Darren Rizzi – October 12, 2017
Download PDF version
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(You have a unique perspective on this. When the offense is playing well and the defense is not, or vice versa, and teams go through this all the time and players always say the right thing – we’re all in this together and it’s a team game – but at some point there’s got to be some strain and some stress, I would think. What’s your experience with that? What are your thoughts about it?) – “I think the strain and the stress really come from the guys on that particular side of the ball that aren’t doing well. I really have never seen it here, especially with this group since (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase has been here, with the other side putting pressure on the other. The leaders of the team on the sideline are going to be vocal and they’re going to try to motivate in one way or the other, but the stress and strain I see I think sometimes guys … For example, if the defense is struggling or the offense is struggling, guys on that particular side of the ball may be putting too much pressure on themselves and trying to press a little bit; but I think this team has been pretty good about that. As you know, since Adam has gotten here, and we’ve talked about that, we’ve won games in varieties of different ways. We’ve won games on offense, defense, special teams. Although this year I know the narrative has been the other way with defense and offense, I haven’t seen that in the building. Guys like Cameron Wake, or Reshad Jones, or (Ndamukong) Suh, the guys that are veterans, the guys that have been around, I’ve seen them step up and either tell the defense, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get it done today’ and be more encouraging and motivating to the offense. I see the offensive guys being the guys maybe being a little bit too hard on themselves that way, maybe pressing a little bit. Other than that, again, I know Adam’s addressed that with the offensive stuff, so I’ll let him do that; but I think our guys have handled it pretty maturely, whichever way it is, and it’s been both. It depends. Like you said, sometimes it’ll swing the other way, where now the offense is carrying the team and the defense could be struggling at points. I think our guys have really handled that part well.”
(Do you have any responsibilities as associate head coach in terms of bringing newly hired Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGugliemo up to speed? Do you have any role in that? How difficult is it for a coach to come in in the middle of a season and learn personnel?) – “Yes, obviously I know ‘Gug’ from the last time (he was with the Dolphins). I’ve actually known ‘Gug’ a long time. We played against each other in college, believe it or not, way back when. I’m dating myself there – Rhode Island and Boston University days – back in 1990. That’s almost too long ago; but no, I’ve known ‘Gug’ a long time. I really respect him as a person. My help to ‘Gug’ has been just getting acclimated. He hasn’t been here, obviously, in six years. A lot of new faces, getting him caught up to speed. I think ‘Gug’ is a guy that’s been with a lot of great organizations, he’s been to the Super Bowl a couple of times, he’s got a very strong personality, so in light of the situation, I think he’s a very good guy to come in here and step in. He’s seen a lot of different things, so I think it takes a strong personality guy to do that, and he’s just that. So really my role with him has been more of helping him get acclimated, not the Xs and Os part of it.”
(This is your ninth season, is that right?) – “Yes.”
(You’ve seen some stuff. There’s some controversy that has been around this team over the last decade. How do you focus? How do you compartmentalize? How do you channel that into not laying an egg on Sunday?) – “It’s a great question. I’ve always been a believer that distractions are what you make of them. Distractions are distractions if you let them be distractions. In today’s society, there’s so many distractions with all of the different things that can be going on between social media and everything else. I think they are personal choices that we make every day. As a group – and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job with this team since day one – is what are we going to do? Are we going to let distractions deter us and take us off the rail or are we going to circle the wagons kind of thing? I think we’ve done a pretty good job of eliminating distractions. They’re going to be there. There’s going to be distractions every day. To me, like I said, it’s almost a personal choice. I know you guys don’t want to hear this, because of your professions, but are you going to read the media? Are you going to log on and read all of the articles or are you going to follow everything on social media or, at some point, are you going to focus in on, ‘This is our job?’ I get paid to coach football. These players get paid to play football, and at some point you’ve got to lock in on what your responsibilities are. I know it’s easier said than done. Personally speaking, I stay off the internet stuff and I don’t have social (media). I couldn’t even tell you how to get on Instachat or whatever the heck they’re called. (Laughter) I have no idea. Trust me, my children are the ones that keep me up to speed on the social media. Again, I think it all depends on your (choices). Like I said before, do you let the distractions deter you from what you’re doing? It’s easy to make excuses. This team has had plenty of distractions this year between the hurricane and moving the game to the bye week, West Coast travel, London. You can make as many excuses as you want or you can bind together and circle the wagons. I think this team has done a pretty good job of that.”
(One quick follow up, and I don’t want you to speak ill of predecessors, but in 2013, things didn’t go smoothly, I would say, with the bully controversy. Have people learned in this building how to move beyond that?) – “Yes. There’s not that many people that are still around, let’s be honest. There’s only a select few of us, I would say. In that instance, I would say, again, it all goes back to – I think on an individual and collective basis – what do you let the distractions do. Do you let them seep in and become a cancer or do you bond together and circle the wagons and keep those things outside? The world’s a funny place. You can justify anything. You can justify reasons why you win, reasons why you lose, reasons why you succeed, don’t succeed. Again, in my opinion, we can’t use built-in excuses, and I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) has done a great job of that with our team. Maybe with things in the past, we haven’t handled it as well. I think this group right now, the building between all the leadership we have from (Owner) Stephen Ross right on down through Adam and the coaching staff, I think we’ve done a much better job of handling these situations.”
(What did you notice on the K Cody Parkey extra point miss against the Titans?) – “Have you ever hit a fat ball when you play golf? That’s what he did. He got some grass. It was a little soft down there on that end of the field and he chunked it. He just got some grass. That’s a ball that I’ve never seen him hit that ball that far to the right before. It was just one of those things where if you saw where he hit the ball and you looked right down, a big chunk of grass came out of the turf. That’s what happened on that particular kick.”
(How does chunking a kick happen? Is that just not keeping your eyes on the ball?) – “Yes, he’s actually trying to stay down on it, through a little bit, and stayed down a little bit too much. It is what it is. I haven’t seen one of those. (Cody Parkey) had a great practice session yesterday. You guys may not be aware of this, I was actually looking through the stats. I get the weekly stats throughout the league right now. You guys would probably be surprised, there’s only three teams in the league that haven’t missed either a PAT or a field goal. Only three guys in the league right now are perfect. I think (Cowboys) Dan Bailey, the team we’re playing this week (Falcons) Matt Bryant and I think the young kid from Oakland (Raiders Giorgio Tavecchio) are the only kids that have not missed either a PAT or a field goal. Moving that PAT line back, as I’ve told you guys before, I treat every kick as it’s a field goal now. That’s what it is. It’s a 33-yard field goal. It only counts for one, instead of three; but he’s obviously got to be better. I’m not really overly concerned about it, though. He just happened to get some grass on that one.”
(What did you see from P Matt Haack, technique or otherwise, that led to his big day on Sunday?) – “Like any rookie, I think in the first couple of games he was just a little bit inconsistent because I think sometimes he was pressing. I think he was much more relaxed, whatever you want to call it, being home this week; but he kind of got in a zone. He really showed what we’ve been seeing since the day he got here, once he was locked in. It was really, last week, a big part of our game plan because (Titans) Adoree’ Jackson, the returner for Tennessee, had been having a really good year and we wanted to keep the ball out of his hands. He was a game changer, bottom line. He was our special teams player of the week, in house, and he really changed the game in my opinion. He really showed you what he’s capable of doing: high hang time, good direction, keeping the ball away from the returner, letting our coverage get down there and do their work, so I was very, very impressed with him. It’s not like I was surprised, because I’ve seen him do that in practice.”
(How do you decide who handles punts, who returns punts?) – “Who returns punts? Weekly it’s just decision made rep by rep. We’ll go into a game sometimes, let’s say if we had this particular call, Jakeem (Grant’s) going to take this one or Jarvis (Landry’s) going to take this one. A lot of the time it’s how the game is going, where we are in the game in terms of situation, where we are on the field. Last week we were almost, if I’m not mistaken, close to 50/50 on who took what and both guys have done well. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, you guys know how I feel, we have two very good guys. I’m fortunate to have two great guys to put back there, two great options. Obviously, to get a guy like Jarvis, if you can get the ball in his hands a couple times a game … We know what Jakeem can do with the ball in his hands. I think it also keeps our opponent off balance. I think one thing that gets under looked a little bit is them not knowing which guy’s back there, because they’re two totally different style guys. How you’re going to play those guys and try to keep them off balance and keep them on their heels a little bit, too, is something that is a little bit underrated when we’re making those decision, too.”
(RB Kenyan Drake hasn’t gotten many touches from scrimmage. Have you and Head Coach Adam Gase discussed anything on kickoff to maybe get him a couple of more touches?) – “Yes, we’re trying. Again, we’ve got two guys back there and sometimes just game plan-wise, or where they kick the ball, or the wind or whatever (affects who gets the ball). Early on, he got the first few. If you remember back to the Chargers game, Jakeem (Grant) didn’t have any for a little bit and then all of the sudden everyone’s asking, ‘Okay, when is Jakeem going to get some?’ That’s just the way it’s balanced out. I think usually it’ll end up balancing itself out at the end of the day. Obviously Drake is a guy that we’d like to get the ball in his hands and we know what he’s done in the past, as well.”
(I know you have history with K Cody Parkey that goes way back, but this is the first time you’ve really been able to get hands-on coaching. You’ve had about a month. What have you observed about him overall?) – “I really didn’t know him as well as a person, I knew him more as a kicker. I’m starting to really respect him as a person, just his approach. He’s got a very, very professional approach to him. It’s almost like he’s a guy you would think that’s been kicking in the league for a lot longer than he has. (He has) a really positive and professional approach. As a kicker, he’s really done exactly what I’ve seen on film through college and his short NFL career. He’s just been a consistent guy. I know everybody will point (out) that he’s missed a couple of extra points. I get it, and he has to clean those up; but he’s been pretty consistent throughout watching his warmups, his practice routine and his game routine. It’s been pretty much what I expected. I just didn’t know him as well as a person.”
(A coaching staff spends more time together than sometimes you do with your family. Were you surprised, not surprised, when you saw or heard about Chris Foerster?) – “Yes, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but when I first saw the information come out, I was surprised, yes. Unexpected. Obviously an extremely unfortunate situation, I’m not going to get into great detail about it; but I was surprised, yes.”
(It was a big extra point that K Cody Parkey missed at that point in the game and he missed very badly. So when he comes off after that, what’s his demeanor like or how steady is he after something like that happens?) – “Like I said, that’s part of his approach. Even when he misses a kick in practice, he’s not overly down on himself. He’s a very good self-correct guy. I’ve had kickers in the past that have missed kicks and come off and said, ‘I have no idea what happened there.’ He’s immediately able to regurgitate and tell you exactly, ‘My plant foot,’ whatever it is, ‘I slid,’ or ‘I hit too high on the ball, I wrapped my…’ There’s a bunch of different kicker lingo, if you will; but he’s a pretty self-correct guy. He can kind of coach himself. He never gets too high, too low. Really, that’s what I like about all three of our specialists: John Denney, Matt Haack, Cody Parkey. They all have very, very good personalities. They’re very, very level people. They’re never too high, never too low, which is very good at that position. He’s never too down on himself. Obviously he was disappointed. We all wanted to make it. Every extra point is big and every field goal is big and we know points are at a premium in this league, so obviously we’re looking to make every single one of those. That’s the Captain Obvious statement of the week, but he’s able to self-correct and he doesn’t really get too down on himself, so that part has been good.”
(Are you aware that one of the CBS announcers said during the Titans game that the networks need to have a Rizzi cam on you?) – “I don’t know why. (Laughter) I can’t understand why. I’m just a level-headed guy that, once in a while, gets a little bit passionate about a call or two. (Laughter) Someone did tell me that. I was informed that there was a Rizzi cam quote in there somewhere; but I’ve been good, I’ve been really good. (Laughter) I’ve been calm.”
(Yesterday, Head Coach Adam Gase said he, WR Jarvis Landry and RB Jay Ajayi were the hotheads of the offense. Are you the hothead of special teams?) – “No, those guys are crazy. I’m calm. (Laughter) I can’t understand why anybody would get that excited. I think (the running into the kicker play against the Titans), in particular, I thought it should have been a roughing. In fact, in the referee’s defense, I think he came back later on and said, ‘I think I missed that one,’ which I respect and appreciated. I thought that should have been a 15 (yard penalty instead of) 5, which at that point in the game was a huge deal because that gives us a first down. We keep the ball with 5:15. Instead of just being a tack-on (penalty), it’s an automatic first down. Who knows? We might not have given the ball back up and that could have changed the entire game, so that’s why I was a shade bit upset. I was a little bit emotional.”
(It’s an automatic roughing the kicker penalty if the defense hits the plant leg, right?) – “Yes, so pretty much if his kicking leg is still on the ground, you cannot take out his plant leg. Usually, that’s a 15-yarder if you make body contact, you run through him. Usually, if you hit the up leg and you just hit the kicking foot, you just run through that, usually that’s the 5 (yard) variety. I thought the player had come in and kind of taken out (Matt Haack’s) plant leg, so I thought it was a 15.”
Matt Burke – October 12, 2017
Download PDF version
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(Regarding DT Jordan Phillips last week. He said that he was healthy enough to play. Was that a coach’s decision because you’re happy with DT Davon Godchaux and DT Vincent Taylor or an injury decision?) – “No, it was a combination of both. We thought Vincent got a little bit more work during the week. It was close with Jordan. He was kind of right up until game time but we just felt we were only going to have three healthy (defensive tackles). We couldn’t keep four up with the way the actives were going to be constructed, so we just felt for another week to have three healthy bodies. God forbid if something happened, if Jordan kind of aggravated something and we were down, we were going to be shorthanded. So we just felt having the three healthy bodies, truly healthy, that we felt that was just a better option for us.”
(If DT Jordan Phillips is healthy, will he be active on Sunday?) – “You’d have to ask the head coach that but yes, Jordan’s been working back in. I think he’s got a good chance to play.”
(Can you talk about from a personal standpoint, what the first four weeks have been like for you calling plays on the sideline? Is it a chess match? Is it like the most draining experience you’ve ever had? I mean what has it been like for you?) – “It’s definitely draining. I don’t know if you guys watch me on the sideline. I’m a little out of my mind sometimes too. It’s exhausting. Game days are tiring. You’re on edge. It’s a high intensity moment for four hours. Even in between series when we’re making corrections and those sort of things. Mentally, the information is constantly changing, so every series there’s new information coming of what they’ve done and what their adjustments are to what we’ve shown. So I’m always trying to work the next series and what calls I can make to get ahead and stay, try to stay one step ahead of what we’re getting from the offense. So there’s a little bit of chess match element to it. It’s definitely exhausting, just physically and mentally. I mean I go home on Sundays and I just like comatose on the couch for about five hours.”
(Is there a lot of second guessing?) – “From you guys or from me? (laughter)”
(I mean is it hard to move on to the next play? Or you really have no choice but to move on?) – “Yes. There’s always calls … It’s really not within a moment. In the heat of the game, if something doesn’t work or if a call doesn’t work, it’s just kind of like why? If that does not fit what they’re doing, if we went into a game with a blitz that we liked against a certain look and now they’re not running that, so it’s more like ‘I don’t want to call that anymore.’ It doesn’t fit what we’re actually seeing. Again, it’s sort of real-time processing of what their adjustments have been. I mean they can call whatever they want obviously on offense. So the second guessing, usually it comes after the fact. There’s always calls when you’re watching the film the next day and you’re like ‘I wish I hadn’t called that,’ or ‘I wished I put our guys in a better spot.’ So within the course of the game to me, it’s more just taking information, like as its coming. Again, we have a database of what we’ve watched and prepared for during the week and then as things adjust within the course of a game, it’s just taking that new information and trying to say ‘Okay, this call fits better in this situation,’ or ‘Here’s where I’m going to come back to with this,’ or those sort of things. Then there’s always the second guessing a little bit later on.”
(Do you enjoy it as much as you thought you would?) – “Oh yes, I love it. This is what we do. It’s cool. I mean game days are the fun stuff for me. That’s why we do all of this. That’s why we work 100-hour weeks and that’s why we spend all this time here to … I love it. It’s awesome.”
(Has the success of the defense so far through these four games been a little bit of confidence builder for you would you say?) – “I’m a fairly confident person in general. (laughter) No. I mean every week is a new challenge. It really is. I mean looking at this week, it’s never easy. It’s hard to battle the complacency or any of those sort of things. We’ve had some decent games. We’ve had some okay games. We’ve made a lot of mistakes, so every week it’s a new challenge and every week you come in and you start looking at the next opponent going ‘Oh man, this is going to be another piece of work for us.’ I don’t know. I’m confident in what I do and what our players are doing, but every week it’s a new battle.”
(When LB Kiko Alonso decapitated Titans QB Matt Cassel and CB Bobby McCain came…) – “(laughter) It’s your words not mine.”
(They were both untouched and it seemed to me that Titans QB Matt Cassel didn’t know they were coming. Take me inside that play and also maybe in general, what’s the best way to disguise your pressure points?) – “Yes, I mean we try. You always try to hold your looks and to build pressures off of things you’ve already shown or looks you’ve already shown. Not to get too specific on stuff, but like for example, a play like that, we blitz – I mean everyone this is no secret – we blitz Reshad (Jones) and Lawrence Timmons a lot. That’s no secret. You can watch the film and know that. So now you can start setting stuff up to where people are alert to where those guys are and you can bring pressure on the sides. I don’t know in that particular case, Bobby (McCain) and Kiko (Alonso) both did a good job of just playing from depth. Just to backtrack a little bit, we went through the spring and one of the things we went through in part, the pressure package in particular, is I try to let those guys know why I’m calling a certain pressure. In some cases, it’s like that. That was a second-down play, so it was second-and-10 or second-and-long, I think – I can’t remember specifically – but in that pressure, we don’t want to show. We want to make it look like we’re kind of playing a shell and then we kind of hit it almost like a sneak attack. There’s some pressures that we have that I don’t care if they know, where I’m like ‘Look, I want you up. I don’t want to be late. I don’t care if he knows.’ If it’s a heavy run pressure, I’ll put Reshad up and say Reshad, I want you on the line of scrimmage. I want them to check out of a run here if they’re going to do it, and if they try to run it, then they’ll run into a bad look. Part of our process through the spring was that, was understanding ‘In this call, this is kind of what I’m trying to do when I make this call, so I don’t care if they see that you’re coming.’ Or ‘in this call, I don’t want them to know we’re coming and try to hit it on the fly.’ So that’s part of the process partly all the way through the spring and partly our install process when we do that. They try to understand what I’m trying to get out of each call and each blitz and those guys did a great job of executing.”
(S Reshad Jones, LB Lawrence Timmons and LB Kiko Alonso seem like three really good tools to have as blitzers.) – “Yes.”
(How effective do you think those guys are as blitzers?) – “Again, they are. They’ve all got a good feel for it. They’ve got a good knack. They’re all violent players. Kiko has such a big hit when he makes contact there and we know what ‘20’ (Reshad Jones) and ‘94’ (Lawrence Timmons) can do, coupled with our front and those things. It definitely helps having different tools to use, for sure.”
(Regarding CB Byron Maxwell, was he a healthy scratch or was that the hamstring? Byron Maxwell last week, he was inactive?) – “He was. It was a combination. Obviously he’s still working back in. He’s been battling some things. The guys that were getting the work were going to be active for last week. It’s the same this week.”
(There was a lot of hand-wringing on our end about the linebackers.) – “I’m sorry about that (laughter).”
(When LB Koa Misi and LB Raekwon McMillan got hurt. Has the linebacker group exceeded your expectations or have they played to them?) – “Yes. I have high expectations in our room and it’s something that we preach – every man up. It took a little bit. Obviously with Ray (Maualuga) getting his first action last week, it was good to have him out there. I don’t know if they’ve exceeded anything. Again, I have pretty high expectations for every group and yes, we’ve dealt with it last year, when I was in the room with those guys. Nothing surprises me. I think it’s a talented bunch.”
(With each of the three starters – LB Kiko Alonso, LB Lawrence Timmons and LB Rey Maualuga – can you give me one thing each does well that we might not see?) – “That you don’t see? I mean I hope you see it. Lawrence surprises me every day with the way he runs. Honestly, he may have been a touch rusty two weeks ago, or in the London game, but he was sideline-to-sideline last week. He’s however old he is, I don’t even know; but he does it in practice every day. To watch Lawrence Timmons, literally he runs like that in practice. To see him run the way he does and chase balls sideline-to-sideline, it’s always impressive. I’ve been around Rey a lot. Rey, he’s somewhat typecast. He’s a big, big Mike linebacker. Rey has a really, really, really good feel for the game. He’s played a lot of football. He’s been a linebacker most of his career, most of his life probably. He’s very nuanced in just getting reads. He reads play actions really quickly. So whatever he may – he’ll get mad at me – may lack in some speed, I mean he’s really quick off the spot. He diagnoses plays really, really quickly. It gets him off the spot. He gets from point A to point B faster than you think because he’s so good at diagnosing plays. Kiko’s just such a unique player for a linebacker. As an athlete, for him to be able to cover – I mean I said it last year – we match him up on receivers sometimes, backs, tight ends. He can run. He makes that play getting the ball out on Delanie Walker last week, which is a great play and on the third-down stop. The ability for him to play coverage and do some of the things that we can do schematically, he allows us to do a lot. I don’t know if that answers your question.”
(Opponents are completing 73 percent of their passes. They have a QB rating of over 100, how do you get those numbers down?) – “It’s one of those things to me, where if … Again, I kind of talked about this last week at one point about trying to get out of our lane. If I’m trying too hard to do something or if I’m telling our players ‘Hey, we can’t let them do this.’ I think the growth of ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) and ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) and those guys are getting closer. I think they’re starting to get a better feel, just as a unit, for the coverage package and how we’re trying to attack things and approach things. I see progress. I think it’s closer and closer. At some point, if a guy wants to throw a 1-yard flat route, there’s only so much you can do to stop that. Some of that is built into what we are doing. Obviously we keep preaching challenge, challenge, challenge and get us closer. I think our coverage plans evolved to help those guys out a little more and get them in the right spots. Again, as we move further in the season, we’ve got some complements to some of the things we’ve already played and try to put some different coverage looks out there for those guys. I think that’s helping and hopefully it keeps trending down.”
(With QB Matt Ryan, WR Julio Jones and RB Davonte Freeman, obviously they’ve got three of the better weapons in the NFL at each of those positions. How do you maintain balance in terms of how an offense like that can attack you?) – “Yes, they’re a talented group. Both running backs are good players. They’re top of the league in explosive plays, from all three of those guys really. It’s a challenge. I’m not going to lie, it’s a challenge. You’ve got to pick your spots and who you’re focusing on. You can’t go triple cover Julio and then leave Devonta Freeman to run against a light box and vice versa. You can’t play soft coverage all day and let them run the ball for 8 yards a clip. Matt Ryan has been around for a long time. He’s a good veteran quarterback. He gets them in the right calls. He gets them in the right looks. It’s a challenge. I think our guys are excited. Pretty much top to bottom, it’s probably the best offense we’ve faced all year. It’s not easy. If I had all the right answers, I don’t know if I’d give them to you anyways. (laughter) It’s difficult. Again, we have to mix our looks, mix our calls and try to give them some stuff that they haven’t seen and just try to keep them off balance. Whenever you’re playing a quarterback like this and an offense like this, it’s trying to keep them off balance. That’s what they do to us. They’re going to hand the ball of to ‘24’ (Devonta Freeman) and ‘26’ (Tevin Coleman) and they’re going to get Julio going and Matt’s going to get them in the right calls and they’re going to use tempo and cadence and all of the stuff that they’re able to do. We’ve got to try … As a defense, you’ve got to try to do the same thing to them. They’re one of the best teams in the league at converting on first and second down. They stay ahead of the chains, they keep you off balance, where it’s third-and-short. They do a good job on first and second down so we’ve got to try to combat that with throwing some different pitches at them to get them off track a little bit.”
(Going back to the linebackers, that was those three’s first time in the lineup together. How do you feel about their communication and are you satisfied?) – “They’re great. Like I said, I think Kiko (Alonso) has been outstanding in that realm. Rey (Maualuga) and Lawrence (Timmons) are both veteran guys that talk ball and know ball. Rey’s been in the room. It’s not like he’s been in a cage on the side somewhere. Rey’s been in the room and they kind of built a rapport already. Again, they’ve all seen a lot of ball. It doesn’t take much for veteran linebackers to look at each other and go ‘Hey, we’re doing this here,’ or this or that. So those guys are starting to get a connection I think.”
(Why was the pass rush so successful last week? Well even statistically, I know they’ve been effective before, but you had six sacks.) – “We did, did we? I don’t know. (laughter) Again, we actually … We got out to a little bit of a lead early, which helps. Some of the situations, we had some more third-and-long sort of situations. That gives you more of an opportunity. The quarterback is going to hold the ball a little bit longer in those situations, so it gives them a little bit of an extra second to work to the rush. I think in general, I just thought overall our energy last week was really sky high and I know a lot of guys have talked about how we’ve moved on from last year and all of that, but there’s things you don’t forget. We were still smarting a little bit from how that game went against those guys last year. It was the first home game. There’s a little bit of extra energy in the building for that. I think just a little bit that half a step of extra juice, which helped. I think the guys were really into it and feeding off the situations and then, like I said, I think we just got them in some longer down and distances with a little bit of a lead at times that just gave us more rush opportunities.”
Clyde Christensen – October 12, 2017
Download PDF version
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(What positives do you have to bring us this week regarding the Dolphins offense?) – “What positives? We won a game and the first quarter is over. I think I told you, I thought it’d be huge if we could get out of the first quarter 2-2, with all that took place and all that went down. It just kind of gives you a chance to hit a reset button and I think that’s the positive. There were some drives in the second half that were what we hope to look like. We’ve just got to duplicate and do it more often, more consistently. I do think that there were two drives in that second half where it looked like you wanted it to look. Some guys made some plays, we drove the ball, we converted a couple of third downs, ran the ball – got the running game going a little bit. There were some positives but I think one of the big positives is just whatever reason, you just mentally see this thing in quarters and that’s the end of the first quarter and you’re in it. There’s not eight 5-0 teams. You probably can’t win anything in the first quarter but you sure can make it really, really hard for yourself coming out of that first quarter. So coming out 2-2, that’s in the middle of the pack and with a long way to go. I think that would be my positive.”
(I’m guessing you’ve been a part of a lot of teams where the offense has been playing very well and the defense has really been struggling, or vice versa. At what point does that become a strain on team chemistry and in the locker room?) – “It is a strain. I’ve been on both sides. In Tampa, when I first got into the league, we were spectacular on defense. Offensively, we were kind of a grind it out (team), probably by design – more of a Mike Alstott, a little Warrick Dunn. That defense was great. It does put a strain on it. It always puts a strain on it and I think always it comes down to the head guy because the outside forces are the outside forces and you just have to keep them out. Adam (Gase) does a great job with that. His is a little unique because he’s an offensive guy, but he does a great job of just calling it like it is and Coach (Tony) Dungy was a anyone who builds it … I’ve been around good places where you build it as a team. You pick each other up and you go. It’s not fun. It’s certainly not fun and you kind of feel like (the defense is) playing so well; but our time will come too. I probably have been on both sides. You strive for balance but the truth of the matter is that you have to find some way to win two phases of the three and give yourself a chance. Week after week, that will kind of change. You’re never quite as bad or as good as you think you are and you’re not quite as far as it feels like you are from turning the thing the other way. That was kind of the message today and you tunnel. You’re in a tunnel. You don’t see light. You just keep digging. I can’t guarantee them today that this is the week we break out. It may be three weeks from now. I can’t guarantee that the second quarter isn’t more eventful than the first quarter. Who can guarantee that? I certainly hope not and I don’t think so. It would be hard for it to be; but that’s the case. So you tunnel and that’s part of this job. That’s what we stress to them. If you’re a receiver, you run a thousand routes and hope you end up with 100 catches. If you’re blocking back side and convoying to the free safety, you do it 100 times and then one pops for you. You don’t know when that’s coming and that’s where the good pros – the mature pros – can keep doing it play after play after play. Then, when it happens, they’re ready and in position to do it. That’s hard to do. That’s hard for all of us to do, to just keep doing it when you don’t know when you’re going to have some success in doing it. That’s the challenge for me. That’s the challenge for Adam (Gase). You keep dialing up plays and all of a sudden, you get hot and the thing starts moving in chunks, but you don’t know when it’s going to happen. That’s why you just have to keep doing it and that’s why the word for the day is consistency. You just have to be able to keep doing it and not get tired of doing the right thing, not get tired of working, not get tired of practicing hard, not get tired of protecting the football, not get tired of coaching and teaching – don’t false step and all of the things that they get tired of hearing you say – and you keep your attitude right. There’s a lot of good examples. I think the year we won the whole thing in December, we got trounced. I think we went (2-3) in December. Then all of a sudden we got hot in the playoffs and won a Super Bowl. But if you looked at December, I think Jacksonville rushed for 300 (yards) on us. There was nothing that pointed to (winning a Super Bowl). That’s football. That’s part of this thing. You’ve got to keep the outside forces out. You can’t let anybody define what you are. You’ve just got to keep going with no guarantees. There are no guarantees that we don’t win every one of the rest of them and no guarantees that we win another one. That’s the deal and that’s what we signed on for.”
(How has your unit handled the Chris Foerster situation on the field and off of it?) – “Pretty amazingly. It’s hard. It’s hard but I would say this, ‘Bush’ (Jermon Bushrod) and ‘Pounce’ (Mike Pouncey), I put the hat on them. They’ve got to take ownership of the room and make it go. ‘Kup’ (Assistant Offensive Line Coach Chris Kuper) has done a yeoman’s job and worked triple overtime. (Tight Ends Coach) Shane Day, we’ve spread him, worked him to the bone on just having to overlap. He’s been an offensive line guy. He’s a tight end guy and tied into the run game. Everyone’s had to pitch in a little bit but ‘Kup’ and Shane Day and then ‘Pounce’ and ‘Bush,’ they’ll be the key. They’ll be the key to if we pull this thing off. That’s some responsibility maybe they weren’t counting on. The same thing, a little curve ball and they’ve got to step up and go. I believe they will. That’s the deal.”
(You’re known Chris Foerster professionally since the mid-90s. Did you see at all a change in his personality, his demeanor? Any warning signs over the course of the last 20 years that would suggest that it would end the way it did?) – “Let me give you a quick statement on that. The answer is no. I’ve been good friends with him and his family. I have a great love for him and his family for 25 years – for a long, long time. That hasn’t changed. Now it’s just a friend who is dealing with some struggles and will stay a friend and we’ll pray and keep pulling. There’s no other option but to overcome this thing for him. There’s no other good option. You don’t let that win. That’s the way it is. I would (also) say this: Mr. (Stephen) Ross, Mr. (Mike) Tannenbaum, Adam (Gase), just how this organization handles stuff like that. They do the best they can to take care of their people. I’m amazed at that. I said that to you through the storm (Hurricane Irma), how they handled the families. I don’t think anyone will kick (Foerster) to the curb. The other thing that I would say is any player, any ex-player, any ex-coach who would say something really derogatory about Coach Foerster would be an outlier. Not that we all don’t have people who are sour; but overall, (he was) a very popular player (and) a very popular coach. That’s the truth of the matter. Then lastly, my job is not … This is a unique job. You can’t take three personal days to deal with some grief or some hardship and stuff. You can’t take three personal days to deal with a storm. It’s just one of those jobs that it keeps coming and we just move on. We’ve got to go. That’s one of the hard things about this job. It’s one of the really hard things about it that the next game comes, you evacuate and you get ready for the next (one). You’ve just got to keep going, whether it’s missing a kid’s recital or something with your parents. It’s just one of those unique jobs. I owe it, all of us owe it to the team and the organization, that you keep going. That’s what you have to do. That makes it a little bit easier because you don’t have any other choice. That does make it easier because you don’t have to wrestle with it. I do think there’s a part of it that I’m kind of thankful for, that just keeps you busy, that you go back to work. I’m grateful that there’s a silver lining to that, that you just go back to work. I didn’t see anything coming and he’ll overcome it. He has to overcome it. He has to fight it.”
(Last year, the offensive line was credited for the turnaround at this point, to the rest of the season. This year, even with many of the same pieces, now they seem to be the anchor holding back the offense. Have they taken accountability for that and have they figured out what is the fix to address what’s going on?) – “Yes, I think so. I haven’t seen a bunch of finger-pointing around here. As a coach, that’s something that you’re proud of, that there’s not a bunch of finger pointing. I think probably you guys gave them credit for the turnaround. I probably give (Jay) Ajayi some of his and Jarvis (Landry) some for going in there and whacking safeties and whacking linebackers. Again, I try to not put it on component parts. I would say the same thing about our issues, which I’ve said to you, it would be a hard time for me to say it’s a pie-shaped deal and everyone’s got their share, including me. Mine is probably the biggest piece of the problem. I am proud as a coach that there isn’t a bunch of finger pointing. I’m proud of the organization that it’s not one of those ‘If he, this. If he did that, it’s his fault.’ It hasn’t been one of those and there’s still a long way to go. That’s the truth of the matter. We’re at the end of the first quarter here and there is an awful long way to go. I think the other thing is we’ve been so darn busy during these first four weeks handling everything that you haven’t had time for all of that. That’s therapeutic a little bit that you’re dealing with stuff. You’re evacuating your family, you’re moving your family back in, you’re moving shutters, you’re dealing with this, you’re figuring out how to get the run game plan in on a Tuesday with a curve ball. There’s a therapeutic part to busy-ness and that stuff keeps coming at you. I can’t even remember the question. (laughter) I do know this, it started if we gave (the offensive line) credit for the turnaround last year and I think that was you speaking, not me. (laughter)”
(Head Coach Adam Gase actually said it) – “Did he? Okay, they were a part of it. It must be true. If (Gase) said it, it has to be true. Then I agree 100 percent. (laughter) No, the truth of the matter is that running the ball certainly was a part of that, but we certainly say that it’s all 11 guys. We give the quarterback a trillion things to do in the run game. He’s got to get us in the right place. I’m going to give you the company coaching line that it is unit wide, but I think that’s the truth in our case.”
(Last week you were obviously playing TE Anthony Fasano a lot more and TE Julius Thomas a little less. What did that achieve in terms of what happened to the tight end during the game? Was the run blocking better? What happened?) – “I think we played a lot of different people a little bit more. I think before you read too much into it, some of it is because of that first quarter and we are tired. We’re tired so we played more people that kind of raises the energy level. If you know you’re going to play a couple of snaps – if Jakeem Grant knows he’s got a role in the game, he’s going to practice better. He’s going to be more focused in. Fasano, all of that. Then also, it just cuts the reps and spreads them out and you try to keep fresh legs in there. Don’t miss that that’s part of it. Coach (Adam Gase) wanted to get more people in because frankly, what we went through in those first four games and just the physical tiredness and the weariness of this thing. That was a part of it and then kind of by some tendencies, some self-scout stuff, that if Fasano comes in this, we try to break a couple of things self-scout wise. You’re always conscious of that, so there’s some of that that works itself in there. Then some of it is just strengths and weaknesses. Fasano has his set of traits that are unique and different from Julius, and Julius has some things that Fasano will never do. It’s a puzzle of putting the right piece at the right time and just keep mixing it up a little bit. Sometimes just to mix it up, I think that one thing Coach Gase has always done a good job of is to just not be afraid to change it up to see if he can find some extra energy or a winning combination. That isn’t a ding on anybody as much as it’s sometimes when things are flat, you have to go to the bullpen and just see if you can pick some energy or a big hit or something that helps turn the thing around.”
(How would you evaluate the play of T Laremy Tunsil so far this season?) – “I think it’s been okay. I think he would tell you just okay. I think he feels like he could play better and I think he will play better as it goes. I would evaluate his play as probably expected. It’s (his) first time at a high-profile position in this league and again, there’s a tendency to think of him as a veteran guy and that’s really not the case. He’s a second-year guy who’s really playing – he’s got four games under his belt playing left tackle, which is a tough position. You’re out there, you’re out on an island. I think it’s probably been expected. I think he’ll tell you that he’s going to play better and I think he will. The more games he gets under his belt, he’s going to keep getting better and better and better and better. He does work. He’s a pro. He’s a talented guy. I think it is coming and some things you only can learn through making a mistake and messing it up. He’s had his share of those. One good thing, one thing you look for as a coach, is that it doesn’t derail him. It doesn’t ruin him for the whole day. That’s what you don’t want. You can’t play left tackle in this league if you have a long memory and you can’t forget things. Bad stuff happens at that position. You’ve got to move on and keep going and he has been able to do that. I think you’re going to just see him keep ascending and again, I think like everybody, just getting into some form of a routine and a rhythm and a cadence on this thing will do wonders for us, especially if we can string a couple of wins together. That cures a lot of small ills. Hopefully we can do that.”
Jay Cutler – October 11, 2017
Download PDF version
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
QB Jay Cutler
(So you’ve been taking a lot of hits lately. How is the body holding up?) – “Good. Good. My kids gave me a little bit of a cold, a little cold over the weekend. Other than that, my body feels alright. If I stay away from that I think I’ll be good.”
(How long does it take you to recover from…?) – “Not that bad. I think not doing OTAs and not doing a lot of that other stuff, my body is, I mean it’s still pretty fresh. That stuff, I think once you get above 30 (years old), those days, even though they’re kind of low impact, start adding up. Your body is so twisted up. So I feel good. I feel good right now.”
(I know you think about the opposing defense but the Atlanta Falcons score a lot of points and so do you feel like ‘Hey, we’ve got to do more than just…’?) – “We’ve felt like that for three weeks, four weeks now. We’ve got to figure it out. Whether we’re playing the team that doesn’t score a high amount of points like Atlanta does or not, we’ve got to do our part. Defensively, those guys, I’m sure they are getting a little frustrated. They’re playing really good ball and we’ve got to at least match their level.”
(How do you rally the offense?) – “I think we did a good job today. I think (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) did a job talking to the team the last couple of days. We’ve just got to go back to work. I mean that’s all we can do. We can’t magically think that this is just going to turn around just because we come in and we practice and we play games. There’s got to be a focus there. There’s got to be energy. There’s got to be a sense of urgency for us offensively, to do things the way we’re coached to do, and go out there and get better each day.”
(There’s been a lot of talk about the execution. Can you see in practice some signs that the execution is getting better from everybody?) – “Yes, I mean think we do a good job at practice. We’ve just got to carry it over to games. I think we’ve probably had one bad day that I can think of the last four weeks – a practice offensively. Guys are doing what we have to do. We just have to be more consistent. That’s what drives are all about is putting together six plays, seven plays, eight plays in a row, and that’s how you’re going to propel the ball down the field. If we’re one play here and there, a really bad play, we’re second-and-10, we’re third-and-10, we’re third-and-15, that’s not how you play winning football on the offensive side.”
(I know this is obviously something that you guys as an offense never want to have to count on, but going back to the Tennessee game, to see how well the defense was playing to keep you guys in it, how much confidence can that give you for the fourth quarter?) – “It’s great. Like you said, it’s two-fold though. Offensively, we’d like to be clicking and we’d like to be putting up points; but knowing that they’re going to keep us in there and they’re going to work with us as we kind of fight through this tough spot, it’s good.”
(Have you, during this process at all, it would be human nature, at least I would think; but tell me if you feel differently, to wonder why do I need this aggravation?) – “(Laughter).”
(Has that thought come to mind at all?) – “I think that if you do this for 12 years, that’s just how the NFL goes. It’s never as good as you think it is, it’s never as bad as you think it is and looking at the film from Sunday, you walk away from the game and you feel like you lost on the offensive side of the ball; but there’s a lot of good stuff that happened that we can take away. I think that’s the course of the season. You’ve just got to keep riding the waves and know there’s going to be ups and downs and just try to be as consistent as you can.”
(Are you having fun?) – “I am. I am having fun. It’s a really good locker room, a good coaching staff, great organization. They do anything under the sun to make you a successful football player. There’s a lot of bright sides of being here, and at the end of the day we’re 2-2. We’re still in a good position and we’ve got to feel good about that. Like we were talking about earlier, we’ve just got to be more consistent. We’ve just got to go back to work, do everything right, do everything the right way on and off the field, and if we keep doing that, it’s going to come together.”
(This may sound like a dumb question but I’m going to ask it anyway because I don’t care about that. So you are 2-2. Do you have to keep reminding yourself of that because the…?) – “The perception, yes. I mean the perception, there’s a lot of noise that would lead you believe otherwise; but we are 2-2 and we’ve got to know that. I think offensively, if we can’t get it together, it could go the other way pretty quickly; but there’s a lot of football left. There’s a whole three quarters for us to go out there and figure things out and play better ball.”
(How tough is it to establish the footwork you want when you’re being chased on those plays?) – “I mean you can figure that out. (laughter)”
(I mean is that something which you look at?) – “Yes, it’s something that you’ve just got to always fight. You’ve always got to fight that and just trust that those guys are going to give you a good pocket, set the edge and let you work in there. So it’s that constant battle of when to leave, when to stay.”
(TE Julius Thomas is a big target. He was brought here to help particularly in the red zone. How do you get him more involved?) – “We’ve got to get in the red zone more. I think that would be our first step. We haven’t had a lot of opportunities down there so we haven’t been able to showcase him. If we get down there more often, we’ll get more opportunities.”
(Have you worked much with WR Jakeem Grant? Obviously the throw to him at the goal line last week. What could he bring? And does that chemistry feel like it’s starting to develop at practice?) – “Yes. He has huge potential there. He’s so fast. He gets DBs on their heels. He’s able to get in and out of cuts. I mean just watching him on film and seeing him get open, it puts a lot of confidence in me that if we get in a spot like that, he’s going to make plays for us. We’ve just got to keep – like all of these guys – if you look at our offensive games, we just haven’t had a lot of plays. We haven’t had a lot of opportunities in the red zone. We’ve had very few third downs because we’re three-and-out so much. We haven’t been able to put together a big pamphlet of plays for us to examine and go over. It’s only going to get better if we’re on the field more.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase said he saw a little sign of improvement from the offensive line in the fourth quarter – more grit, push, finishing. Have you sensed the same thing?) – “Yes. I think whenever you look at the first three quarters and we’re fighting uphill and it’s not going very well, but whenever we needed a touchdown, whenever we needed to make some plays, the guys fought. The offensive line did their job and we made some plays on the outside and we ran the ball. We were able to go down there and push one in. I think that says a lot about this team. It’s, like Adam (Gase) said, it’s a gritty team. It’s a team that’s not going to give up. They’re going to fight until the end.”
(What about the Falcons defense. What are the challenges there?) – “A lot of speed. A lot of length. I don’t think they play a huge amount of coverages. (Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Dan) Quinn coming from Seattle, they have that mindset; but the coverages they play, they play them really, really well. You’re talking about a Super Bowl team. They know how to win games, the offensive side and defensive side.”
Ndamukong Suh – October 11, 2017
Download PDF version
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
DT Ndamukong Suh
(You’ve obviously played with some good linebackers in Detroit and then here; but with this group you have now, could this be the best set – if you include LB Rey Maualuga in that group and obviously with LB Kiko Alonso and LB Lawrence Timmons – that you’ve played with and how much of a difference did they make Sunday and how will they make moving forward?) – “I think those guys played very hard, obviously understanding what they need to get done in regards to our linebacking corps. At the end of the day, there’s a lot of experience back there, obviously starting with Timmons. Rey has been in the league I think going on his ninth year. Kiko I think is on his (fifth) or something like that. The guys have a lot of experience. They are playing fast. They’ve seen pretty much everything an offense can throw at us. “
(Did you ever think, how could the series of off-field things that have happened to us keep happening this year? Obviously with Chris Foerster this week, with the hurricane, with LB Lawrence Timmons missing the first game. Has that come into your mind at all in recent days?) – “No, not really. Honestly, keep throwing it at us. We’re really embracing it, understanding that’s really been our motto. Just roll with the punches and understand that our biggest focus is figuring out how to win the next game, especially if we do what we did this last week and take care of business, and move on to the next one and find a way to win.”
(How would you say that your game has evolved since you first entered the NFL and also since you first joined the Dolphins?) – “I think my game has evolved from really just being singularly focused on what I needed to do as a player. I think coming into the league as a rookie, it’s all about proving myself and understanding that I can play at this level and I deserve to be a starter. Obviously it has evolved after I’ve gotten here of being one of the vocal points, or one of the main points of the defense, and having to be respected and people have to game plan me. At the same time, find out ways to help other guys around me get better. This is the ultimate team game and defensively I need every single guy, not just along on my line, but everybody behind me as well.”
(What have you felt have been some of the big differences in the rush defense really stepping up this year?) – “I think we understood what we needed to get done each and every single week, and that really goes into executing. People understanding where they need to be, how to play and then obviously executing is the biggest thing. Setting the tone, I think last week was a great way of coming out and understanding, letting them know that they are not going to be able to run the ball; and if they do try, it’s going to be very physical and very tough for them to get much yardage, if any at all.”
(Give me your assessment of the Falcons offense and the challenge for this week.) – “They are a team that likes to get sideline to sideline, obviously. A ton of stretching – stretch plays. A little bit of belly, just trying to mix it up for you. (They have) two great elite running backs obviously in (Devonta) Freeman, recently with his new contract. (They have a) great elite quarterback, obviously took them to the Super Bowl. We’ve got our hands full. Last but not least, they have number 11 (Julio Jones) out there out wide. He’s obviously catching a ton of balls and being successful there.”
(Is there any curiosity factor in checking out the new stadium of theirs?) – “Curiosity? Obviously I’ll look at it before the game, but I’m sure it’s as nice as all of the other stadiums. Probably not better than ours; but it will be nice with it being covered.”
(To have fifth- and sixth-round rookies in DT Davon Godchaux and DT Vincent Taylor come in and become helpful players right away on a run defense that has been awfully good, has that exceeded your expectations?) – “No. I think those guys understood what they needed to do when they came in and what was expected of them. They went to big-time programs, especially Godchaux at LSU. Oklahoma State isn’t a small program by any means for Vincent, so those guys played in big games and understand what they needed to do and understood their roles. Really, in my opinion, what they are doing, they are on track to being where they need to be. (They) can obviously do more, as everybody else on this defense can continue to do more.”
(What’s the skill that stands out to you with DT Davon Godchaux first?) – “I’d say Davon – I’d say for both of them really – they soak up the knowledge that’s given to them and at the same time, they’re very eager to learn and find new ways to get better. It’s being able to retain that information that was given to them previously, to then come in and just really add on, rather than kind of … Most younger guys are going to take one thing and forget about the other piece, and really forget about their technique as we get into game planning. Really for them, they’ve found a way to retain that information but also get better at the same time.”
(Some offenses that you play, it’s just hard to get to the quarterback if they get rid of the ball really fast. The Falcons, I guess sometime hold it a little bit longer and allow the plays to develop. Does that mean that the defensive line will have more of an opportunity to get there this week?) – “Yes, I think we’ll have an opportunity. I also think Matt Ryan and their offensive coordinator (Steve Sarkisian) aren’t stupid and (they) don’t want their quarterback to get hit. So they may speed it up, they may not. They may stick to their same exact game plan. One thing I do know is that them coming off the bye week, they’re going to have an excellent plan, and understand that they’ve had extra time to game plan for us. We’ll look at and see what they do. They have things that we know where they want to pass the ball and how they want to max up and do certain things and do misdirection, running certain plays so they can drop back and throw deep balls. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m sure they’ll have something in their sleeve for us that we haven’t seen before.”
Adam Gase – October 11, 2017 (Conference Call)
Download PDF version
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase Conference Call with Atlanta Media
(What do you see when you look at the Falcons on film defensively?) – “A typical Dan Quinn defense – flying around, penetration up front, doing a good job, getting guys to the ground tackling, finding ways to get around the ball, making sure that they get balls out. It feels like we’ve played each other enough to where no matter what team he is with, it all starts to look the same over time.”
(Falcons QB Matt Ryan has five interceptions here early in the season but the offense, the other numbers, look pretty good. What’s your assessment of how they are performing offensively?) – “Any time Matt turns the ball over, that’s a rare thing to happen. He’s done such a good job of making sure he takes care of the ball. With them coming off a bye week, I’m sure he’s gone back and evaluated a lot of the things that he’s done earlier this season. He’ll be probably working to clean that up. We’ve just got to try to create some pressure on him and see if we can force some turnovers. It’s a tough offense to play because when you’ve got a three-headed monster – a good quarterback, a good running back and a good wide receiver; and really I could probably say great on all three of them – it makes it very difficult to defend.”
(And on special teams, what problems do K Matt Bryant, P Matt Bosher and WR Andre Roberts as a returner, present in that phase of the game?) – “Usually when a team is as good as what they’ve been, special teams is always going to be a part of the game that makes it very difficult. It’s something that we try to take a lot of pride in ourselves of being good on special teams. I think that’s going to be a fun battle to watch between us and them, as far as who is going to make the big play, who is going to be the one to put their side of the ball in a scoring opportunity. There’s going to be a lot of good team speed going on for sure.”
(Offensively, what’s been the issue with QB Jay Cutler making his transition back in and getting the offense going?) – “For me, it’s a bigger picture than just one guy. Really, at the end of the day, we need the whole group to do their job. The one thing that people don’t understand with the quarterback is that he’s at the mercy of 10 other guys. For the most part, (Cutler) has been doing his job. He’s been delivering the ball to the right guy; but at the end of the day, we’ve got to catch the ball, we’ve got to make sure that we protect him and we’ve got to be able to run the ball to make sure our play-action game is actually going to work. But until we clean a lot of things up, it’s going to be hard to even evaluate where he’s at.”
(I want to talk about your defense a little bit, particularly your run defense has been very good through these first four games. Watching it on film, it looks like the cohesion between your defensive line and your linebackers is really what makes it go. What have you seen from your front seven so far this year?) – “We’ve just got a bunch of guys doing their job. I think that’s the biggest change that we’ve had. Last year, we just weren’t on the same page. This year we’ve got a group of guys that are working together. Adding some veteran players, especially at the linebacker position, has really helped us. I think having Reshad Jones back really helps us. I think the young corners are doing a good job of not missing tackles. They’re coming up and they’re being effective in the run game. Our defensive line does a really good job. They’re playing unselfish football. They’re making sure that they’re gap responsible and that’s allowing our linebackers to make the plays that they’re making.”
(You mention S Reshad Jones. Having him back and he’s such an effective run defender at the safety position, what kind of versatility does that allow when you’re looking at your defense?) – “The ability to play both in the middle of the field and down in the box are valuable. Any time you have interchangeable safeties, that makes it really tough on the offense. I think the fact that he’s a really good blitzer and when we pressure him, it’s something that he’s really made some money on. Last week was a good example of how effective he can be and how devastating that some of the hits he can make on the quarterback. Just having him back there, the intensity, the way that he goes about his business day in and day out, he’s a true pro. For us to have him back, even though he was around last year all the time, just having him on the field makes a big difference.”
(How is T Laremy Tunsil playing? I saw some things about what happened in San Diego but nothing since. Has he started smoothing some things out over at left tackle?) – “He’s had a couple of good games. We’ve had a couple of games where we’ve talked about he’d like to play better in. The thing that we have to keep remembering is this is his first year playing left tackle in the NFL. It’s a tough position. You’re going against good rushers week in and week out. There is no small school you’re going to play. There’s no breather game for you in the NFL. Every game is going to be a tough game. It’s just going to be that constant preparation, making sure that day in and day out, you’re working to get better and when you hit Sunday, you’ve just got to have the mindset that it’s not going to be easy. It’s never going to be easy, no matter how good really anybody is. All of those guys have to bring their A game every week. I think he’s working to try to get there. We’re going to have some growing pains every once in a while but for the most part, he’s done a good job of making sure that his guy is blocked.”
Adam Gase – October 11, 2017
Download PDF version
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(What do you like about Senior Offensive Assistant Dave DeGuglielmo?) – “I met him this summer. It was the first time I’d met him. He was down here for a few days in training camp. We had some good conversations just talking about some of the things that we both experienced. He was with Josh (McDaniels) in New England and me being with him in Denver, and we were just kind of talking about kind of that system and how we went about things and some of the things that we’re doing different now and some of the things that we liked in that system, some of the things that we’ve kind of tinkered with to see if we like better or if we go back to certain things. We just had a good few days of conversations and we’ve kind of been around the same circle of people throughout – obviously his career has been going on a little longer than mine – but I just felt like that was the first really name that popped in my head.”
(How are you going to divvy up the duties with the offense line now?) – “I’ve got to kind of sort it out the way I want it right now. It’s just one of those things, getting ready for this game, I’ll just kind of keep it in-house.”
(Fresh eyes?) – “Yes. I mean that’s another … That’s a positive that’s come out of this is somebody that hasn’t really been here. We’ll take a look, see if he can kind of see something (and) maybe make some adjustments.”
(Do you have an update on WR DeVante Parker and if he cannot play what is this offense lose if he’s out?) – “I don’t have an update that’s going to help anybody. I’m kind of in a wait-and-see mode. Last year, we went to the Baltimore game and I was told he’s not going to play for a couple of weeks and he played on that Sunday. I just never count him out and we’ll just kind of see how the week progresses. If he’s out there, it’s always, it’s a big positive for us – size, speed, his ability to go up and get balls – and if he’s not out there, we’ve got guys we’ve got to shuffle around. We’ve got to mix a few pieces, put some guys in some different positions that will … what they’ve done for us in training camp. But that’s why we kind of do what we do when we move guys around in training camp, to make sure that everybody is ready to go for the season.”
(Are you comfortable that the problem with Chris Foerster does not go beyond Chris within the building? Or is that to be determined?) – “To me, it was an isolated incident. Really that’s the best answer I can give you guys. I think a lot of people were just a little surprised.”
(You’ve had a lot to deal with of course, with Hurricane Irma to LB Lawrence Timmons to injuries to Chris Foerster. For all the coaches you’ve worked for, has anyone taught you how to deal with say crisis management more than anybody else? How to deal with all this things that when things come up?) – “I think, maybe some of it is just watching (Nick) Saban over a seven-year period. I don’t remember anything quite happening every week; but just kind of watching how he always handled things where he dealt with the situation and then had to get back to work, had to move on to the next thing. I think a little bit has to do with watching how my dad operated through his businesses, dealing with anything that would come up and jump into the forefront, just knowing, ‘I’m the one in charge and I’ve got to handle it.’”
(C/G Anthony Steen played every snap at left guard on Sunday, so clearly he separated himself? Is that going to be the plan moving forward?) – “Yes, I mean right now it looks like he’s kind of found his role and I thought he was doing well enough to deserve that opportunity to play an entire game, and he did a lot of good things in this last game. The thing I’ve always appreciated about him, he’s a fighter. He gives you everything he has. Every week he’s getting better with knowledge of situations. It’s one thing to know the offense and play offensive line. It’s another thing to kind of see what’s going on and react and defensive coordinators are getting very creative of how they’re doing things. You’re getting four-man rushes but these stunts and all those things that they’re doing up front, they’re getting more and more exotic every week it seems like.”
(Will there at all be a league role in the Chris Foerster situation? Have they reached out to you all? Do you feel like this might be in their purview at all?) – “That’s something that Mike (Tannenbaum) and Chris (Grier) will deal with. If they need to talk to me, they’ll let me know.”
(There’s a report that WR Jarvis Landry is supposed to meet with the league later this month. Are you optimistic? Are you aware of that?) – “It’s a league matter. There’s nothing that I can do about it.”
(Is WR Kenny Stills’ catching and blocking being impacted at all through injury?) – “I haven’t really seen it. Really, if I’ve seen anything with the hand, it has been in practice. It seems like on game day, for the most part, he has been good when he has had his opportunities. I know last week I think it was more of a surprise that there was a guy outside of him, and he started slowing down and it kind of was an awkward play. But for the most part, when we get to game day, when we’re warming up, I don’t see any issues.”
(Only 86 yards so far in four games for TE Julius Thomas. What needs to be done to get him more involved?) – “I can ask the other coordinator to play man, but I don’t know if they’re really going to listen to me.”
(Is TE Anthony Fasano the starter now?) – “It’s whatever personnel grouping I call. Everything is week to week.”
(How did you grade the offensive line overall on Sunday?) – “We had some moments where it wasn’t what we were looking for. I think the fourth quarter was really our best quarter that we’ve had probably since that first game, where I saw what we saw that first game where there was a lot of grit, there was a lot of toughness shown. There was great finish. There was strain. Really, that’s what we need to just be consistent on. I think our frustrations come when we get beat quick of, ‘Just keep fighting,’ because you can recover, you can find a way to get that guy blocked, the quarterback can move out of the way to where if you finish the play, it might open up a throwing lane. If we are consistent with that, that’s where we’re going to make strides, and that’s where we’re going to get better at protection. The whole process of what the offense is going through is every guy doing his job and at the same time guys trusting each other. Sometimes, you get in a little bit of a funk and everybody is trying to do more. It almost hurts you more. We just need to get down to every guy does his job, trust the other guy is going to do his job, and that’s how we’ll have some production.”
(You and Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke were both saying last week that numbers … It’s a little bit too early. At what point do you start to look at them and put some credibility into it?) – “Probably at the end of the season. (laughter)”
(Any updates on DT Jordan Phillips and or CB Byron Maxwell?) – “We’ll see today. We’re going to practice them and see how they feel. You go in optimistic every day that you’ve got somebody on the injury report thinking, ‘Okay, today is going to be a better day.’ You just never know how their body is going to react.”
(There was at least one moment in the last game where WR Jarvis Landry showed what I would say would be extreme frustration and emotion. Are you cool with that?) – “Yes. We talk about this all the time. There are three of us that are the hotheads of the offense. It is ‘14,’ (Jarvis Landry) ‘23’ (Jay Ajayi) and me. So, it’s like a deadly combination. We start getting all fired up. All three of us talked about it, about how can all three of us not get as frustrated when things don’t go quite right? I need to do a better job of keeping my anger under control, and they’re trying to do the same thing. The fact that those two guys came to me and we discussed this, I look at that as a positive thing, because they know everybody is looking at those two guys. How are they reacting when things aren’t quite going right? I know everybody is looking at me. ‘How are you reacting?’ I need to do a better job. They’re working on it. It’s not easy. They want to do well. They want to have an impact on the game. I tell Jarvis all the time, ‘I’m trying to get you the ball. I’m not, not trying to throw to you.’ It’s just one of those things. You’re trying to get into a rhythm and get positive plays going. When we do that, then good things happen. That drive we scored a touchdown on, we had a good rhythm going. We were making plays.”
(So the three of you guys were in your office on Monday basically?) – “It was like Monday and Tuesday we were … You see guys around the building. It’s not real hard to grab guys.”
(Who’s the hottest of the hotheads?) – “Probably me. I’m the worst.”
(I want to understand better what you’re saying about TE Julius Thomas. Can you explain? So if they play zone, it’s…) – “I mean a lot of times … His value comes when he is matched up on safeties and linebackers. When you put a corner on him, it’s not as easy for him to get as open as what he’s done in the past. If you get a safety or a linebacker on him, it’s a good matchup for him. He’s got a good skill set that makes it tough on them. We haven’t really seen a lot of man. We have a lot of guys that can win one-on-one coverage and we’re seeing a lot of zone. Teams are able to kind of try to take our run game away and still play zone behind it and that’s where we’ve got to hurt them in the run game, and then you saw this last week, we started running some play-action and we started making some hay; but when we do run play-action, the tight ends aren’t going out for a pass.”
(So it would be that TE Julius Thomas would have a speed advantage on safeties and linebackers?) – “A lot of times it is size, as well. When you put a safety on him, he’s a big guy.”
(But corners are small too.) – “They are but they’re quicker, they have better ball skills. It’s just a different type of matchup. (Julius Thomas) can body up a corner every once in a while but that’s not always a route you’re running with him. You’re not going to run the same route all the time. They can take things away by leverage and at the end of the day, if he wins off the line of scrimmage, they can still catch up and get a hand on the ball.”
(When we talked to you on Monday, you had not spoken with Owner Stephen Ross. Have you? And what was his reaction to all of this?) – “Yes, he was in town, so I was able to meet with him and talk to him about a lot of different things that have happened, probably, over the last month and just kind of (our) game plan going forward and kind of how we want to handle things on the field, off the field. It’s typical type things that we do whenever he’s in town.”
(Was Owner Stephen Ross disappointed? Andry?) – “I think he was just making sure that I was good and the staff was good and players, where they were at with a lot of things. The thing that’s kind of the steps we are taking is we win the game and the fact that guys are disappointed because they want to do better, they want to make sure that we’re making strides to where the deeper the season goes, we get better. I think he likes seeing the fact that guys aren’t satisfied with just winning a game. They want to make sure that we’re getting better each week.”
(On a different matter, you want players to stand for the national anthem if they’re on the sideline. What happens if they kneel during the national anthem on the sideline?) – “I mean I’m not going to get into the details of anything. This has been a discussion that we’ve had amongst a lot of us, with the players. It is what it is right now.”
(Do you feel like the players are on board with the policy?) – “Yes.”
(With Commissioner Roger Goodell in town yesterday, your players once again not just with the demonstration but also how they’ve handled this, going out in the community. Your thoughts on what they’ve done?) – “I think that’s something that I talk to Kenny (Stills) about all the time. I keep trying to find somebody that does as much as he does in our area. On any Tuesday, if you try to get a hold of him, you’re going to have to wait until five or six o’clock because he’s doing (community) stuff all day. I’ve been impressed with how he’s made himself available, how much he tries to do. There’s a group of guys. (Stills) grabs different guys all the time to come with him with whatever he’s doing and I’ve just been impressed with the amount of time that he’s put forth to try to make a difference in so many different areas.”
(If you were game-planning against Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke – I know you do it in practice, but in a regular season game – it seems like he’s sort of bringing pressure from different spots and sort of disguising things. What would you notice if you were looking at what he’s bringing?) – “The way our personnel is set up, I think last week the one thing I noticed when we’re warming up and I’m looking out there and I see Kiko (Alonso), (Lawrence) Timmons and Rey (Maualuga) and I’m going ‘Okay, that looks different.’ Now he has some veteran guys that understand why he is doing everything. He’s done a good job of explaining why he’s doing everything so now he’s able to not only do what he’s been doing but make it look like one thing and do something different. The guys have really done a great job of embracing everything they’re doing. The more we talk and watch the film, there’s very few errors. Guys are really doing an outstanding job outside the building, making sure that they’re prepared for the game. To me, it was tough in training camp, because if those were real reps – if that was live – then I don’t know how many quarterbacks I would have went through. These guys, if you make a mistake and they get through, they’re coming fast and they’re coming hard.”
(You were talking earlier about you learned a lot of crisis management from Nick Saban and from your father. What specifically did you learn from your dad with businesses and things like that? Or what principles would you take?) – “The thing that comes to mind for me with him is I just remember he never shied away from anything. He always met it head on. He would never look for somebody else to try to fix something. I think I always just appreciated the fact that he was always trying to lead the charge.”
Adam Gase – October 9, 2017
Download PDF version
Monday, October 9, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(How did you learn of this video and what was your first reaction?) – “Probably around 10:45 (p.m.) last night. (General Manager) Chris (Grier) called me and I don’t think I can say what my reaction was.”
(What was your next step after you became aware?) – “Really just gathering information. Just trying to find out details of what was going on and what happened and then basically, where we were going to go from there.”
(You said Chris called you?) – “(General Manager) Chris Grier.”
(And what were your conversations like with Chris Foerster?) – “I called him last night. (It was) brief. Just kind of told him that I was aware. (He) apologized to me and then this morning, this morning he resigned.”
(Do you know if this was a recent video as in the last…?) – “I don’t know the details.”
(Chris Foerster mention he was about to go to a meeting in the video. Do you know if that was here at the facility or…?) – “I can’t answer that. I don’t…”)
(Did you say that you talked to Chris Foerster last night?) – “Yes, I called him.”
(So you do not know whether this video was taken while he was working for the Dolphins. Is that right?) – “I have not gotten that far into any kind of investigation. That’s what really other people are for in our building. I had the information I needed and then when he resigned this morning, that’s where I’m at.”
(The statement said – I can’t remember the exact phrasing – but there’s no tolerance for this kind of behavior. Your reaction when you see that as a reflection of the franchise that you lead?) – “I mean, it’s not a good situation. It wasn’t something that you expect. But things happen sometimes that you don’t anticipate and you have to deal with it. It’s not fun, especially when you’re close to somebody; but you’ve got to take the next step and move on because we’re going to play on Sunday.”
(Did you have any knowledge that Coach Chris Foerster has or has ever had an issue?) – “As long … I mean I haven’t been around him for, what was it, like eight years we were apart. Then since I’ve been around him, he’s been a guy that just put his head down and worked. He was here at four in the morning, worked as hard as he could for us. It is what it is.”
(How will the team support Chris Foerster moving forward?) – “We’ll do everything we’ve got to do. Whatever we can do to help him, whatever that next step is, that’s what we’re going to do.”
(Did Chris Foerster volunteer his resignation or was he encouraged to take that step?) – “I mean anything that we’re going to do there is just going to be stay in-house. All I know is he resigned this morning.”
(So what happens with your offensive line position now?) – “We’ll move forward and kind of make those decisions and let you guys know what we’re going to do, probably in the next few days.”
(Have you spoken to Owner Stephen Ross? What did he have to say about the situation?) – “Yes, he’s just been briefed on everything. He’s been in conversations. I was here later last night so a lot of the conversations started before I got here this morning. They kind of got it going early. So I missed him a couple of times but I’ll speak to him later today.”
(You called Chris Foerster, correct?) – “Yes.”
(Around what time was that last night?) – “I have no idea.”
(Are you aware with respect to what has been reported and how that video came to be on social media?) – “I’m aware enough.”
(You are aware enough?) – “Yes.”
(And what are your thoughts with respect to that scenario and that situation?) – “I don’t have any thoughts. I know what the result was.”
(Was there any concern that Chris Foerster might have been blackmailed?) – “I have no idea.”
(How do you keep this from becoming more of a distraction than it already is?) – “That’s the NFL, man. It’s a league of distractions. Move on.”
(How might this affect the football club relative to Chris Foerster’s strengths as an offensive line coach?) – “Any time you lose a really good coach, it’s not ideal. We’ll rally. We’ll figure out a way. We’ll show up next week. We’ll do our thing.”
(Obviously Chris Foerster resigned but is there further investigation going on with the team and the NFL?) – “I can’t answer that right now.”
(How long have you known Chris Foerster?) – “(Since) 2008.”
(So for a while then?) – “Yes.”
(Where did you last work with Chris Foerster?) – “San Francisco.”
(Big picture but Chris Foerster, the Lawrence Timmons situation and the hurricane, how tough has it been in your seat dealing with the things that are unpredictable?) – “It is what it is. That’s what that is. You just keep dealing with situations that come up and move on.”
(What was Chris Foerster’s state this morning when you left things with him? How did you feel about where he’s at as a person?) – “Obviously he’s disappointed. He’s upset. He’s mad at himself. It’s unfortunate.”
(Did you have interaction with Chris Foerster this morning?) – “Yes.”
(Chris Foerster came here to the facility?) – “Yes.”
(Do you know if Chris Foerster turned in a letter of resignation physically to you?) – “Yes but I’ll keep the details of what happened in-house.”
(WR DeVante Parker, any update on his situation?) – “Yes, we’ll just kind of see. I really haven’t had time to meet with the trainers today. Usually I do that after team meeting. I haven’t had a chance to, but it’s really the same as last night. We’ll see kind of how it goes.”
(Is there any initial MRI or anything like that to where you know it’s at least not this?) – “I don’t know. I can guess but I don’t know.”
(What did you tell the team about this incident?) – “I haven’t had a chance to meet with them yet.”
(What will you tell the team when you meet with them?) – “I don’t know. We’ll see.”
(On another subject, the national anthem, what is the team’s policy regarding the anthem now just so we’re clear?) – “If you’re out there for the national anthem, you’re standing. If you don’t want to stand, stay in the locker room.”
(And that was reached in discussions with the players or that comes from above or…?) – “That comes from me.”
(You’ve mostly not commented on this issue either way the last two years. Why now did you implement this policy?) – “Because I thought it was time for us to address it.”
(Why though? What’s the reasoning behind your decision?) – “I don’t need a reason. That’s what I wanted to do.”
(Any conversations with Owner Stephen Ross regarding it?) – “I might have. I had a lot of conversations with a lot of people.”
(Do you believe it was becoming a distraction to the team?) – “It doesn’t matter what I think. This is what we’re doing.”
