Adam Gase – October 31, 2018
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Do you have anything on the quarterbacks for us?) – “Yeah, Ryan (Tannehill) will be out this week. Brock (Osweiler) will be starting.”
(Are you surprised that QB Ryan Tannehill hasn’t shown more to this point?) – “I think it’s just unpredictability. Some days it feels a lot better and some days he doesn’t feel as good. He’s throwing. We’ll just keep working through it, keep talking with the doctors and see if we can do anything else, anything more than what he’s doing, or if we need to do less. We just have to keep going through this process.”
(We didn’t see QB Ryan Tannehill throw anything out there today. Did he throw anything?) – “He has. I mean he’s been throwing when he’s with the trainers and they do certain things. He’s being monitored closely.”
(At this point, how much does the concern grow that this can be something that either needs to be surgically repaired or could possibly impact QB Ryan Tannehill’s career the rest of…) – “Surgery has not been brought up to me. This is just a rest-type thing.”
(What are the differences in the Jets team you’re going to see Sunday compared to the Jets team you saw earlier this year?) – “That’s a tough one in the aspect of when we play those guys, we’re going to get their A-game. We’re going to get a team that’s going to make sure that it is not easy sledding running the football. It never has been. In my short time here, every time we’ve played them, it’s been a physical game. (Jets Head Coach) Todd (Bowles) does a great job of getting those guys ready to go on defense. The quarterback (Sam Darnold) is getting better. He’s a young player. He’s seeing more and he’s learning the NFL game. There are some games where you see some really good flashes and then there are some games where you can see he’s fighting through a couple of things and I think (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks) Jeremy (Bates) is doing a good job of trying to put him into position to keep getting better.”
(What do you hope LB Mike Hull brings?) – “He’s one of our leaders in special teams, for sure. He gives us more depth at linebacker as well. If something happens, we’ve got a guy that knows our stuff inside and out. He’s able to pop in there and he’s a really good relief pitcher when it comes to that, filling in for one of those guys. He makes a ton of plays on special teams. It seems like every game we walk out of there where he’s got two or three tackles and has some kind of impact play to swing field position.”
(What’s your impression of the Jets running game? There’s been a lot of inconsistency there.) – “I know when we played them, it was tough. Every play is a fight. It’s hard for me to look at too much in the past. I know scheme-wise we can, but I just know what we’re going to get (in terms of) when we get going on Sunday, it’s a different type of game. Both sides, it’s very intense. You throw the records out. You kind of throw what happened before that (out) because guys are coming to play.”
(Regarding your situation at defensive tackle, I know you signed a couple of guys. How tough is it to plug guys in at defensive tackle?) – “At that spot, it’s probably a little easier than some of the other spots because there are less moving parts, especially with two veteran guys. Our numbers dwindled very quickly. I think it was good by the front office guys to get those guys in quick and get them signed and get them out there practicing.”
(What did you see from the workouts that said ‘Okay, this is the right fit for us – DE Ziggy Hood and DT Sylvester Williams – as opposed to some other guys?’) – “Yeah, I mean I’ve been with Sly (Sylvester Williams) before in Denver, so I have some history there. Ziggy, everybody … It was unanimous as far as who those guys liked in the front office and who the staff liked. I felt really good about it just because it’s two guys that are run stoppers and do have value against the pass and have experience. It’s not like they haven’t played all year. They’re coming off of other teams. It’s been a couple weeks but it’s good to get some guys out there that are some fresh faces and see if we can get a little bit of a spark here.”
(With regard to QB Ryan Tannehill, what’s the term for the injury? What’s the injury?) – “I don’t know. I try not to dig too deep in it because I don’t want to get anything wrong with you guys.”
(Is there a sprain?) – “No. I don’t want to say sprain.”
(Are you just calling it a sore shoulder?) – “Yeah, I don’t know. I’ll ask more questions to find out for you. You can ask me tomorrow and I’ll have a better answer.”
(WR DeVante Parker, is he unlucky? An underachiever? Some of both?) – “I think unlucky is probably the word I would use as far as with the injuries. Especially him having a soft tissue injury, the amount of work that he had put in to make sure that didn’t happen, I know that was disappointing for him. When he fractured the finger, his hand got caught in Xavien (Howard)’s jersey and he tried to go up and it got snagged and twisted all around. In my time here, he’s tried to do everything possible to make sure that he’s ready to go. He’s done a good job of staying engaged when he wasn’t playing. I think it benefitted (him), the amount of work he put into the playbook this last game because he didn’t have to ask ‘What’s this?’ or ‘Where do I go here?’ He was playing fast. Hopefully we just keep getting better every week and seeing if we can just keep expanding his role to where he makes as many plays as possible per game.”
(And that game reinforces for you that for you to be in WR DeVante Parker’s corner is the right call?) – “Yeah. We had a good week of preparation. Anything that happened before that, we move on quick. If he has something to say to me, he’ll say it. He’s not afraid to tell me stuff and I appreciate that about him. If somebody else says something for him, he talked to me and then we moved on.”
(What’s WR Kenny Stills able to do right now?) – “He’s trying to work through his injury. We’ll see kind of how the rest of the week goes. Obviously you see he’s trying to convince us that he’s going to be ready. We just have to be smart. We don’t want to make it something to where we throw him out there and then all of a sudden we lose him for a longer period of time.”
(WR Kenny Stills’ issue is the leg? That’s the one that’s keeping him out?) – “Yeah, it was like a groin.”
(WR Kenny Stills also had a shoulder, I think.) – “Yeah, it was more the groin.”
(With the trade deadline yesterday, were there any situations where you thought you might be a little more active than you were?) – “No. We were good.”
(If WR Kenny Stills does not play, do you feel like you still have enough depth and experience at wide receiver to make it through the game?) – “Yeah, I thought those guys did a really good job last week. We saw some different things than what we anticipated and for not practicing – we just had walkthroughs and I don’t know what we were in but we just had walkthroughs – those guys adjusted well. (They) talked through things, did a good job of communicating coming back to the sideline and made some plays. We were probably inches away from busting a couple of those out. I think these guys just keep working out there and keep trying to find ways to get better. When Kenny is ready to go, that will be great to get another guy out there that can really help us stretch the field. Those guys have done a good job.”
(Outside of the penalties and the third-down issues, you’re averaging less than what the league averages in points. What’s the reasoning why midway through?) – “It’s probably not finishing in the red zone. We had a couple of shots this last game to put ourselves in … I think there were about three of them to where if we convert on a third-and-short, at least it keeps us alive for a touchdown. We have a third-and-4 where we have the ball in our hands and we don’t finish the play. When you have three of those, that’s going to hurt you. We probably had a couple of games where we weren’t down there enough and didn’t give ourselves a chance. At the end of the day, our job is to score one more point than whatever the opposing team scores.”
(In what area has T Laremy Tunsil improved the most this season?) – “Every area. I think it’s slowed down for him. I think his confidence is extremely high. I think he’s done a great job from the time we started in the spring. I think Josh (Sitton) coming in and working next to him had an effect on Laremy as far as watching how he would prepare every day in meetings and all of those little tiny things that a lot of people don’t see. I think Laremy was lucky to have somebody that he could kind of work with that was willing to help him and point him in the right direction. I see Laremy’s confidence right now as extremely high. I think the Cincinnati game was an eye-opener for him, probably how things kind of fell apart when he left the game. He can see how valuable he is. We’ve left him on an island on some good players here a couple of times in the last three or four weeks and he’s done a great job.”
(DE Robert Quinn was saying after the Houston game that this season has been a disappointment for him. Have you had to talk to him about dealing with that, or is he professional enough that you leave him on his own?) – “I know what he’s talking about. He’s really not one to complain. He’s always a guy that just works extremely hard at practice. He tries to do what the coaches ask him to do. I know that he wishes that he could get to the quarterback probably a few more times, but sometimes it’s not in his control if the offense is calling something to where the ball comes out quick. We’ve tried to set some things up and make sure maybe we can free him up to where (it cane be) a one-on-one battle. It doesn’t work out all the time. We’ve got a long ways to go. We’ve got eight games left. It’s just in the moment right there when you just get beat up pretty good in a game and nobody really had a great one. It’s frustrating in that moment.”
(Do you think DE Robert Quinn feels or felt pressure because DE Cameron Wake was slowed or missing that he needed to pick up?) – “I don’t know. I’ve never asked him that. I’m sure that he wanted to do something to try create havoc in the game.”
(With LB Mike Hull back, does that change RB Brandon Bolden’s role? And how in general has he been doing?) – “I don’t know how many roles it’s really going to change for us. We’ve got some pieces that we had to move around anyways. We’ll kind of see how that all plays out on Sunday. Who were you asking about? Bolden? He’s doing really well. He’s been a huge part of what we’re doing. He’s been the ultimate professional. I think he’s been a great influence on the entire locker room. Anybody that comes in contact with him, he just does everything right. If you’re a coach and you say something, if anybody even kind of looks at you weird, he’s the first one to be like, ‘No, he’s right. Trust me.’ He’s been through a lot. He’s played a lot of football. He’s played a lot of offense and he’s played a ton of special teams. His library of things that he’s gone through in his career is huge and I think a lot of guys lean on him to kind of point them in the right direction.”
(How was your defense today? What was kind of the spirit that they had coming in?) – “It was intense. It was intense. It was fast. It was physical. It was good. I thought guys did a good job of coming out … there was a focus there.”
(I know that teams want to get the ball out fast so that they limit the ends and stuff, but they do that to everybody. So if your two ends aren’t getting there, what are they not doing other than teams are getting the ball out?) – “A lot of times it’s taking a guy off the first progression, the quarterback off the first progression. That’s part of when I talk about front coverage working together, when a quarterback goes to throw that No. 1 guy in the progression, you take him away and now he has to go to No. 2, that’s most of the time when you get home if you’re dealing with a type of team that gets the ball off fairly quick. So you have to be able to take something away on the back end as well, or even at linebacker if you’re dealing with a team working the tight end or a running back. We’ve been talking about it basically since the last game … We have to work great together on all three levels. Right now, the last two games, we haven’t done a great job of back end working with the front and vice versa. That’s where we need to get things cleaned up. We have to do a better job of when they do get the ball out quick, we have to be tight coverage, don’t allow him to take the first progression, make him move to No. 2. Now we’ve got a chance to get home.”
(So in part what you’re saying is Cameron Wake and Robert Quinn, part of their problem is your cornerbacks?) – “We just have to do a better job in coverage. It’s not always the corners. That’s why I’m saying it’s a group thing because it’s not always going to be, ‘Hey, the corner is the one covering the first guy in the progression.’ If we’re throwing to (Kenyan) Drake, he’s covered probably by a linebacker or a safety. It’s the same thing with other teams. We just have to do a better job of being tight and making that guy go to No. 2.”
(There’s sort of a cliché that the best ability is availability in the game of football. What’s sort of your view on that given that you’ve had a lot of injuries this year?) – “Yeah, I mean, that’s always a good saying when nobody is getting hurt. When a lot of guys get hurt, then you start looking at everything. I know (Head Strength and Conditioning Coach) Dave (Puloka) has been thinking about it. ‘Hey, did we do something wrong in the offseason, training camp.’ And (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston). We’ve all been kind of talking about all the things that we’ve kind of done, whether it be stay the same, change something. ‘Hey, has that affected?’ We’ve just had some weird like season-ending-type things and it’s happening in games. We haven’t really lost a whole bunch of guys in practice. We’re losing guys in games. We’ll keep looking at that, try to keep guys as healthy as we can. To answer your question, availability is the No. 1 thing that you’re always looking for in the NFL because if you’re not on the field, you can’t really help us.”
Sylvester Williams – October 31, 2018
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018
DT Sylvester Williams
(How would you describe your strengths as a player?) – “That’s a good question. Obviously I’m here. I’m just here to give it everything I got, we got eight regular season games left. Whatever I’m bringing as a player, you have to turn your TV on Sunday and you’ll see.”
(Why were you out of work earlier this season?) – “I was in a situation where I wasn’t successful, we weren’t successful as a team stopping the run and they brought a guy in.”
(How do you describe the world wind of emotions of being unemployed one week and signing with a team the next?) – “There was no emotions for me. Like I said, I was brought there to stop the run and we weren’t doing that. So, me being unemployed wasn’t a shock.”
(Are you familiar with head coach Adam Gase or any of the other coaches?) – “I was obviously on the same staff with head coach Adam Gase out in Denver. Some of the other coaches I was on staff with them as well. At the end of the day, it’s football. You have to come in and do your job. We all have a job to do just like you all have a job to do. That’s what I’m here to try to do.”
(What’s the most important responsibility in the position they’re going to utilize you as it relates to run stopping?) – “Right now, they haven’t really given me a specific … They just told me to come in and work my butt off and learn the playbook. That’s what I’m trying to do right now. Obviously I’m saying we have to stop the run just like the other 31 teams in the NFL. Hopefully I can provide to help doing that.”
(Do you have a Super Bowl ring?) – “Yeah, I have a Super Bowl ring.”
(Where is it at?) – “It’s in a safety deposit box right now. It keep it away, obviously that’s behind me. I’m trying to get another one, to be honest with you.”
Mike Hull – October 31, 2018
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Linebacker Mike Hull
(How do you describe the excitement of finally being back on the active roster?) – “It’s exciting for sure. I’ve been doing rehab for a lot of months, so I’m ready to get back out there and play real football.”
(When do you think you were ready to play? I know you were mandated to sit eight games.) – “Probably a few weeks ago; but with the IR rules, you have to kind of wait it out a little bit. I feel good. I feel good to be back out there and be with the guys.”
(What have you been told about your role moving forward?) – “Mostly just a four-core special teams guy for the foreseeable future, which is pretty much why I’ve been here for as long as I have. Just be a leader in those phases and help try to steer the ship in the right way.”
(One of the websites that comes up with special teams formulas has the Dolphins third in the NFL. What have you observed about the overall special teams performance this year?) – “(Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator) Coach (Darren) Rizzi does a good job getting us prepared throughout the week. He’s one of the best coaches in the game in the special teams phase. We have guys that play hard day in and day out, so it’s no surprise that we’re ranked that high.”
(How difficult has it been to just have to watch?) – “It’s real difficult watching the games on Sunday from home. It’s tough, but t’s all part of the game. It’s part of the process. It’s unfortunate but it happens.”
(I’m trying to remember how you got hurt and when you got hurt. Can you remind me?) – “The first preseason game, it was one of the first plays I was in. I just got rolled up on and ever since then I’ve been on the road to recovery.”
(Did you have to get it fixed?) – “Yeah, I had to get it fixed. It’s just an MCL deal and other than that, it feels good.”
(You figured all along that you’d be back at some point this year?) – “Yeah, for sure. As soon as it happened and they got the prognosis, that’s pretty much what we’ve been aiming for is getting back this week.”
(In some way, have you tried to help with the two first-year starting linebackers even though you haven’t been able to play?) – “For a lot of the rehab, I was just trying to get myself right. You have to take care of yourself first whenever it comes to those things, but since I’ve been back in the meeting room, I’m trying to give those guys tips. Especially on special teams, with (Durham) Smythe playing guard on punt and Jerome Baker playing tackle, I’m just trying to give them little tips on what to look for, even in film study.”
(One of your strengths when you are on the field at linebacker is run stopping. What have been your observations and what coaching points are you hearing from the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach about points of emphasis moving forward?) – “As linebackers, we just have to get downhill faster, take the double teams off of our d-linemen and get back to doing what we were doing the first few weeks of the season. We’ve had some guys go down, so it’s just kind of trying to find guys to step up. That’s what we’re going to be moving forward. It was great to get the little break whenever we did just to regroup and get our scheme settled.”
Reshad Jones – October 31, 2018
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Wednesday, October 31, 2018
S Reshad Jones
(Obviously it must be difficult for you guys defensively to look at what’s going on and take responsibility for it, but what are some of these issues that’s going on?) – “It’s a couple of things. Pass game, run game, just the total defense. We’ve got to be better. There’s no time to hit the panic button right now. We’ve got a lot of football left ahead of us. We’ve just got to come out to practice and continue to work and get it done on the practice field, and continue to put the work in.”
(What is going on in terms of run stopping?) – “It’s different things. People are out of their gaps, miscommunication. It’s collective things that’s going to take everybody on the defense – the coaching staff, everybody – coming together to get it fixed.”
(Did you feel like you guys needed reinforcement adding two defensive tackles?) – “I’m not sure. That’s nothing I can worry about. I let the guys upstairs make those moves and I come in and do whatever it takes to help this team win football games.”
(Another guy like DT Vincent Taylor goes down. Do you feel a little snake-bitten at times when you see another guy go down?) – “Yes, you hate to see one of your brothers go down. A guy who’s been here fighting and trying to do everything right. Unfortunately, that’s part of the NFL. Guys go down and it’s the next-man-up mentality. We brought two new guys in and hopefully they can help us win some football games.”
(You saw QB Sam Darnold after one start, and now he has six or seven under his belt. Does he look any different, or how does he look to you?) – “He’s young. He can make all of the throws, He’s got some guys around him that can make plays. I think our main focus is to make this team one dimensional. I think they’ve been doing a good job these last couple of weeks of running the football. I think Isaiah Crowell had a big game, not last week but the week before. I think our main focus it to try to make this team one dimensional, put the ball in (Darnold’s) hands and make hi make plays. I think if we make this team one dimensional, we’ll be fine.”
(What has been the issue with the defense getting stops on third downs? What has been that issue with you guys allowing 46 percent conversations?) – “It’s multiple things. We’ve got to get pressure on the quarterback. We’ve got to tackle once they catch the ball. It’s collective things. Those are some things that we’ve been working on (and that) coach talked about that we’re going to be working on throughout the rest of the season.”
Adam Gase – October 31, 2018 (Conference Call)
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with N.Y. Jets Media
(When you look at the film when you look at the Jets, what has changed the most between Week 2 and now?) – “Schematically, there’s little tiny things that we can see. A lot of this can get thrown out the window real fast because any time that we get together with these guys, it seems to turn into the same type of game where it gets extremely physical and it really comes down to who wants it most at the end. It just turns into a slugfest. It’s the team that makes a big play there in the second half or whoever is running the ball better that seems to be the team that comes out on top.”
(Jets QB Sam Darnold has kind of struggled of late and is now has the third-lowest passer rating. What do you make of that and what have you seen out of him?) – “Any time you have a young quarterback, the season is so young and there’s so much information getting thrown at him and they’re processing things week to week because every game plan is going to be a little bit different and you’re going to be facing a different defense that you have to prepare for. The more he plays, the better he’s going to get. Sometimes he might have a game where it seems like he’s struggling a little bit but you’re going to have those games where all of a sudden you see three touchdown passes, 300-plus yards passing and a 100-plus rating. It’s not something that can just happen overnight a lot of times at that position. It’s a tough position to play. That’s why it’s probably one of the toughest positions in professional sports. The thing is he’s throwing the ball well. They’ve had some moving parts but he’s dangerous. If you get him in any kind of rhythm or he starts moving around the pocket making some plays, it can become a nightmare for the opposing side real quick.”
Adam Gase – October 29, 2018
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Monday, October 29, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Are you upbeat after this weekend? Are you encouraged about things going forward?) – “We have some things to fix, obviously. The last two weeks haven’t really gone as we thought. We need to make sure that we get a lot of things corrected and make some adjustments and make sure we have the right guys on the field. It’ll be nice if we get some of these guys back that have been banged up. A few days off wouldn’t hurt us, kind of getting a little bit of those two days, this weekend and then today and tomorrow we’re not practicing. We should be pretty good on Wednesday.”
(What did you figure out or decide over this weekend after kind of evaluating everything?) – “I think on both sides of the ball, we have plenty of room for improvement. Defensively, we just have to do a better job of all three levels really playing together. We can’t have two guys here off track and two different guys in the next play. We have to do a better job of playing as a group. Offensively, we need to keep making strides where the offensive line and the running backs are on the same page of the run game, and then getting the ball out on time and making sure we’re in the right spots as receivers.”
(I’m going to get to your favorite topic: do you have anything for us on QB Ryan Tannehill?) – “No.”
(No update from the last time you talked to us?) – “No.”
(Are you expecting that QB Ryan Tannehill is going to practice Wednesday?) – “He’ll be out there no matter what. I don’t know what we’re going to do throwing-wise. I’ll have a better idea probably Tuesday, where really they’ll give me an answer one way or the other.”
(I think the reason we’re asking now is because the last couple of weeks, you’ve said early. Are you going to go into Wednesday with a starter or are you going to play it out all the way until Sunday?) – “I’d like to be able to say ‘this is what we’re doing’ Wednesday, or at least for me to know. I might not tell you guys.”
(We’d appreciate it.) – “(laughter) I really don’t care. We’ll see. I don’t know right now.”
(QB Ryan Tannehill was throwing a tennis ball last week?) – “Yep. We’re slowly progressing. He’s making steps where he’s in a position to where he can throw a football. We’re gaining strength in that area. We’ll see more in the next two days of how he feels the next day after when he does have a chance to throw, how sore he is the next day or how much power he feels like he has. We talked about it the other day. It’s just kind of an unusual injury and there’s a lot of gray where we’ve asked for information and you get a lot of gray back, so that makes it tough.”
(You said QB Ryan Tannehill is throwing a football now?) – “Yes. He can throw a football.”
(QB Ryan Tannehill is doing it?) – “Yeah. It’s just whether or not how much power can he put behind the ball. Even that week when he tried to throw, he’s throwing it and everything looks normal but for him, it’s like ‘I’m not getting that stroke that I want, I’m not getting that power behind it and being able to throw with the velocity I want.’ That’s really what it’s going to come down to is when he does throw, the next day, how does he feel? Then can he repeat what he did the day before? We have to be careful here. When you’re a starting quarterback, you’re out there and you throw 100-plus balls – the next day, you’re coming off an injury like that and you haven’t thrown in a while. You just have to be careful of that.”
(I think everyone around here admires QB Ryan Tannehill pain tolerance and toughness. How do you interpret what he says? Is he going to be honest with you?) – “My thoughts go the same direction. If he says something bothers him, then I’m assuming it really is bad because he normally doesn’t say anything.”
(QB Ryan Tannehill might say he’s fine…) – “Right. I told him ‘I have to trust you. You have to be honest with me. You can’t not be okay and then tell me you’re great.’”
(If QB Ryan Tannehill is not okay, does he know that could exacerbate the problem if he’s not …) – “He understands that. He understands that if he gives me wrong information, that could make it worse. I feel like he’s in a good place. I know it’s killing him because he wants to do anything he can to help us. But at the same time, we have to be smart because I don’t want this to turn into (something where) we try one week and then there’s a huge setback and now it’s worse than what it was before.”
(Have you been happy with QB Brock Osweiler?) – “Yeah, he’s done a great job. I think there’s a lot of things that he’s done that have been positive for us. The change out in wide receivers last week, I thought he handled that really well. It was unfortunate (on the interception). I thought he threw a really good ball and it ended up being intercepted, but there were some other factors that were involved in that. For the most part, he’s protected the ball and gotten us moving up and down the field. We have to clean up some of the red-area stuff, or the high red area, and give us a chance in the low (red area).”
(How important is it for QB Ryan Tannehill to return and what do you think he wants to prove by coming back this season?) – “I think he just wants to feel right. I think he just wants to get healthy. I think any time you can get your starting quarterback back, that’s probably a positive.”
(There was a lot of talk coming into the year about QB Ryan Tannehill’s improvement and what he could do this year. How has the injury sort of changed that view?) – “I don’t think it has for me. I think it’s a very unusual situation. He took a very odd hit and his body was in a weird position. That’s something that I wish I could say he could have controlled that, but we found ourselves in a little bit of a hole where we were trying to take a shot down the field and he held onto it and tried to give us the best chance possible, and he took a violent hit. It kind of really put him in a position where a guy got a good stroke on him and it affected him. I think mentally he’s in a great spot. I thought his body was in a decent spot everywhere else until that happened. We were headed in the right direction, we just had a little bit of that setback.”
(Like you said, it’s not out of QB Ryan Tannehill’s control but he’s had 20 games missed in the last two years.) – “Yeah, I mean before I got here it was ‘Hey, he’s played however many games (in a row).’ Everybody told me he never got hurt. The narrative swings so fast. I think that was a … The ACL was a weird deal. He got hit in a very poor throwing position. All of his weight was on that leg and he took a weird hit. It happens to a lot of guys. This one, it was the same thing. He was kind of in a bad position and it was just an unlucky event.”
(Sometimes it’s pretty clear if a team is a buyer or a seller at the trade deadline. At 4-4, do you see this as an opportunity to get your team better now? Is that something you’re even considering?) – “I haven’t even really thought about it. I like where we’re at right now. I like this group. I’d like to stay healthy from here on out. I don’t think we have much more room for losing guys for the year. I think we’ve maxed out on that. For the most part, I feel like we have the right guys. We just have to clean up … Especially on defense, we have to clean up a couple of things that could help us prevent these explosive plays because that’s hurting us more than anything.”
(Do you think you could go to Executive Vice President of Football Operation Mike Tannenbaum and say, ‘Hey, there’s this guy that’s available. He could be really …) – “Yeah, I mean, I’m not going to do that because they’re probably going to come to me before I go to them. That’s what these guys do all day long, every day, all year long. So I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about coaching the guys that are on our team.”
(You talked defensively about execution just now and a couple of guys here and there that maybe aren’t doing their job. How about schematically? Are you okay schematically?) – “We’re all right. There needs to be some things that we clean up that we kind of need to address and adjust. That’s part of football and that happens every year a lot of times that people don’t know about. We’re not going to sit there and do the same exact thing over and over again and think it’s going to fix itself. We’ll do what’s best for this game and then when we hit the next game, we’ll do what’s best for that game. That needs to be our mind-set in all three phases and that’s what it is going to be. We’ll make sure that we do a good job. If we prevent the explosive plays, we’ll be in a better position.”
(Going back to the question about the trade deadline tomorrow, how do you balance that innate competitiveness – you’ve obviously trying to 12-4 the rest of the year – versus weighing the long-term interests of the franchise?) – “I get what you’re saying, but with (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and Mike (Tannenbaum) doing what they do, they have a great way, like when we have to get together and some kind of decision is made, they lay everything out so black and white for me that it makes decisions really easy for my part of the vote. Those guys do a great job of laying things out the right way. They have a vision of how this thing should be and if something came up to where they thought that was best for us, it’s not too hard to convince me. Like, if they bring something to me, they’re really good at making sure that I see what they’re seeing.”
(But you could lose 10 more guys and keep trying. Would you be able to accept that at some point if it is the time to be a seller at the trade deadline?) –“I mean, how many days do we have left? There’s nothing that’s going to happen … Well, I shouldn’t say that because around here, who knows what’ll happen. (laughter)”
(Are you capable of that?) – “Probably not. That’s just … Unless they brought me something that they thought was a great idea, then I would do what’s best for the organization. But it’s highly unlikely that’s something like that would happen.”
(Do you still feel comfortable that WR DeVante Parker will be here past tomorrow?) – “Yeah. I do.”
(Do you know what the status of WR Kenny Stills is for this week?) – “I do not right now. He’s pushing. He wants it. He’s a guy that he doesn’t want to miss games. I know last week killed him. It was out of his control. I know he’s going to do everything he can to get back for this game. I just want to make sure that we’re not putting him out there too early to where he has a setback and now we lose him for a longer time.”
(We know it’s a week-to-week process, but with the way things have been going lately, do you still tell these guys we’re still conscientiously in the thick of the playoff race?) – “Yeah. I mean, what are we, one of eight teams that have (a .500 record or better), right? Now it’s who wins the second half of the season. We have to focus on this week and then once you handle this week, then you go to the next one. We’re so far … Last year we were in as deep of a hole as you can get in and we beat New England, we have to win one game and all of a sudden you’re playing the last game for the spot. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I mean, it’s crazy. Everybody in this room probably watched games yesterday and there’s a lot of football where you’re going, ‘Well, are we better than this team? Are we better than this team?’ Everybody is just bunched up. There’s like two or three teams per side that have kind of separated themselves where you notice like, ‘Wow, that team is really good.’ When you watch Kansas City, you go, ‘Wow, they’re really good on offense.’ When you watch L.A., they’re really good. Past that, I feel like a whole bunch of people are clumped together. It’s just kind of week to week the way it’s going right now.”
(I want to understand what you said about the defense. It sounds like you like the players you have, you like the coaches you have, but the players are not adhering to what they’re being taught or something?) – “No, it’s not that. It’s just that we have to play better as a group. That’s what happens sometimes in football where either side of the ball, any of the three phases, to where d-line to linebackers and the safeties have to kind of play together in the run game and then everybody really has to work together in the passing game, and sometimes you can get off. The front could be kind of seeing it one way, where the linebackers see it a different way. Things like that happen. We need to do a better job of making sure all 11 guys are really working together because that gives us the best chance. When you play Houston, you have ‘99’ (J.J. Watt) and ‘90’ (Jadeveon Clowney) there, who are just wrecking the game nonstop. You could have errors and they kind of cover up for you. Right now, we’ve had guys in and out to where we need to play as a group. Like, some of our … I would say like losing William Hayes, he has been like our enforcer in the run game. He’s not there anymore. We have to figure out a different way to handle things because he would just be like, ‘Boom, set the edge,’ and that was it. It was done. It wasn’t anybody else. He did it that well. We could adjust to the other side to say, ‘All right, we can help here.’ Right now, we need all 11 guys to do a great job together because we don’t have one guy that could just handle one side or one linebacker that makes every play. We need to work as a group.”
(When you watch games, do you watch them as a fan or do you try to scout or look at scheme or those types of things?) – “I think I kind of just take it in as the game is going on. There’ll be situations that come up. For me, I always know when it must have been really good because (Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren) Rizzi will start texting me, ‘Did you see this?’ It’s always a special teams play too. (laughter) Like the Carolina game yesterday when they take a delay of game and then they throw it to Greg Olsen and they get three points at the end of the half. Stuff like that. I guess most of us probably look at it situationally and there’ll be some times where you see a play and you’re like, ‘I wonder what that was?’ And write a note down to say, ‘Hey, watch the Rams-Green Bay game. I think I saw some stuff that Green Bay did defensively that I thought was interesting,’ as far as I might just write that down for when we play them of, ‘Hey, just a reminder to look at this.’ And then there’s a part of you that just watches it as … sometimes when you watch Kansas City, you just sit back and just watch because it just seems like they’re out there playing seven-on-seven. It’s impressive to watch.”
Adam Gase – October 26, 2018
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Friday, October 26, 2018
Head Coach Adam Gase
(When you watch the film of the performance against Houston, what did it show you, particularly on the defensive side?) – “Well, we did a bad job of executing quite a few calls, which is obvious when you look at the numbers and score. Anybody with the naked eye can see things weren’t quite right. We have to do a way better job of doing what we’re asking players to do. We have to do a better job of coaching it. Really, the simplicity of it is we have to do what we’re asked to do and we have to do it correctly, and it has to be 11 guys doing that.”
(How will you spend the weekend?) – “Good question. I’d like to say that I’d actually get to see my kids this weekend but with the amount of points we let up and playing as bad as we did on defense and we’ve got a lot of things to clean up on offense, I’ll probably spend most of my time working through all of this stuff.”
(Do you feel like you have the personnel, particularly the defensive tackles, to get the job done defensively?) – “Yeah. I mean it’s not one position. I know everybody wants to blame that because it’s the easy out, but it’s the whole group. We have to do a better job of a lot of things. There’s just a lot of things that we need to get cleaned up. We have to use our hands better at linebacker. We have to stop running around blocks on the defensive line. In the secondary, we have to know who we’re supposed to cover. We can’t cut guys loose. Some of the stuff that has occurred is fixable just by doing what we’re supposed to do.”
(To what extent do you feel like you’ve been overmatched physically, either up front or in the back end?) – “Well, it’s hard to tell because we don’t play what we’re supposed to play right. If you have 11 guys that are doing close to what you are asking them to do, then you can start looking into physical limitations or who do we have to protect or what do we have to do better. But when you don’t execute anything right, it’s hard to evaluate that. That’s where we have to do a way better job of doing what we’re coached to do and then if we actually do do the right things, then we have to adjust and figure out where’s our strengths, where’s our weaknesses and now we have to adjust to that.”
(How much of the blame should fall on Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke?) – “First, I always look at players because to me, at the end of the day, they have the final say on a lot of this stuff. I’m not going to blame anybody for anything because it’s not like we’ve been ripping it up on offense over the last three years. I just think the entire group – players and coaches – on that side of the ball just needs to do a great job of working together and making sure that everybody is on the same page and everybody is trying to do the same thing on the call. You can say all you want about scheme but all of that (expletive) doesn’t matter. Play what we’re all supposed to play.”
(You have some established guys on the defensive side of the ball that haven’t been playing well. Are you willing to bench some of those guys based on performance?) – “Who are you talking about?”
(You could look across the defensive line. You could look at tackling in the secondary, the linebackers. It’s throughout the entire defense.) – “I think that’s where you have to evaluate and figure out … If one person is playing bad over the entire group, then you can look at we need to make some adjustments here. But it’s not like you’ve got 40 guys waiting in the wings here. We only have so many guys on defense.”
(Is this something that’s happened in the last … the results say the last few games but the first month of the season, the defense was playing well. Are offenses doing something differently or is it just all of a sudden…) – “Yeah, there’s a couple of plays that … We’re getting some copycat stuff. I think some teams are taking advantage of the things that we were doing as far as how we were playing certain things. It’s like a back and forth of we see it as one thing, we’re going to try to fix this and then they might make a little adjustment to where now it’s not as good for us and it hurts us a little bit with our adjustment. There are some things that we’ve kind of noticed that we’re getting consistently that we need to clean up and play better. It’s one of those things where when you watch it, you kind of think to yourself we should be able to fix this no matter who is out there. That’s where it gets frustrating. You want to make sure if it’s something where it’s like this is a better player against our player, that would be one thing. It’s just something that I feel like is correctable and it really comes down to 11 guys all doing the right stuff.”
(Could this be possibly the wear and tear of having a heavier workload early in the season and then some injuries coming in? I’m not looking for excuses but there has to be a reason why they played well early and now they look horrible.) – “Yeah, I mean that’s always my concern at the beginning of the season when we play so bad on offense the last two years and they’re getting 80 plays a game. Then all of a sudden it’s like we flip the script. And then are they gassed? Are teams doing…? That all goes into that evaluation of it. That’s where my mind goes first because … You’ve heard me say it since the beginning of the season. We need more plays on offense to where those guys aren’t on the field as much. Then at the same time, the good defenses I’ve always been around, they don’t really care because they say we’ll get off the field on third down and we won’t be on the field so much. I think there’s a little back and forth on that one but at the end of the day, if you’re a good defense and you get off the field on third down, and then on offense you find a way to get into a rhythm to where you have more plays and that also helps the defense.”
(Is there an update on QB Ryan Tannehill, and did he throw this week? And was it a football?) – “I mean, you’re just asking me all the questions I don’t want to get asked anymore. He’s going through a good process right now. I haven’t gone down there to watch him do anything. I hear that … the trainers talk to me. It sounds like we’re close to the stage where we could get to that point where he could start throwing soon.”
(Realistically, with the layoff from QB Ryan Tannehill’s injury, how many practices would you like to have under his belt before he sees game action again?) – “I’m going to have to get with the trainers and figure out what’s the best thing to do. When we get to the point where we’re actually having practice and he’s going to go, I’ll have a better idea of, ‘Okay, hey, he’s throwing this many balls to the trainer or a wide receiver staying stagnant.’ I have to get a lot of information before we get to that point. I know it’s five days from now that we have our next practice, so at least I have some time here to evaluate that and figure out what’s the best thing to do. I’m going to speak to the guys we need to speak to, doctor-wise, and make sure I’m not putting him in a position where we just have some kind of relapse and he goes through this all over again.”
(WR Jakeem Grant, WR DeVante Parker and WR Danny Amendola played practically every snap on offense; how did they hold up and is that something that is sustainable?) – “I thought they did a good job of being in good shape to where they could go that long. Obviously, getting Kenny (Stills) back at some point, that’s going to help us with our play count. We’ll be able to kind of move some things around. I know for the most part, most receivers would rather do that and play the whole game. The only thing that really gets you is when you’re on a normal week, like work week, when you play that many plays on Sunday and then you’ve got to come back Wednesday and practice, it’s tough. Toward the end of the game, I think Jakeem took a pretty good shot there at the end. Those are the ones that can hurt you when you have 60-plus plays kind of pile up on you and then all of a sudden you get whacked like that pretty good and (it can) do some damage.”
(You mentioned with QB Ryan Tannehill the worry of making sure that he doesn’t relapse. Is that more of his own throwing, or is that with contact with a defender?) – “No, it’s more just throwing. I just want to get all of the information from the doctors. It’s almost like uncharted waters. We don’t know how his body is going to respond every day. He’s just got to communicate with us honestly and we’ve just got to keep working with the doctors and the trainers and him kind of giving great feedback as far as how he feels. When it first happened, he kept telling us ‘I don’t have the juice I had two days before.’ Like, that’s the kind of feedback we need. We just need that open and honest feedback.”
(We saw TE Mike Gesicki try to hurdle defenders. What are your thoughts on that?) – “I’d like him not to do it to where he gets spun up in the air. I’d rather him catch the ball and get vertical and try to get some first downs instead of running sideways. I think Mike, he’s a young player that’s trying to figure out kind of the way that he needs to play. I know the week before, he tried to go low with a guy and that didn’t work out too well for him. We’ve got to figure out a way to keep him from leaping over everybody and at the same time we’ve got to try to keep him from trying to go low and doing some other kind of damage, whether it be to his shoulder or his head.”
(C/G Ted Larsen and DT Vincent Taylor both left the game with injuries; do you have any indication yet whether either of those could be serious or short term?) – “I’m going to have some more information hopefully here pretty soon. We had to bring in some …We had the doctors that came in, and then we have to send guys out for MRIs and stuff like that. I should be able to get information by it’s usually around 5 (p.m.) I get it. Right now, I don’t have any update on anybody.”
(Last year you guys went on a five-game losing skid that kind of derailed the season; how do you keep this from having a similar outcome?) – “Go back to work. Basically, we’ve got a chance to kind of regroup, refresh, get our minds right, fix the things that we need to fix as far as the coaching staff of putting time, looking at the film, going back through this first part of the season, figure out where our issues are, correct those, make adjustments that we need to make, and then when we hit Wednesday with our players, we have to have a good plan in. Our players have to come in, they’ve got to be hungry, they’ve got to be ready to go. We have to have great meetings; we have to have a great week of practice. And then when we get to Sunday, we’ve got to turn it loose and we have to execute what we’re asking them to do. It’s going to take the coaching staff and the players to basically just put their head down and grind through next week and get to Sunday and have to come out with some kind of edge on Sunday to say ‘What’s happened the last three of the last four weeks is not going to happen anymore. We need to find a way to win a game.’”
Cameron Wake – October 25, 2018 (Postgame)
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Postgame – Houston Texans
Miami Dolphins DE Cameron Wake (Transcribed by Houston Texans)
What were some of the issues that you guys were having defensively that caused the big leakage of yardage?
“I’ll give you a pro tip. There is no defense from kiddie football, high school, college where players are uncovered. There is no defense where gaps aren’t filled. So any time you see that, like tonight, where there’s a guy running through the gap untouched or a receiver running free, there’s an error being made somewhere. Whether it’s miscommunication or a bad read, whatever, obviously there’s a few. That would be a very general statement to answer your question.”
So you think it’s more guys aren’t doing their job as opposed to scheming?
“There’s no scheme that, again, allows for free runners anywhere on the field. So I mean, you go back and look at kiddie football, there’s gap integrity, there’s players that are accounted for, whether it’s man or zone, that’s just how defense works as a whole. So, regardless of what didn’t happen, someone somewhere made an error to have that happen.”
Did you guys have enough time to fix what went wrong against the Detroit Lions with the quick turnaround to this game?
“No, they didn’t have any more time than we had. Playing field is equal, you got to go out there and do your job.”
What in your mind, other than people doing their assignments, can fix the leakage that you guys have been enduring during the last three weeks?
“There is nothing else. There is no magic pill. There is no secret. It’s defense. Each player has a gap or a man or a zone or whatever it is and that’s why this game is so great, because at some point the ball is going to get there, to the person, to the man, to the gap and someone’s accountable for that. We all can see it; it’s on the big screen, bright lights and all that. Did it come in my gap? Did I not do what I was supposed to do? Did it go in your gap? Did you not do what you were supposed to do? And so on and so on down the line. Every man, for 60 minutes, four quarters, 80 plays, whatever it takes, has to be there. Because as you see you can do it for 42 plays and then that one play, play 43, you’re not there, and again, in this league they’ll find that hole; they’ll find that guy who’s not doing their thing that they’re supposed to be doing and 80 yards later you have a yard leakage.”
What are your thoughts on the work that Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke is doing with the defense?
“He’s good. You could close your eyes and call it a defense you don’t even have to know all of the details. Now, are there certain defenses that are better suited for certain plays, yes, but I guarantee you there’s a solution to every offensive play that has ever been run in the history of football. I always look at myself in the mirror first and say, ‘Listen, if the ball was run in my gap I did something wrong.’ And every player has to go through every single play, run or pass, and say, did so-and-so catch the ball, why did that happen? Did so-and-so run in B gap, who was supposed to be there? It’s a very simple thing to answer that question. Now why you didn’t do the things you were supposed to do, now that is a little more complex.”
With this team playing the way that it’s played the last two weeks, does it chip away a little at the confidence?
“I would hope not. It’s always, you know a quote I used to hear quite a bit coming up, ‘You’re never as good as you think you are when you win, you’re never as bad as you think you are when you lose.’ You can’t exaggerate on either side of the ball. You know, we didn’t get this one, but at the same time, four weeks ago everybody was flowers and cotton candy and puppies and all that. It’s not a situation where the sky is falling, but I think again, you got to look at yourself in the mirror, each man from top to bottom. I don’t care if it’s the head coach to the last guy on the roster. What is your role and are you fulfilling that role. Whether it’s on the playing field, off the playing field, coaches, whatever, everybody’s involved. And again, I think that’s why this game is the greatest game. Because it’s very easy to diagnose the problem – you weren’t in your gap. Now why you weren’t in that gap, or why you didn’t cover that man, or what did you see, or all of those other complexities. Now that takes a little more involvement.”
There are moments where guys are not covered, they just run through.
“That’s what I’m saying, there’s no defense where that exists. There’s no offensive play where a running back can run through untouched, it doesn’t exist. In fact if that could happen, the whole offense would have been running it for the last 100 years of football. Same thing with passing, there’s no play where receivers are just free. There’s nothing. Quarterbacks, all people are accounted for at all times. Again, diagnosing it – very simple. It’s what was the defense, who had the ball, and who was supposed to not let him run that ball that place. It’s very easy. Why? That’s a whole other issue.”
