving and flowing together … Everybody is connected on a string in the back end. So if everybody is in the right spots and moving the right way, there’s no holding on the string and we’re good.”
(What part of your game do you think you need to work on the most this offseason?) – “I don’t know. I think overall just improving on … As a player of the game – a student of the game – there’s a lot of things I can learn just mentally. Then physically, you just work on everything: coming out of breaks, being explosive and everything like that. Looking at the right thing and coming out of your breaks. I think just improving on details and improving on my mental game.”
(When T Laremy Tunsil was a rookie, he played guard. For the last two years, he’s talked about how that experience has helped him when he’s playing tackle. Can you draw a parallel on any way from when you’re playing safety or corner that having played the other one helps?) – “Yeah. When you play one position in the back end, you don’t really know what everybody else is doing at all. When you move around … At nickel, I know what (they’re doing). Since I’ve played corner and since I’ve played safety, I know exactly what they’re doing behind me so I can do certain things and move a certain way to allow me to play faster, react and play with instincts and everything like that. Just knowing what everybody is doing around me definitely helps and it allows me to play faster.”
(Do you think you deserve consideration for defensive rookie of the year?) – “I don’t know. I think I’ve done a very good job. A lot of things don’t fall into my hands. I can only control what I can control. I’m just going to keep trying to get better and keep trying to learn everything and move forward.”
(I think there was one other first-round safety – Derwin James. Are you familiar with his game? How do you think you contrast?) – “We’re both versatile but a different type of versatility. He’s more of an in-the-box type guy. He’s a great player (and) flies to the ball; a great tackler. I’m more of a back-end type guy. I’m covering top receivers week to week, moving inside and outside on the back end. It’s just different. We’re both versatile, like I said. There are a lot of comparisons coming out and everything like that but I think he’s a great player. He moves around. He’s more inside closer to the ball and I’m more towards the back end covering people.”
(Have you kept an eye on the other rookies this year to see how they’ve done?) – “Oh, yeah. I keep up with a lot of guys, just looking at their highlights and things like that. When you see people making plays, you go look at the NFL Instagram. I definitely keep up, for sure.”
(Indianapolis has a pretty good linebacker in LB Darius Leonard.) – “Yeah, he’s really, really good. Is he still leading the NFL tackles? He was for a long time. I know when we played them, he was the leader. That dude is a really good player. He just flies around. He actually got hurt in our game but I think he came back later on. He’s a good player.”
(I’ll put you on the spot: Who would you vote for for defensive rookie of the year?) – “I don’t know. There’s a lot of great players.”
(That’s you then? So you’re saying yourself?) – “(laughter) I’m saying I don’t know. There’s a lot of great players.”
(What did you do with your touchdown football?) – “I’m just going to put it up in my little trophy room with all of my jerseys and old trophies and stuff like that. I’ll get a little box for it. My first pick-six.”
Adam Gase – December 20, 2018
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Thursday, December 20, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Did you see what you needed to see from CB Xavien Howard today? Is he progressing?) – “Yeah. We didn’t do as much on the turf. If we would’ve been outside, he probably would have done a lot more than what he did. We wanted to be smart being inside. Things are looking positive heading into the game. We’ll just keep going day to day.”
(S T.J. McDonald this week hasn’t practiced at all. I know he re-aggravated an injury during the game but he came back. What do you think about him?) – “I think it’s a different deal than what he’s had. It’s the same thing – day to day. I don’t know really the exact time frame of it but I know he was fighting through it during the game. He probably shouldn’t have gone back in but he was going to finish.”
(How is LB Kiko Alonso?) – “I mean, he’s hurting; but the longer the week goes, the better he’s going to feel.”
(If LB Kiko Alonso doesn’t play, what are your options there for the three linebacker package?) – “We’re going to have to either say play nickel … If we go base, we have Mike (Hull) and we have Steph (Anthony), so we have two guys that have been here (in) multiple positions.”
(DE Charles Harris, what can he do better?) – “I think he just keeps working with that group. There’s been some good stuff that he’s done on first and second down as far as getting better from last year. Then third down, I think a lot of the stuff is set up for some of those other guys. It’s a tough position to really break through when you have multiple pass rushers. With him being out, he kind of lost some time there to where those guys had gotten in a decent rhythm together. You’ve just got to keep working, which he does. I mean that’s all he does.”
(DE Robert Quinn has 4.5 sacks in the last five games. What do you attribute that to?) – “I think he’s just not getting frustrated from earlier in the year. He keeps doing the same thing in practice and in games. I think he’s done a better job of working his run game stuff. We’re always looking to get better in that area, obviously. As far as pass rushing goes, he’s tightened the corner down a little bit. He’s used some different moves than probably what I’ve seen in the past. He just kept at it. I know that can be frustrating for a guy that is anticipating his numbers being higher than what they’ve been, but he’s stuck with it and he’s disruptive at the right time, for the most part.”
(Statistically the defense is struggling in most categories except for turnovers. You guys are on pace again to set a franchise record for rushing yards allowed. Is this a problem that’s systematic or can it be fixed?) – “I think the one thing that I always look at is yards per carry. We have a lot more attempts than a lot of teams as well and that’s why you look at the yardage and you see that it’s high. Our yards per carry isn’t great but it isn’t like those back four or five teams. If we eliminate the explosive plays, that helps us. Obviously the New England game is a great example of everybody doing their job. We didn’t allow explosive runs. That’s when your yardage goes down and your yards per carry is where it needs to be. Being at 2.6 (yards per carry) for a game, that shows you that we can do it against a team that was hot coming into the game rushing the ball. It’s such a team deal. We just can’t have anybody off-base.”
(You mentioned yards per carry. On the other side, you guys have been doing pretty good. What do you think the common theme is since you’ve had three different backs throughout the season who have kind of carried the load at some point?) – “We’ve had explosive plays from whether it be (Kalen) Ballage, (Kenyan) Drake, Brandon (Bolden). Frank (Gore) was just as steady as you can get. Frank was the kind of guy that if you got zero yards on first down and give it to him again on second down, you’re probably going to be in third-and-manageable. I think that’s when we’ve had some kind of success in the game on first down – first, second and first down again, or third-and-short – because Frank did a good job of just making sure there were no negative plays and he was getting us back to efficient runs and keeping us in manageable down and distances.”
(Does RB Kenyan Drake understand that dynamic?) – “Yeah. We talk about it so much because it’s not like I’m keeping a secret from anybody that we’re not very good on third down. We talk about it all of the time about let’s stay out of it.”
Kendrick Norton – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
DT Kendrick Norton
(Your thoughts on being picked up by the Dolphins?) – “I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to be back in Miami where it all started.”
(What has this experience been like for you?) – “It hasn’t been much yet. I just got here. I’m new to town, new to the team, so I haven’t gotten a chance to get too settled in yet; but it’s been pretty good so far.”
(What were your emotions when you found out that a team claimed you off the practice squad?) – “There was just so much going on. I’ve been going since I got the call so I haven’t really had time to sit down and absorb it all yet. I’m excited to be here.”
(Give us a sense of the timing. When did you get the call and how soon were you on a plane?) – “I got the call and then like three or four hours later I was on a plane on the way down here. I just tried to get all of my affairs in order in Carolina and stuff and then get ready to leave and come down here for a couple of weeks.”
(So a lot of your stuff is still in Carolina I take it?) – “Yeah. Everything.”
(When you left the University of Miami early, did you expect this journey would be as difficult as it was?) – “It really hasn’t been difficult. Some people’s outlooks on it might be different from mine but it hasn’t been difficult at all. It’s been a great learning experience. This year I learned a lot from a lot of great guys. I can’t wait to get this journey started.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase mentioned that the Dolphins were interested you in the draft process. Did you have a lot of communications with them?) – “Yes. They expressed a lot of interest and they were trying to get me down here but I guess they had different priorities and stuff to get in order or whatever they had going on upstairs. I just know they had to take care of their business. But I’m here now.”
(Tell us about the tweet that you sent on draft night about the 31 GMs that passed on you. The motivation behind that? Does it still carry with you today?) – “It was kind of self-explanatory but yes, I’m driven to go out and carve a name for myself and make everyone who passed on me … show them what I can do.”
(Former Hurricanes Defensive Coordinator Manny Diaz left UM. I don’t know how close you were.) – “Yeah. That’s my guy. I’m proud of him. Coaches just like players, they’re always looking for a bigger job and still trying to accomplish their dreams in coaching and stuff. He did a lot for the University of Miami. I know he touched a lot of guys’ lives. Anyone who has ever been in contact with him is happy for him to get this chance.”
(How would you describe your playing style?) – “I play physical and (have a) good get-off. I play hard.”
(Did you know anybody here other than WR Malcolm Lewis?) – “Yeah, Isaiah Ford. Dee Delaney went to Miami. I believe that’s it. I haven’t even seen everybody yet.”
(Where did you know WR Isaiah Ford from?) – “We played in high school together.”
(To clarify, the whole Ken Norton situation.) – “No, that’s not my father or my grandfather or anything. I don’t know them.”
(That’s kind of weird how that wound up on your draft report thing.) – “Yeah. I don’t know where they got it from but they just kind of fabricated that one.”
(Do people ask you about that a lot?) – “Yeah.”
Adam Gase – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(We saw CB Xavien Howard come back. Where is he on his progress and is he likely for Sunday?) – “We’ll see how this week goes. Hopefully we can get him out to practice and move him around against some competition. It’s trending in the right direction. I think he’s done a good job of doing everything that he’s been asked to do, working hard and trying to get out there as fast as he can.”
(How deserved is his Pro Bowl recognition?) – “He’s had some really good games. He’s made some big plays in key moments for us and flipped some games for us. I think he’s done a good job, especially the last six or seven weeks. All of his coverage has been tight. He’s around the ball all of the time. He’s kind of preventing guys from getting the ball thrown their way. It’s hard to really think of too many guys that are really above him.”
(You guys had CB Bobby McCain shadowing Vikings WR Adam Thielen last week. Why was he qualified for that job?) – “We were just trying to get the right matchups. Him and Minkah (Fitzpatrick), we were trying to get the right body type on the right guy. We thought that was the best thing for us to do. We rotated some of those other guys in there. We were trying to do everything we could to give us the best chance to win.”
(How disappointing was it to see RB Frank Gore’s season end the way it did and also, as a head coach, how would you describe what it’s been like coaching him?) – “It’s disappointing considering the amount of games, the amount of starts that he’s had in a row. I wish he could’ve finished this out. He’s a special person. He’s a special player. I think it’s hard to find somebody that’s really done anything comparable to him, especially the way football is now and how he’s run early in his career. To last this long and then to produce the way he has at this age is just something you just probably won’t ever see again.”
(Has RB Frank Gore expressed anything to you about wanting to come back next year?) – “We haven’t gotten there yet. Right now, it’s really hard for him to just really swallow at this point.”
(The offense is close to the top of the league in average yards per rush but the number of rushes is down. What would be the reason why there’s not a greater amount of rushes?) – “Because we’re bad on third down. We don’t have a lot of plays. I don’t even know what our play average is, but it’s not very good. I think that’s really probably the reason why the rush attempts are that low. The yardage is high because we’ve had those explosive runs. I don’t even know how many we’ve had. Having a 75-yarder, those type of things – that will do it for you real fast. That will get the average up. That will get the yardage up. If we had more plays, we’d have more attempts. The fact that we find ourselves in third-and-seven-plus way too much and we haven’t been very good at even coming close to converting them, that really hurts us.”
(How do you look at the big-play nature of your offense? Is that something you rely on?) – “We obviously have had to because that’s been something that’s really helped us more than anything. To rely on it, that’s a little scary to do because you can go a whole game without getting one of those. We’ve been lucky in the fact that we’ve had good execution on a lot of those plays that we’ve had explosive plays. You want more of that to where it looks like it does in a walkthrough. In this last game, they blocked that perfect. (Kalen) Ballage used his speed, didn’t hesitate and just blew past everybody. That was great to see. The more consistent we can be on things like that, the better results we’ll have.”
(S Reshad Jones expressed some frustration about how he’s being used on Monday. How do you feel about where he is mentally right now?) – “He’s fine. I asked him about it. I was giving him a hard time. The way that we’ve had to move people around, we kind of get caught in certain situations. Him and T.J. (McDonald) are kind of interchangeable to where it’s almost like, I don’t want to say exactly how we do things, but you think of it as just left-right and there’s a slot on that side, that guy goes down and the other guy is back. It’s kind of dictated by the formation in some of these cases. We want to put him in the best position possible. We’ve kind of had to do things a certain way because of who we have out there. Minkah (Fitzpatrick) going to corner and us kind of moving all these guys around, that’s kind of why that’s happened.”
(We didn’t notice S T.J. McDonald out there today. If he can’t play, what are your options?) – “We’re just going to have to keep working through all these scenarios and moving guys around. We at least have some options as far as guys that have been back there either this year or in practice. The good thing is we have multiple guys with flexibility.”
(You picked up DT Kendrick Norton off Carolina’s practice squad. What can you tell us about him and when you’re claiming a guy off another team’s practice squad, how much can you learn about that guy since he’s in another team’s camp?) – “You’re going off your college scouting for the most part. That’s what our pro department does. That’s what they do. It’s non-stop evaluating preseason film. Really, most of the work is done before we even hit the season. Probably in those first two weeks, they’ve evaluated everybody on the practice squad and they’re always constantly watching guys if they get moved up or play a game and then evaluate them again. For us, it was somebody we were interested in the whole draft process. We go through this every week. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and his crew go through all of this every week of looking at everybody’s practice squad to see if anything changes. If we have a guy go down, we have to always be ready to see, if we don’t have what we’re looking for on our practice squad, being able to go grab somebody else. We’re kind of in that part of the year where it’s tough to get guys off of practice squads because they end up staying where they’re at because they know that system and they know the season is in the final two weeks. Why leave when you already know that system? It makes it tough to get a guy to come to you, but it was a good opportunity for us and a good opportunity for him. We’re always looking for big guys whether it’s offensive line or defensive line.”
(I wanted to ask you about the injured jerseys for RB Kenyan Drake and WR DeVante Parker. Now they’re out of them, does that mean they can be hit in practice and is it an indicator that they’re healthy from the shoulders?) – “They could be hit. We’re out of padded days, so they shouldn’t get hit at this point. But yes, that’s what it would mean, that they’re in better shape than what they were a couple weeks ago.”
(What have you learned from RB Kalen Ballage throughout the season?) – “I thought he did a good job of just sticking with learning everything (and) practicing hard. There was a time there where he could have mentally flipped a switch to where it would’ve been really hard for him. Sometimes when you’re a rookie, you don’t understand why you’re not playing and (wondering) ‘How do I get up?’ He’s looking in front of him and we have four other backs and they’re playing to him on special teams. He just never wavered. He just kept grinding. He did unbelievable on scout team to where our defense was struggling because he goes one speed. What you saw on Sunday, that’s how he practices. He finishes every run in the end zone and we’re always waiting for him to get back. He’s doing things the way you want a pro to do it.”
(Have you noticed any difference in the attention that guys are paying or the energy at practice or anything, based off the playoff possibilities not looking as clear as maybe last week?) – “I thought today was a good day. I thought guys were really good in our meetings. This defense is similar to some of the ones that we’ve seen in the past where a lot of our guys have recall on when I’m going through, here’s what they’re doing and here’s why they do some of this stuff. Guys were sharp in meetings and asked good questions. And then at practice, I thought offensively those guys, they were running and executing what we were asking them to do. Defensively we’re a little short-handed right now because we’re beat up for practice. Hopefully by Sunday we’ll be a little healthier. But I thought guys were good in the team meeting and individual meeting. There was good attention. There seemed (to be) good energy at practice. I don’t think they’re focusing on, ‘Hey, two weeks from now.’ I think they’re worried about trying to win this game and knowing that, ‘hey, is there a possibility?’ Yeah. It’s a small percentage, but you keep fighting to the end. Weird things happen in this league and you just never know.”
(So stunts against your offensive front, it seems like a lot of the damage has been done … What’s the deal, what’s the problem?) – “We haven’t done a very good job of passing them off, to where when we get picked, that guy is slamming him down and being able to re-trace and understand there’s a guy coming back to you. Sometimes we get hung up on them and that’s where we need to make huge improvement. We have to understand. We see it enough with our defense. We should be better than what we are right now. We’ve seen it enough. We understand what they’re trying to do and we haven’t really done a good job of reacting to some of the things that teams have done. There’s been some creative things that teams have done that we haven’t really seen that caught us off guard a couple of times; but at some point, we’ve got to understand kind of just the general philosophy of what they’re trying to do and we’ve got to find a way to get better at it. We’ve got to change up probably some of our protections when we do that. There’s probably a couple of things we can help them there. But at the end of the day, it’s about not hanging on one guy too long and just understanding there’s somebody going to replace him.”
(So is that physical? Is that mental? Is that instincts? Is that not studying enough?) – “I would say it’s not (not) studying enough. Everybody knows that’s going to happen. When you get beat on something in a game, you’re going to see it the next week. Like, teams are always going to test you. If you can’t stop like a wham play, you’re going to see it every week until you get zero yards or a negative play. If you’re giving up 20 yards a clip, you’re going to see it the next week. We know we’re always going to see it right away and we’ve just got to keep working at it. We’ve got to find some ways to take the edge off a little bit to where protection-wise, we can help ourselves by just gapping it up. Now you lose your back, you lose your tight end and any kind of check-downs. But there are some ways that we can try to help them up front and then at the same time, when we have to go six-man protection, we have to do a better job passing them off.”
(When CB Xavien Howard was out, how much did that hurt you schematically?) – “It’s going to hurt you a lot. It’s like when Laremy is out. When Laremy is in there, he’s on an island and we can double everybody else. But without Laremy, we’re not in good shape.”
(Did you expect T Laremy Tunsil to make the Pro Bowl?) – “I did. I think he’s the best tackle in football. I was shocked because without him, we can’t do anything. He’s on an island every play every game and he knows it. We tell him in the meetings. ‘Here’s what we’re doing protection-wise,’ and I tell him, ‘You’re on your own.’ And the way he sets and the way that he punches and sits down … Even last week, he would have been fine, then one of our backs runs into the back of him and knocks him off.”
(Why do you think T Laremy Tunsil didn’t make it?) – “I don’t know. That’s hard for me to explain. I don’t know the actual percentages of who gets a say and all those types of things.”
(Thinking about the nine sacks, about how many of those do you think QB Ryan Tannehill could have or should have done something to limit or prevent it pre- or post-span?) – “There was one pre-snap that I wasn’t real happy with what he did. I went through them the other day. Really, for the most part, he didn’t have much of a chance.”
Adam Gase – December 19, 2018 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Jacksonville Media
(Could you give us a little bit of a snapshot of how QB Ryan Tannehill has handled this up and down year with the injuries and stuff?) – “He’s handled it as good as you can handle it when you’re coming off a season where you missed the whole year and then, really, he goes to throw a ball and gets hit right in the right spot and all of a sudden (he) can’t throw with any velocity or any kind of power. Really, it was one of those things nobody could get us a straight answer as far as he would be out. That was frustrating for him, but once he came back, he’s done a good job of improving each week. The New England game when he got the ankle, I really thought we lost him there for … it was going to be a while. But he fought through it and finished that game and then was able to play the last one.”
(Do you get the sense that QB Ryan Tannehill is kind of underappreciated for what he’s been able to go through and the way he’s played not just this year, but throughout his career?) – “Yeah. He’s had some really outstanding games. He’s put together some games where he’s had streaks of games where it’s been very good. I think the thing that a lot of people focus on is the fact that not only this year, but our first year together, we played some tough teams on the road and we haven’t done well as a team. The way that the league goes is really the quarterback gets, for the most part, he gets all the blame and some guys get a lot of the credit and some guys don’t.”
(Home and away is always tough or there’s usually an advantage at home, but any reason you think for your team why it’s such a disparity home and away?) – “I think our away games we played some good teams. We caught Cincinnati when they were first the division and one of the hottest offenses in football. We had opportunities in that game. New England is always a tough place to play. That’s probably why they have the best home record over the last three years. Indy was hot when we got them. Green Bay was still playing pretty good at the time. Houston, obviously, has continued playing well through the entire year. We got Minnesota probably at the wrong time where it was do-or-die for them. They make a coaching change and their guys were pretty fired up to play. They’re a tough defense. We got caught on the wrong end of that one and played it poorly as a whole team and we got way behind on a team you can’t get behind on.”
(What’s it like being around a guy like RB Frank Gore?) – “Any time you get a chance to be around a guy that’s going to be a future Hall of Famer, it’s special. He has so much impact on other players. His work ethic and how he goes about his daily business, it rubs off on other guys. That one is going to hurt. That hurts us as a team, as an offense. Being somebody who was around him 10 years ago, I’ve watched him do a lot of things at that time. I feel terrible for him just because I know he wanted to finish this season out on the right note.”
(What do you see out of Jacksonville, especially their offense has struggled the last three weeks. Do you wonder whether this is a bad time to be playing them because they can get things turned around?) – “Every game in the NFL, you’re going in as … You have to prepare for every game. You have to make sure that you understand what they do well, what you could possibly take advantage of. I know that we have to do a great job on offense because their defense is flying around and they’re causing havoc. They’re very tough to play because you might have an idea what they’re going to do, but blocking them and being able to get on their linebackers in the run game, it’s really tough. They have really good players all over the place on that defense. And offensively, (Head Coach) Doug (Marrone) does a great job with the run game, especially. We haven’t done great against the run. We have to make sure we tighten up, we’re gap sound and we tackle well, because when you got the backs they’ve got, it can be a problem for us.”
(When you watch the tape of them, what kind of stands out for you when you see CB Jalen Ramsey?) – “I see a guy that when he presses you, you don’t see many guys going very far. When he plays off … My window of seeing really good corners is small because I’m not going to count the years I was a little kid and Deion Sanders was playing. (laughter) But in the time that I’ve been in the league, I don’t know if I’ve seen anybody look as smooth as him when somebody’s running across the field. He stays tight. He’s not holding and grabbing guys. It’s almost like he knows the route and he’s running it for them. His ability to find the ball and either bat it down or pick it off … He’s so smooth with everything he does. It looks exactly the way that you wish you could teach every player how to do it. He just does it because he’s that good.”
(So you weren’t surprised when CB Jalen Ramsey made the Pro Bowl?) – “No. (laughter)”
Ryan Tannehill – December 19, 2018
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Wednesday, December 19, 2018
QB Ryan Tannehill
(So Packers Interim Head Coach Joe Philbin declined to say that QB Aaron Rodgers is going to be his starter this week. Does that mean anything to you?) – “It sounds very familiar but doesn’t mean a whole lot, no. (laughter) I can relate.”
(How are you feeling after nine sacks?) – “Not too bad. Thankfully I didn’t get dinged up or anything. I’m a little sore but not too bad.”
(Did any of those sacks affect your shoulder?) – “No.”
(When you went back and watched those sacks, how did you evaluate them?) – “You can’t put it all on one person or one group. I think it was a little bit of everyone. I could have done a couple of things differently. The line could have done a couple things differently – backs, tight ends. It was really everyone that was involved unfortunately failed at one point or another. We definitely need to come back and re-group this week and get back on track.”
(Your numbers at home are really good and the team’s as well. How would you describe the comfort level playing in the stadium here?) – “It’s good. It always feels good to play at home in front of your home crowd. We’re obviously familiar with playing there. It’s an honor to get to go out and step foot on that field every time we get to play at home. We want to put on a good show for our fans and win every game that we play at home. It’s definitely something we look forward to.”
(Is there something different about the road that makes such a drastic difference?) – “I mean it’s always different playing on the road. The snap count is different. The momentum of the game can change more rapidly, I think, on the road. But at the end of the day, it’s football. Those things can have slight affects in the game, yes; but it doesn’t change the game so to speak.”
(Can you talk a little bit about Jacksonville’s defense and why they’re so good? I know two weeks ago they shut out the Colts, which is pretty impressive. What do you see when you look at their tape?) – “They’re a talented team. I think it starts with the personnel. They have good players from their front to the linebackers and the secondary. All the way through, they’re really a solid team. (They’re) kind of a lot like we saw last week. They’ve stacked up good players at every position. They play fast. They keep things fairly simple. They play what they play and I think they do a good job of studying what teams do to attack them and really try to lock those things down. You have to give a lot of credit to the way they’re playing right now. They’ve played well pretty much all season, through the ups and the downs of their season. When you turn on the tape, you can’t tell what the score is by the way that they’re playing. They’re playing hard, they’re flying around (and) they’re excited to make plays. I have a ton of respect for this defense.”
(How have you seen RB Kalen Ballage’s growth from training camp to last weekend?) – “Kalen has been huge for us. I think just his progression throughout OTAs, throughout training camp, buying in and getting in the playbook and learning what to do, now you’re starting to see that (now that) he’s getting some opportunities in the backfield on offense. He’s taking advantage. You saw some of his talent last week. Not many guys can take that thing 75 yards untouched. He has the size to run tough and get the tough yards but then he also has the breakaway speed to be able to finish those long runs. He’s kind of a rare combo in that regard of size and speed.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said today that he was shocked that T Laremy Tunsil didn’t make the Pro Bowl. Maybe he will as an alternate or something but how would you describe his growth?) – “Yeah, Laremy has been huge. Honestly, I’m shocked too. He’s been such a good player for us this year. I’m really disappointed to not hear him announced as a Pro Bowl player. I think that he’s been every bit of that for us and the way that he’s played, both in the run and the pass game. He’s strong, he’s athletic (and) he’s everything you look for in a tackle. We have a ton of confidence in Laremy and I think he should get a little bit more respect for it.”
(We know every week in this league that you guys are always playing for a job but what makes a team, that has had a rough season like Jacksonville – you know those guys are playing for jobs – how much more does that make them?) – “Like I said, they’ve played all year. You can’t turn on the tape and see guys loafing or looking like they don’t want to be out there. They’re playing hard. They’re flying around. I think they take a lot of pride in playing good football on defense. Like I said, we have a ton of respect for them and know that they’re going to come out and play hard against us.”
(When you are under duress like you were on Sunday, do you talk to your guys and demand better or do you just sit there and take it? What is the reaction to nine sacks?) – “I think initially it’s just trying to get it corrected. You go look on the sideline, ‘Hey, what happened? Where was the miscommunication or misstep?’ If it’s a mental thing, that’s when I kind of get a little ticked off. If it’s some guy getting beat, that’s going to happen. They get paid too over there. The frustrating part was we had a few mental errors and sacks and free runners that we shouldn’t have been having free runners (on). Those are the frustrating ones that I think you look back and you’re mad about because we should have had some opportunities and we didn’t get to take a shot.”
(Are you talking about the stunts and stuff like that?) – “Yeah, stunts or secondary guys adding on. The protection has built-in answers for that and we weren’t able to get them. Like I said, it’s mixed around on every group but the mental error ones are the ones that frustrate you the most.”
(How does communication roll with the center pointing out stuff and you? Who has that responsibility and how does it shift off?) – “In our offense, the quarterback handles the Mike points as far as all of the protections and everything goes. That’s on me to make sure it’s set right and picked up either by hot (routes) or by protection.”
(Do you think because of your ankle injury, it’s one reason why they felt they could pressure you so much?) – “I don’t think so. You’d have to ask them. I don’t know. I felt all right. I got outside a couple of times. I think we started the game with a naked (bootleg). I think we showed early on that we’re going to be able to get outside and move a little bit. I wouldn’t say so but maybe they think otherwise.”
(How is the ankle?) – “It’s doing well. It’s progressing, obviously. It still doesn’t feel too good but we’re headed in the right direction.”
Jerome Baker – December 17, 2018
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Monday, December 17, 2018
LB Jerome Baker
(You’re a rookie, so how do you treat these last couple games here coming up?) – “Just finish strong. You never know what can happen. My thing is just focus on the next one, finish strong and at the end of the season, just let it work out itself.”
(You’ve probably been adapting your whole career to game plans and stuff other guys are doing to you. How much more difficult is it in the NFL to do it?) – “It’s definitely a little bit more difficult because personnel – some teams have a fullback, some teams don’t; some teams have three tight ends, some teams only have two. It’s really just adapting to what teams got, what their weapons are. You really just try to focus on our game plan and how they’ll try to game plan us. It’s definitely a work in progress of every week it’s something new, but that’s the challenge and that’s what makes it fun so it’s all good.”
(Each week, the goal of a defensive player is to basically stop the run. You guys are allowing more than 150 rushing yards per game. What has been the issue that’s causing these breakdowns?) – “We just have to do our individual assignment. Sometimes, we don’t execute our individual assignment. If we don’t stop the run, that leads to our DBs cheating up so the ball is getting thrown over their head. We just have to work together as far as executing together. The thing about the league is we still have two more weeks to just finish strong and hopefully we just plan to do that.”
(Can you even think about how much better next season will be for you?) – “I can’t right now, but that’s definitely going to be exciting. Right now, I just (need to) focus on these next two games. Next year will be next year.”
(What was the mood with the players coming in today?) – “That’s a hard pill to swallow. The great thing about us is we still come in and we just go to work. That’s all we pretty much do. Take these next two days off and just relax; but Wednesday you have to come in ready to work and get back at it.”
