Clyde Christensen – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Offensive Coordinator Clyde Christensen
(How did the hurricane impact you from a preparation standpoint?) – “It’s just another distraction, and we’re going to sell it as being … It’ll be a positive. That’s this league. This league has curveballs all over the place. If you think everything is going to go smooth … That has been kind of our selling point that I think it’ll end up in the long run being a positive that it’ll give us a toughness that we couldn’t get it everything went smoothly. I think it’ll give us a little togetherness that we’ve all kind of scrambled and pulled together and got out here and reassembled. Now we’ll spend a good four or five days out here together. I think there will be some positives in this thing. Who could measure them, but I really do think there’ll be a silver lining to this thing for us as a unit and as a team.”
(What is the biggest challenge of playing 16 straight games?) – “Again, I’ll take a positive side. I’ve always thought the off week, the players love it and I do enjoy it – it’s good to get a couple days to regroup – but there’s something that throws you out of rhythm with an off week. The positive to playing 16 straight games is we get in such a routine. Everyone gets in the same routine. You do the same thing every Monday at this certain time, Wednesday at this time we do this. So there is something that stays in rhythm with playing 16 games. I think the players … The mental part of it for the players is that they won’t have that break where they can get out of town and get away from it and let their bodies recover. I think the positive – I really do believe it’s a legit positive – (is) that there’s a rhythm to the thing. Sometimes the off week kind of messes you up. It’s kind of like the (playoff) bye week. The bye week has some positives in the playoffs, but there’s something to keep playing. You always see that team with the bye week struggle to get their rhythm and get back in sync. It’s funny, but these guys, everything is kind of on schedule. When you mess with that schedule, it messes with them a little bit.”
(What is something that has surprised you about QB Jay Cutler?) – “I hadn’t been around Jay much. I think probably the thing that surprised me is how natural he is with the no-huddle stuff. He’s an even-kneeled guy. He picked up things so quickly. I thought it would take a little bit of a while just to get back in rhythm; but again, it just shows he has done it for so long, and he’s a veteran guy. How smoothly he came in and picked up and went with the thing, I don’t think I would have anticipated it being quite as smooth and efficiently transitioned as it was. That’s probably the surprise.”
(You guys tried to run that no-huddle early last season and then had to sort of pull it back. How much can adding that to your arsenal assist the offense?) – “I think it can. I think that’s what (Head) Coach (Adam) Gase’s intention from the beginning has been to be up tempo. It’d be important this week that we can play some up tempo and keep those guys breathing hard, those outside rushers. I think that has always been his intention. We’ll have to see how far we can get with it; but we have wanted to play with tempo. Last year, we kind of pulled it back and felt like at a point with some of the ways things were going, that we were better off huddling at times. But his intention is to be an up tempo, right on the line of scrimmage guy.”
(What’s going to be the key to limiting pressure and keeping him safe in the pocket with QB Jay Cutler this week?) – “I think handling those two outside guys (Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa). It’ll be all hands on deck for those two outside guys. We’ve got to know where they are, what they’re doing. I think the other thing is we’ve got to stay on schedule. We can’t put ourselves in second-and-11 and third-and-12 and those kinds of things where they can tee off. We’ve got to make them play the run and stay on schedule where we’re still a threat to run the ball on third-and-short or third-and-medium there. I think all those things – the tempo also – just to not let them get rested and tee off there. Those two guys, they can wreck a game and they’re really, really good players. They have a great motor, and we’re going to have to match their energy and intensity, and it’s going to take everybody. It’ll take the quarterback getting rid of the ball, it’s going to take the line handling them. Our tackles are going to have to play well and our backs are going to have to know where those guys are. Receivers can’t mess around getting open. We’ve got to get open and make something happen fast, because you don’t have all day back there.”
(How has the Week 1 – opening week – for RB Jay Ajayi different this year than it was last?) – “It’s fun. It’s kind of fun to look back a year ago. We kind of walked back through some of those things. Last year, Week 1, Jay Ajayi wasn’t even on the trip. No one knew that he was on his way to having a heck of an All-Pro caliber year. Last year at this time, there were a lot of things that have changed. DeVante (Parker) wasn’t healthy. No one knew that Kenny (Stills) … There are a lot of guys who are better players in this year. There are a lot of things that have changed. We know what we’re doing more. Everyone is a little bit more comfortable. I think we’re a better football team – a better unit – by far than we were last year at this time. (Mike) Pouncey being in there and that thing kind of being a little more stable than it was. A lot of things have changed. It’s hard to believe it has just been a year. It feels like longer than that, but it has.”
(Have you seen maturity in RB Jay Ajayi?) – “I have seen a maturity in Jay. I think I told you last time – last year – that there’s no way to prepare yourself for 16 games at the running back position. It’s too violent; it’s too physical. Now for him to know how to train, to know what that feels like, to know what you feel like on Monday morning when you wake up, all those things I’ve seen him kind of say … I saw him have some success last year and really enjoy it and hit the accelerator in this offseason and work even harder, take it more serious. Really, I think he caught a vision of what he could be, and I think he had some fun with the success. I think that’s a great thing for all of us.”
(You mentioned C Mike Pouncey a little earlier. With him in the lineup, what’s your confidence level…) – “Let me regress real quick. The other thing I think is that (Jay Ajayi) is taking some ownership of the team. Last year, I think everyone was feeling their way. The other thing with Jay is I think it kind of threw him into a leadership position. He’s one of our good players and that put him into a leadership position also that I think he has embraced, that he has to take some responsibility for the room, the leadership, the unit – all those things – and he has done that. I think your question was maturity and I think to not talk about his leadership and how last year was really just him trying to get on the field and trying to find himself and what he was, he has become one of the leaders on the team.”
(My question was you mentioned C Mike Pouncey and with him in lineup what’s your confidence level with the offensive line?) – “High. He makes a big difference. He’s one of the two best at his position in this league. And just his maturity, especially with Jay (Cutler). I think for us to have some stability there for Jay. Last year, if it was at this time and all of a sudden you had a new quarterback also, and we were rolling some different people through the center position and all those interior positions. I think he’ll give him a stability there. He’ll be able to give him some side boards, if you will, that will help him. He knows what we want to do. He’s got a year in this thing – two years in this thing, a year and a half in this thing – and so he’ll be great for Jay that way I think.”
(You mentioned C Mike Pouncey was one of the top two centers. The other is?) – “Probably his brother (Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey), yes. That would be certainly my opinion of it. Any time you get that caliber guy, and it’s not just that he’s a good player; but how he does things. We’re still a young unit. We still have a lot of young guys. We’re still stressing what a pro looks like, and he is that. He knows how to walk through. He knows how to take notes. He knows how to study. He knows how to be ready to go. He has his fun when it’s fun time, but when it’s football, the guy’s all business, and we need that. We need that on our unit and more and more guys are starting to fall into that role, Jay (Ajayi) being one of them; but he’s really, he’s critical for that.”
(Is the goal to see this offense line mature together?) – “Yes. The goal would be to see them all stay together and play together and if they do that, they’ll mature together. Yes. That would be the dessert, right? We kind of always make our plans for … History would say that you’re going have some curveballs again, if you will, and some change ups and have to adjust. So I think we talked about it a lot last year that, that was one of our strengths that those things happened. Those things happened and we just kind of kept going. And that’s the mentality that Coach Gase has brought and we lived it out. We always tease … Of course we’re evacuating after … That’s the way we do things. That’s how we function best is off the seat of our pants and just adjusting and then going. But the truth of the matter is that that’s what successful teams have to be able to do, because that’s going to happen, whether it’s in the component of just the game and then all of a sudden a quarter goes bad or a half goes bad, or three quarters go bad, or whether it’s a four game stretch, or whether it’s a December where things aren’t going … A team has to have that resiliency and a little mental toughness that they can adjust and keep going.”
(Assuming C/G Anthony Steen is still first team this week?) – “Yes.”
(What were the contributing factors to go with C/G Anthony Steen?) – “You know what, he really had a nice … two things. One, he really had a nice camp and two, we had to balance a couple of other guys at all the different positions and we really didn’t probably give them a fair, equal chance at some of the positions. A lot of the guys had to play some different positions and one week they’re right tackle, one week they’re right guard, one week they’re left guard, and it’s hard to compete that way. So we talked a lot about it but we really didn’t have any options. So we had a couple of guys who probably would have competed, but the bottom line is he really had a nice camp. He really played good football. He’s got a year under his belt playing a lot of snaps; but some of it has just been because of the movement of people around through the camp. We haven’t been able to give them a fair shot. Look, it just doesn’t happen. You’d love to be able to say ‘We’re going to let you two guys compete for the left guard.’ But then all of a sudden someone else goes down … ‘Well you’re going to have to go fill in over here.’ And then the next thing you know it isn’t kind of a pure competition as we would know it.”
(Who do you consider the third tackle right now?) – “We would have a couple of guys, right? We’ve got Sam (Young) who did a great job last year and then Eric (Smith). Probably more ‘77’ (Jesse Davis). Jesse’s the guy who probably got the short end because we asked him to play a bunch of different positions and didn’t give him a chance to just compete for one. I think probably if you were Jesse, I’d be saying ‘Just let me sit at one positon and see if I can earn that job.’ We didn’t have the luxury of doing that; but he’s been a great surprise in camp. He’s really played well. He gives us some versatility. So him and Sam give us a third and fourth tackle and Eric I think is more of a development guy. He’s a ways (away). He’s still a rookie and he’s got a long ways to go; but he had a nice enough camp to make this football team and he’ll get better and better and better and we know how this thing goes, right? It could be Week 3 and he’s starting in one of those positons, so he’s got to get himself ready to go.”
(Are your contingencies at center and left guard just straight forward sub for sub, or do you have guys if you’re moving someone to another positon and then … What would be your plan at backup center right now?) – “Yes, the backup center thing would be … you know we’ve got a couple of guys. The thing that’s always hard is to have that third center dressed, right? It’s a little bit scary to go into the game with only two guys dressed. So you’re always … Who do we cross train? Do we take ‘Bush’ (Jermon Bushrod)? Do we take Jesse (Davis) who might as well? He’s played every other position. So that third guy, and the key … The tricky thing isn’t having enough centers. The tricky thing is getting them up and dressed and active, because it’s a really scary thing. We’ve done it a couple times where you have two dressed and then all of a sudden the first guy goes down and you’ve got a tight end in the locker room trying to snap at halftime, just in case, to get you out of a game. So the tricky part comes with having the third guy dressed. Who’s your third guy in the game who can go in and get you out of a game?”
(Who is the second guy?) – (C/G Anthony) Steen. Steen would be our second guy. So Steen would probably slide in and Mr. Versatility (Jesse Davis) would slide in there at left guard and then the third guy is the adventure. That third guy gets a little more adventurous. A lot will depend on – who Coach Gase – who management decides is going to be active in this game and may not be a problem. You may be scrambling to make sure we have a third guy; but that’s always the tricky part. I think Steen right now would be our second center if we had a problem.”
(Who is the tight end you had snapping?) – “I think it was Dave Moore back in Tampa Bay. Dave Moore was kind of our Mr. Versatility. He was our long snapper, but we have had some where you know, you’re just scrambling. Funny stuff happens in this league and especially because you don’t have that many guys suited up. All of a sudden a couple of guys on special teams – opening kickoff – someone on kickoff return and you lose your backup center gets dinged because he’s on the wedge. Now all of a sudden you’re going oh boy, now we’ve got 59 and a half minutes left and we’ve got one center. So it’s always an adventure.”
Matt Burke – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Defensive Coordinator Matt Burke
(With the run defense we know you said that you won’t know until the games are real and live but how much and where do you think you’ve made the most improvement from the run stopping standpoint?) – “I mean first of all, you guys haven’t let any one forget about it, so the awareness level is pretty high. We’ve been emphasizing it. I think our techniques up front have gotten better (with) another year in the system and those guys working those things. I just think it’s another year of every one progressing and understanding what we’re actually looking for in their spots again, especially in the front seven, so I feel pretty good.”
(With this defense do you see yourself being a blitzing – I know you don’t want to tip your hand – but do you see yourself being an aggressive style defense?) – “I think we’re … I think the way we play our front is aggressive anyways, naturally, even when we’re not pressuring. The thing I like about where we’re at right now is I think we’re actually a pretty multiple scheme, where week-to-week we can pressure if we need to, and we have the build-ins that we can work off some stuff and if it’s a week that we don’t want to do that, we have that capability too. I feel like that’s where we’ve kind of moved forward where we’ve just got … We’re getting more multiple in what we do and it’s going to be a weekly thing of ‘this week it’s more of a pressure type situation and next week maybe it’s not and we’ve got to play more coverage and just play with our front.’ So I feel pretty good about our pressure package. We’ve got some new pieces. Having ‘20’ (Reshad Jones) back and (Lawrence) Timmons, in terms of guys that can blitz and be effective pressure guys. We have some new weapons – some new tools – that we can use there, so I feel good. Kind of both. This league is so different week to week. It’s hard to say we’re going to always do one thing or the other. We have to adapt a little bit to what we’re seeing.”
(On a personal level, this is your first NFL game as a defensive coordinator.) – “Yes. It took long enough, right? (Laughter).”
(What are your thoughts on that?) – “Oh, I’m excited. I mean, I’m excited. I really am. Probably for me, the hardest thing last week was just that. We were building and building and building and the anticipation of playing, regardless of the whole 16 weeks in row and all that stuff, for me it was not getting to have that game. I was pretty amped up and the week, the process of the week is such that it kind of builds like that throughout. We were getting – the way we had prepared last week – we were getting right to that, so the end of our prep week. So I’m just excited. I’m ready to get out there and just go have some fun.”
(Are you a booth guy or a sideline guy?) – “I’ll be down on the sideline. I’ve been both places in my career. Sort of the generic thing is from up top, you know you can see better obviously, in terms of some of the pictures of what you’re getting. Down on the field, I thought it was important for me to have a connection with the players. Even just making a correction, sometimes you’re upstairs and you’re on a phone and you’re trying to say ‘Hey, make sure you do this or this,’ and they’re going ‘Yes, yes, yes coach,’ and they hang up and you’re like, ‘I don’t know if he got that or not.’ Whereas (when I’m on the field) I can grab a guy and look him in the eye and say ‘Hey man, this is what we’re doing,’ and I can get a better feel for that and kind of get a pulse of the sideline, the team. So I want to be down with that. (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) felt the same way. I’ve been up. I’ve done both. I’m about split in my career in terms of where I’ve been, up top or down below. We have good guys upstairs that will help and we’ll be alright.”
(Do you worry about doing maybe too much like getting with those guys on a one-on-one basis as opposed to the bigger picture?) – “No, no, no. I mean the corrections are player to player. There may be a series comes out and we only have to make one correction or something. Again, no one’s doing this on their own. I trust our assistants and those guys are good. What we do is when the series ends, we come off the field and we all go through the pictures together and talk it out. So I’ll say, ‘Hey man, with play one, we’ve got to change this. We’re good, we’re good, we’re good. On play five…’ and then let those guys go coach, and then I’ll go around and make sure that the adjustments I want to make are what we’re getting. It’s been a pretty smooth process through the preseason so far, so I feel comfortable with that.”
(What makes LB Mike Hull ready to be an NFL starter?) – “He started last year for us. He’s already been an NFL starter.”
(One game. There’s a difference. One game.) – “There is. I mean Mike Hull is the guy there everybody always wants to count out. Everyone looks at him and thinks he’s too small or too this or too that. Every time we’ve had to play him, whether it’s in game situations, practice – he’s already ready. He knows what he’s doing. He’s a great instinctive football player. He’s always around the ball. I mean I have the upmost confidence in Mike Hull playing football for us.”
(Does LB Mike Hull have the girth to basically anchor the inside of that defense especially against aggressive guards?) – “Yes. I mean if you have guards that are climbing up on Mike Hull too fast, then it means they’re leaving (Ndamukong) Suh and Jordan (Phillips) and ‘D.G.’ (Davon Godchaux) one-on-one. So our front is tied in together like that. Everybody said the same thing about Kiko (Alonso) last year, playing inside there. It’s a symbiotic relationship with our front – with our d-line and our linebackers. If they’re worried about sending guards up to Mike Hull, then they have to deal with our tackles, who we think our pretty talented. So I have no concerns about Mike Hull holding up. He is honestly probably one of our better technique players at batting hands and stuff because he probably has to be, because he’s giving up a little bit in length. So he has to be technically sound. So he’s probably one of our best people at punching off linemen, to be honest with you. I honestly have no concerns about playing Mike.”
(Is LB Rey Maualuga out or likely out for this week?) – “He’s still working through his things. Me and (Head Coach) Adam (Gase) will sit down as we progress. I don’t know. He obviously wasn’t out on the field yesterday. He’s working through his injuries and when we determine he’s ready to go, he’ll go. I’ll have a plan for either way.”
(There’s a couple of position battles – defensive tackle and corner. Any kind of clarity on those yet?) – “For me or for you? (laughter).”
(Yes.) – “Again, we’re working through … We’re going to play the best guys for that week for those matchups. Tackle particularly, I mean they’re all going to play. We wave guys in there. We want to keep guys fresh. We feel good about the progress that Jordan (Phillips) and (Davon) Godchaux have made. I mean those guys are all going to play up front and like I said, we’ll just work our matchups in situations that we feel good about where we’re playing those guys. I have some clarity.”
(That was an artful dodge.) – “Thank you.”
(How is being out here affecting your preparation?) – “I mean it really hasn’t, in terms of, once we got here, it’s been a normal week. Literally we got out here, I got out here late Sunday night. Really, we just got into it. It kind of played out where then Monday was a Monday for us. We treated it like such and Tuesday, the same thing. Preparation actually has been pretty normalized once we all got out here. If you really want a little side note anecdote, my first NFL game I ever coached in was in 2004 when the game got moved to Saturday down in Miami. We got the call, I think it was either Thursday night or Friday morning or something that we were coming down. So the first game I ever coached – regular season game I ever coached in – in 2004, I was with the Titans and we got moved to a Saturday game. So we scrambled. We got on a plane Friday night, I think. Shot down a day short, came down and won, and then got on the plane back. So it’s kind of a little closed circle for me in my first coordinator game moved for a hurricane too.”
(That seems like it would be a much more difficult set of circumstances to adapt to.) – “Yes. Like I said, I mean honestly for me, last week it was … Personally, it was a little more of the emotional, like building that readiness to get going for Sunday. Opening week’s kind of a special day. You know it is. Everyone around the league is playing and it kind of has that … it carries that weight. So that for me was really the hard part. Preparation-wise, it’s been a really smooth process. Being out here, I mean you guys see everything that’s been set up. Our operations guys and everybody did a great job getting this place like home away from home. I feel good about our prep week and we’re ready to go.”
(How would you assess DE Charles Harris’ readiness?) – “He’s ready.”
(DE Charles Harris is ready in all facets?) – “Yes. He’s been good. Honestly, it was cool to see his transition. I think he was building, building, building and I felt like he hit a little bit of lull, like right in the middle of preseason. Maybe this rest has helped him a little bit. Even that last week, like after Philly going into Minnesota, it’s Week 4 preseason, and I just saw his speed back and where his … the way he was running and moving and chasing and it showed out here again yesterday. So I feel really good. I feel like he’s back to moving the way we want to see him moving, for sure. I’m excited to see him play.”
(Speaking of what you were talking about. You got built up, built up, built up last week as your first time as a coordinator. Do you need to build that up again?) – “No. I have no problem getting amped for games, trust me. No problem. I’ll be screaming and spitting and doing whatever I do out there.”
(Do you have a routine?) – “Do I have a routine?”
(Do you have a routine getting ready for the week?) – “No. I mean we’re busy going through all our prep right now, obviously as it is. It’ll probably be a little different for me on Saturday night in the hotel, just going through sort of my thought process last minute. But other than that I’m good. I’m excited.”
Darren Rizzi – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Associate Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator Darren Rizzi
(I don’t think we’ve talked to you since cuts and the kicker change? What went into that change and how did that come about? – “The kicker position, the punter position – all of those positions – are things that you’re evaluating all of the time. It was a deal we thought we could upgrade. We kept our eye on a couple of close battles that were going on throughout the league, the Browns being one of them. Cody Parkey is a guy that I’ve always thought is a really good player – a really good kicker – consistently. I knew that they had drafted a guy out in Cleveland so we kept an eye on that one. It’s no slight on Andrew (Franks). Andrew’s done a lot of great things here. Andrew Franks has done a lot of great things in the two years he’s kicked for us. Certainly last year, he had a lot of great moments; but we just felt like overall, it was a better situation for us moving forward.”
(How about the change at punter?) – “Matt Haack has a little bit of a back story. Every year we evaluate the kickers and punters coming out. Myself and (Assistant Special Teams Coach) Marwan Maalouf, we get together in the offseason and evaluate all of the kickers and punters and specialists, and we had Matt Haack the No. 1 rated punter coming out of college this past year. I was very surprised that he did not get drafted. No punters got drafted. I think there were three kickers that got drafted, one snapper, no punters. So he was there at the end of the draft. We had a very good relationship with him. I had gone out to Arizona State to work him out. He came out to Miami for a 30-visit, and we had a really good relationship with him. It was just an opportunity to get a really good player and he did the rest himself. From the first day he punted out in OTAs, right on through training camp, he performed very well. He kind of raised Matt Darr’s game a little bit too because Matt started to really perform well towards the middle of training camp and towards the end of preseason games. It felt like we were in a no-lose (situation) there. We had two NFL punters; but Haack really, really punted the ball well. We just felt like overall, again, moving forward, it was the best situation for all of us, because he’s got a lot of great tools. He obviously has really good hang time on the ball, he gets rid of the ball quickly, he’s a lefty punter. All of those things factored into the decision. Again, he won the job. I’ve heard some different things about why we picked him to be our punter, but the bottom line is that he won the job. He won the job fair and square. He was more productive in the preseason.”
(How much does a left-footed punter make a difference in the return game?) – “It does make a difference. You’re starting to see more and more lefties make teams. There’s no doubt about when we play a left-footed punter, it’s a whole new dynamic for the returners. I could tell you that Matt Haack is making our returners better, just by having them go out there every day and having to catch that lefty ball; but it’s definitely different. If you talk to your returners, if you asked Jarvis (Landry), if you asked Jakeem (Grant), if you asked anybody that’s ever been back there returning punts, they’ll tell you that the lefty punter is certainly a different dynamic for them, and Matt Haack, in particular, gets really good hang time on the ball and good rotation, so he, specifically, is really good at that.”
(Can you name three youngsters, rookies or otherwise – drafted or undrafted – young guys, who you feel will be able to contribute effectively on special teams units?) – “Sure. Some of the guys I was impressed with in the preseason – and obviously the preseason and the regular season are two different animals as we know – but a guy like ‘Mo’ (Maurice) Smith definitely jumped out. He flashed in every one of our games, every one of the preseason games. He played in all of them on special teams and defense, and he definitely jumped out at us as a guy that it didn’t seem too big for him. Another guy that I thought – he didn’t play in the last preseason game but the first three preseason games – Senorise Perry really played well on special teams, in many different facets. I think many people will probably point at (the fact that) he fumbled a kick return and all that, but he really played well in all of the other facets. I was really, really impressed with him. Then a couple of guys that I thought really got better as we went along were Chase Allen and Torry McTyer. I thought those guys really progressed nicely. (They had) really a nice rookie progression as camp moved forward and they were peaking at the end of preseason. So those guys, all of those guys, were impressive throughout for a lot of different reasons.”
(What’s the learning curve, in general, if a few of these guys do it at the NFL level for the first time on Sunday?) – “It’s a big learning curve because a lot of these guys haven’t done it at all. It’ll be the first time – if some of these guys are active on Sunday – it’ll be the first time ever doing it in live action. Listen, the preseason, there’s a lot of great things about the preseason, but it really for me as a special teams coach, is a lot different than offense or defense, because we’re really evaluating personnel. I’m really not a big scheme guy in the preseason and I really could care less, to be honest with you, about the statistics part of it. To me, it’s irrelevant. All that matters is getting ready for the regular season, so really the evaluation tool in the preseason is great for us, because a lot of those guys haven’t done it before, so we get them in live action. But it’s different. Some of those guys have played a little bit (of special teams), but a lot of them have not, so that’s what we’re really trying to drum home in their minds is that this regular season is going to be amped up a notch. It’s going to be a little bit different for them; but all of those guys, in one way or another, have really shown it.”
(My colleague is not here yet but he asked me to ask you how your dogs are doing and where do you put them?) – “(laughter) I don’t know. My dogs have become a topic of conversation along with many other people that got uprooted from South Florida. Yes, I have five children and two dogs. And the two dogs that I own are probably not what you would expect me to have; but I am a nice peaceful guy so therefore, (you guys) probably thinks I have Rottweilers and Pitbulls. But I have two Westies. Those Westies are alive and well and doing great in South Florida. We were able to find a shelter for them, a place for them to stay, while we traveled out to the West Coast. I don’t know how my dogs became a topic of conversation; but I think a lot of people, obviously, when you get in this situation with the hurricane and you have to leave home for a while, it’s probably a lot of things. I grew up in the Northeast so I didn’t deal with a whole lot of hurricanes – a couple here and there growing up. There’s a lot of things you don’t think about; but certainly taking care of my dogs, it was much more important to my children. I’m not going to lie to you. It was much more important to my kids; my kids were ready to bring them with them.
(How did your house do during the storm?) – “Fortunately, it sounds like … I lost power for four or five days; I just got it back yesterday; but I think maybe small gutter down, a bunch of trees, but no major damage.”
(The whole family came out here?) – “Yes. My one daughter’s in college, but the rest of the crew came.”
(In terms of the punt returners, is the plan going in to focus on WR Jakeem Grant and RB Kenyan Drake and then use WR Jarvis Landry on an if-needed basis?) – “No, Jarvis is always an option. He’ll always be an option as long as he’s here. Jarvis is a guy we know can do it in games and he’s always going to be in that mix of punt returners. Obviously, Jakeem got the lion’s share in the preseason and Drake is a guy that we’re continuing to work with. Those are really the three guys right now. The main focus is on those guys; but again, moving forward game plan-wise, Jarvis is always part of the equation, no doubt.”
(How much do you think WR Jakeem Grant’s good performance in preseason is going to help his confidence?) – “I think that’s huge with that position. I think maybe more than most positions, you’ve got to be confident back there. If you’re unsure of yourself back there, it’s not good. I liken it to a guy stepping into the batter’s box in baseball. If you’re not confident walking into the batter’s box, you’re probably not going to do very well. It’s kind of that same thing. You’re on your own back there. Being a punt returner is a lot like being a baseball batter in a batter’s box. It’s all you. So when you step back there … That’s something we worked on a bunch with him, and to Jakeem’s credit, he worked on his self-confidence a bunch, even before we got back to OTAs. You guys know the back story on that about how much he worked on it in the offseason, so I do think it’s a big difference. I see a different person taking the field this year than I did last year at this time. I see a much more confident guy, a guy that’s really worked at learning the game and learning that position. There’s a lot of nuances to that position, so I think he’s done a hell of a job with that, and to his credit. I see a totally different guy. We always say you want to see that big jump from year one to year two and I’ve seen that out of him, so hopefully we’ll see the fruits of that labor pay off for us in the regular season.”
Adam Gase – September 14, 2017
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Thursday, September 14, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Could this week possibly benefit QB Jay Cutler? I know he already knows the offense but from a chemistry standpoint? Or would you have rather had played a game?) – “I mean this is the only option we had. One more week with all of these guys and another week of practice, it’s not going to hurt us. The situation that we were in, we were just really trying to get him caught up to speed and get him used to being in the pocket. The more we practice, the better. It’s really just an extended training camp for us.”
(How much does the no-huddle offense – I know you tried to do it last year – but how much does QB Jay Cutler’s experience with it benefit the offense?) – “It helps us. If somebody had come in that was just trying to learn the offense, that would have probably made it very difficult for us to do anything up-tempo or if we wanted to be on the ball all the time. A lot goes into it. There is a lot of little nuances that you have to be aware of and go through to really know the best way to handle the line of scrimmage.”
(Does the no huddle, is it based mainly on your relationship with the quarterback or comfort level with the quarterback or just execution?) – “It’s really everybody. You have to evaluate it as a group more than anything. When you get into a situation where the quarterback feels comfortable but then you have 10 other guys that it’s hard with, you really have to go away from it. If you have 50 percent, it’s just not enough. Last year we just got into a situation where we needed to settle everything down and really keep learning what we were doing and get better at that. We just had so many young players it was probably a little much for us at that time. As the season wore on, we got better at when we had to do it, we got better at it.”
(Was it the Pittsburgh week that you started to scale it back?) – “Yes. We scaled it back and we started huddling and we started doing different things with personnel groups. I think we were just trying to figure out who we were and what our identity was. It worked out for us. We just wanted to keep growing as the season went on. We wanted to evolve and we did. We did different things every week. Sometimes we were on the ball. Sometimes we huddled. Sometimes it was a little bit of both. Having that kind of flexibility is critical for our offense. We just like to be multiple.”
(How far would you say that RB Jay Ajayi has come since this time last year? Not as a player necessarily, but as a pro.) – “I think anytime you do anything, you learn so much through experience. In this league it just feels like one week seems like a month or two. You learn a lot in a short period of time and you kind of have to because careers are so short. You don’t have a lot of time to say ‘I’ll get it in three or four years.’ When you play and you gain experience from that and you actually learn, that’s really the key to everything.”
(When did RB Jay Ajayi hurt his knee?) – “I don’t really see him as being hurt. He’s just a little sore. I think that’s been like that for a while.”
(LB Rey Maualuga?) – “That kind of came up last week when we were ending the week of practice. We had a little bit of a setback. We’re going to keep working on him, strengthening him, getting him ready. We’re looking at this thing as duration. We’ve got a long ways to go. We’ve got a couple of new guys at that position right now so we’re trying to get everybody caught up to speed as fast as possible.”
(Does that put LB Rey Maualuga out for this week?) – “We’ll see how this week goes but I can’t give you a definite answer right now.”
(With QB Jay Cutler, he seems to have a ‘nothing to prove’ attitude. Is that been beneficial to you guys? Is that healthy? Is that accurate?) – “I don’t know if that’s necessarily accurate. I know how competitive he is. I know he wants to play well. I know he’s invested a lot of time since he’s arrived here to make sure he’s part of the solution. I know he’s developing a good relationship with these guys at a very quick pace. I think he wants to make sure that he comes through and plays well and does what he needs to do. He wants to play well because I think his relationship with those guys means something to him and he wants to make sure that he does his part.”
(Is legacy something that is important to QB Jay Cutler?) – “I don’t know. It’s hard to talk about legacy. I think he’s looking to play well one week at a time right now.”
(You mentioned leadership yesterday. Can you call out one or two guys you feel have emerged in a leadership role?) – “The guys that come to mind for me – Cam (Wake), (Ndamukong) Suh, (Jay) Cutler has done a good job, Kenny Stills, (Mike) Pouncey, Mike Thomas. I look at a guy like Lawrence Timmons. When you watch him practice and you watch how he plays in preseason games, you would think this is his first or second year in the league. He doesn’t say a whole bunch but the way he operates and the way he goes about his business, I think guys respect that and understand why he’s been in the league so long and why he’s been so successful. That’s the great thing about the NFL. Each year is so different. Last year, we were looking for guys to step up and be leaders and this year, Reshad Jones is a very vocal leader for us. Just to see how these guys have taken over this program and it’s their locker room, it’s been fun to watch.”
(Have you named captains?) – “Yes, we have. We’ll let you know on Sunday. (laughter)”
(No doubt on Sunday, this devastated Dolphins fan base is going to be looking to the team for an escape, a chance to take their mind off insurance papers or homelessness or trying to find a hot meal. If you could sit down with one of those families and impart what the Dolphins have gone through and what kind of message you want to send, what would it be?) – “For us, it’s going to be about representing our area the best we can. I think the effort that our team puts forth on Sundays, that’s why we talk about one game at a time. We’re trying to sell out every Sunday, Thursday, Monday – whenever they have us play – and I think our guys are looking to make sure that we do it right, especially this week and moving forward. Our guys, whatever they have, they’re going to give it.”
(Are you going to mention adversity, the hurricane or anything in your pregame speech?) – “No. Our guys, (this) is kind of our deal. Things come up, we adjust, fight through it and just battle.”
(What’s your schedule like? Obviously it has a camp feel but it’s probably not camp hours right?) – “We’re just on a normal… The thing for us, it’s probably rare for us to be on the road and not have to travel to some place to go practice. That actually helps us. It makes our day a normal day for us.”
(Do you guys have movie night planned or something?) – “No.”
(Who is a guy that you have really worked with a lot or seen a lot of good things from offensively in the offseason and you can’t wait to see how that translates to real games?) – “Really, I just want to see how our wide receiver corps, our tight ends, backs and skill guys just together. (I want to) see how the flow of the game goes, the personnel groupings. Just really see what our strength is. You have an idea but it’s so fluid from week to week and even during a season, just how it can change. I’m excited just to see that group, see what we can do, see how we come together from week to week. It’s a long season and it’s nonstop evolving. Who gets better and who kind of flattens out, you just want to see how it plays out.”
Ndamukong Suh – September 13, 2017
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
DT Ndamukong Suh
(What was practice like today in a new environment?) – “It was good. I think it was very similar to what we have in Davie, minus the humidity and the blistering heat; but other than that, I think it’s a normal Wednesday practice for us. I feel like we did some good work, but we’ve still got to go watch the film”
(How do you keep things normal in this circumstance?) – “I think it’s all about our mindset, understanding what’s your task ahead of you, having that mindset of what you need to accomplish, and going out there and attacking it; and then, obviously, executing when the time is right.”
(A lot of guys looked at having a bye week in Week 1 as a negative. Are there any advantages that you can take to it?) – “We got to watch a lot of football. We got to see our opponents this upcoming week play in a real game, so we had a week of experience of seeing what they like to do; but there’s a handful of things that you can look at it from positively and negatively. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and practice, understand what we’ve got to do against them, and anticipate what they want to do against us.”
(Is there any approach that you’ve got to take to play 16 straight games differently than you would normally?) – “No. In my opinion, I think we have some built in byes with the Thursday night game. We obviously can earn ourselves a bye going to the playoffs. So I think at the end of the day, we’re in a great position to be successful and it’s all about the mindset of being successful in these first eight games that we have, I believe, before our Thursday night game, and then go from there.”
(What is the biggest challenge when you relocate a team, as a player?) – “I don’t think it’s that big of a deal honestly, because we did this last year. We were away for two weeks when we played, coincidentally, San Diego and then played L.A. (Rams), so it’s something that I think this team is used to and it shouldn’t be an issue, by any means.”
(What did you gain from that experience last year when you guys were sequestered away?) – “I think the biggest thing that I gained, and that most of my teammates gained, was the ability to spend time with each other, have a bunch of dinners together, hang out with each other. (It’s) kind of like camp again; but obviously in a much lighter situation. It’s not as grueling, so I think that’s a good piece about it.”
(What was the experience like watching what was going on back in Miami and trying to figure out if there was damage and what was going on? What was that like being over here experiencing that?) – “It was tough to some extent, because obviously you can really only follow what the news gives you. Things weren’t really depicted to us in the best light; but there were a couple people I knew that were there and I spoke to them and checked in with them. Other than that, you’ve just got to wait and see.”
(How much of a distraction is it knowing that such a massive hurricane has hit your guys’ state in preparing for your first NFL game of the season? – “I think as mature adults, as well as professionals, when we’re in work, we have to understand what our task is and deal with it in that particular moment. Obviously, the real world is always going to be there, so when we’re not in meetings or in practice, we get back to the real world and handle the business that we need to take care of, and that’s really my approach to it.”
Jay Cutler – September 13, 2017
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Quarterback Jay Cutler
(In all your years, this has to be the strangest start of the season for you by far.) – “Oh, it’s not even close. I mean, to come into camp halfway through training camp and then have to evacuate and come here and miss … having the first game cancelled. It’s been a wild ride.”
(Having said that, how do you treat it differently or can it be normal?) – “I think it’s a great setup for us right now. We’re living right here – the weight room, meetings, a great practice facility. So it is what it is. I mean there’s a little bit of a transition for guys, but I thought they battled today and we had a good practice, so we’ll continue to go on that.”
(On spending more time with his teammates) – “Absolutely. I mean it’s like training camp essentially. That’s kind of what our mindset is. Everyone is together. We meet together. We eat together. There’s nowhere for anyone really to go. So it’s a good experience for us.”
(Have you been sequestered away with a team in a situation like this before?) – “I don’t know. I mean I think we probably had some snow situations in Chicago where we were delayed or we couldn’t go on a day and we had to stay together; but nothing to this magnitude.”
(With your family, did they come with you or …?) – “Here? No. They’re in Tennessee. So they were away from the hurricane and they’ll come out at some point this week.”
(Is it hard to stay focused on the first game with all that was going on in Florida?) – “We were ready to play. We were ready to play Thursday or Friday, so the guys were locked in. Our game plan was ready to go. It’s unfortunate we didn’t get to play it; but I thought they gave us ample time on Wednesday to let us know we’re out of here and you know guys, I think most of the guys were able to leave Florida and the ones that weren’t, (Owner) Mr. (Stephen) Ross was kind enough to get a plane and get everyone out.”
(Is there any sort of time period where you have to reset, restart the focus that you had built up?) – “Yes. I mean think that’s valid. I think that’s valid and I think most of the guys got here either Sunday or Monday and that was kind of the day to start kind of prepping that our bye week is over and we’ve got to get football going. I mean we were a little bit rusty today since we haven’t practiced. We got a little bit going yesterday, but I’m sure that as the week goes on, we’ll get back into it.”
(What makes you confident that the offense is going to be able to hit the ground floor running in Week 2 now?) – “We might not. I mean we don’t know how it’s going to go. We’re going to practice as hard as we can. We’re going to prepare as much as we can; but like any game, like any NFL season, there’s going to be some ups and downs out there and these guys are … It’s a resilient group, so we’ll just battle through them.”
(Did you watch the Chargers game on Monday night?) – “I did. I did.”
(Did anything stand out to you with their defensive play?) – “I thought they played a tough game. A division opponent like that, they fought back there in the third and fourth quarter. I think Philip’s (Rivers) always going to give them a chance to win throughout the game; but it’s a good defense. The front seven is good. The secondary is talented. So we’ll have our hands full.”
Adam Gase – September 13, 2017 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase (Conference Call)
(I’m curious. How disruptive was the storm and did it impact your guys’ ability to prepare for the Chargers here or did you guys actually get extra time on the Chargers because you didn’t play in Week 1?) – “More extra time. I got out here on Saturday, Saturday morning. I was able to start a little early and I think a lot of other guys on our staff did as well. We were trying not to get too far ahead though because like the first game of the season, you spend two weeks on a team thinking about that, you start making things up as far as what a team might do. We tried to keep it as much to a normal week as possible just so we didn’t overdo it. A couple of us were here in the hotel rooms, so we really didn’t have anything else to do, so we probably spent a little extra time on it.”
(What are your impressions about what you’ve seen from Chargers Head Coach Anthony Lynn here in his first year?) – “Offensively I can see his fingerprints working with those guys and then defensively, it seems like that defense is kind of built in his personality but with (Defensive Coordinator) Gus (Bradley) as well. I see a bunch of guys just playing hard and fast and that model of his background, trying to do a good job protecting the football and then creating turnovers.”
(By Head Coach Anthony Lynn’s fingerprints on the offense, do you mean that it seems more run focused than the Chargers maybe have been in the past on game film?) – “I don’t know if I want to go all the way in saying that. Some of the run game things, you can see some of the stuff that he’s done in the past. But it’s always … When you kind of have a staff that’s already been there you can kind of come in and with a fresh set of eyes and there’s some suggestions you can always make as far as to help (Offensive Coordinator) Coach (Ken) Whisenhunt out as far as his experiences, whether that be he likes doing gap scheme over outside zone or inside zone, and just trying to figure out the right way to use the running backs or how he sees it. It’s good for that offensive staff just getting a different perspective when you’ve got an offensive guy coming in and a lot of those guys have been together. So you can see that he’s had a little bit of an influence on some of the scheme runs they’ve done.”
(Chargers QB Philip Rivers is entering his 14th season, but what do you like about him at this point in his career?) – “It’s hard to put my finger on one thing. I’ve been on the other sideline so many times. I’ve always loved the way he’s competed. I love the fight that he has. It doesn’t matter what the score is, it’s never over with him. You’ve got to play a full 60 minutes. He always makes the big play. It just seems like you’re trying to go for the knockout punch and then all of the sudden, he makes a play and it’s a tight game and then he either figures out a way to win it or it’s going to come down to that last drive of the game, whether it be the team that I was on, on offense or them on offense. I don’t know if there’s been too many games that I’ve been involved with against him where it’s been too lopsided. Early in my career in Denver, there might have been a few games where they smacked us around pretty good and they were rolling really good with those big receivers. He’s a guy that seems to put the ball where he wants to put it the majority of the time.”
(Obviously QB Jay Cutler is super familiar with your system from Chicago, but is it fair to say that his challenge will be being more familiar with the guys around him and where is he in that process?) – “He has spent so much time with those guys since he’s gotten here. He’s been in Miami, really, his family stayed back in Nashville, so I think he’s bugging (the receivers) more than the other way around because I don’t know if he’s really got that much to do. He spends so much time with those guys, running routes after practice, they watch a lot of film together. It seems like those guys have been spending a lot of time together to make sure that they’re getting caught up to speed with how he sees things, how they see things. It seems like they really did a good job of trying to speed up the whole familiarity process between receivers, backs, tight ends and the quarterback.”
(Was it pretty easy for you to nudge QB Jay Cutler out of retirement, given your experience together?) – “That might be a better question for him. I guess in my brain, I would say yes, but you’d really have to ask him. At first, I think he was just (asking himself) ‘Can I get back in there after not doing anything all spring and most of training camp?’ It’s really the pass rush. You’ve really got to get used to being in that pocket again (and get) the feel of where to slide, when to take off, when to stand in there; but it seems like what he has to go up against in our defense every day, he got caught up pretty quick.”
(Everybody knows that your situation is not optimal right now, it’s not like it was supposed to go. Can you name three things that you feel really good about your team right now because of the situation that you are in?) – “I feel good about our leadership with our players. Our veteran players have been outstanding through this whole process. I feel really good about the resiliency that we have as a group. We’ve been together now a year and a half and we’ve battled a few things, nothing necessarily like this. It’s a different obstacle we’re going through because it’s really a non-football related type of thing; but the resiliency this group has, these guys are fighters. When any adversity hits, these guys just put their head down and keep working.”
(As far as Sunday goes, it’s such a unique situation. I don’t know that anybody knows exactly what to expect having an NFL game in front of 27,000 people. Is it even possible for that environment to have an effect on an offense with noise? Are you curious to see what it’s going to sound like in a stadium that size?) – “It’s really something I don’t really worry about. We’re treating it like we’re on the road anywhere else and we’ll prepare accordingly, and we’ll adjust in-game if we have to. It’s not something that I’m really focusing on.”
Adam Gase – September 13, 2017
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
Head Coach Adam Gase
(Is everyone here? Was everyone able to get here?) – “Yes. I think the last guys arrived pretty late last night. I know Cam (Wake) was … Cam might’ve been the last one to get here. He stayed back. We just had to find a flight for him and get him out here.”
(How different is this in terms of difficult in terms of the distraction?) – “I think our guys are handling it well. You always kind of hope for one thing as a coach. You’re not really sure until you lay eyes on everybody when you have that first meeting. When we got here, our guys seemed focused, ready to go. I think they’ve been itching. They had a good couple days last week in practice. I think they’re just ready to play some football.”
(What is your message to the players considering – obviously not the ideal – what’s your message?) – “I’m not really worried about this group. They’ve been through a lot over the last year and half with some of the challenges we met last year and going into this year. Everything hasn’t always been smooth, but these guys, they battle and they fight and they handle adversity as good as anybody I’ve been around.”
(Can you touch upon how the process went into this decision?) – “It was really just trying to figure out what we were going to do for this week, when we were … The timing of everything. Once we just decided we’re going to go to L.A., just get out there early and start figuring out travel plans, that’s really where everything started going to the works. It was quick. Everybody did everything extremely fast and we were able to get a bunch of people on that flight out here with the families. We were scattered; everybody was scattered all over the country. So, it was just about getting us regrouped here by Tuesday morning. The guys did a great job. (Senior Director of Team Operations) Scott Bullis (and) his whole crew did a great job making sure everybody got out here and we had flights for everybody. Guys did a good job too of being responsible and checking in, making sure that we knew what was going on with them.”
(What did you address with them yesterday and how close is today to what you would normally have for a Wednesday?) – “It’s our normal Wednesday. The only thing I said to them was ‘Control what you can control. We’re going to play a game Sunday.’ We’ve got to get ready. I think these guys, they were glad to be back out there. I could tell there was good energy this morning in meetings. When we get going in practice, it’ll be fun for those guys. It feels like it has been forever; but it has been a week. Not playing a game and watching all the other games, I think they’re ready to go.”
(Can you look at any advantages of not having a game last week and possibly having two weeks of rest?) – “This is our opening game. You wait all year for that first week of the season and we didn’t get that opportunity last week. I think our guys are just ready to get going on it.”
(How does this compare in terms of the logistics and everything to the situation last year with the week in California?) – “It’s pretty smooth for us because we only have to walk 50 yards and we’re on the practice field. Us not having to travel anywhere and our meeting rooms are set up – we have a good set up – it’s really convenient for us that this was available for us.”
(Do you have any players that benefited from a little extra time? You signed a couple guys right at the beginning of Tampa Bay week and LB Rey Mualuga was still trying to get down to a certain weight.) – “Really it was … We were pretty healthy going into that first week. We felt pretty good about it. It’s really just another week. I don’t think really anything has changed for us that much.”
(When did you shift gears to the Chargers?) – “Probably not until like Saturday. You don’t want to get too far ahead. You start doing that and start making things up in your head.”
(So you wanted to see the Chargers play before you…) – “We wanted to get as close as we could to that game. Them playing on Monday night, we had to at least get going over the weekend. Everybody was scattered all over the place. I got here Saturday morning, so it was really getting set up and getting our situation settled – the coaching staff – and get the players here.”
(How much football did you watch on Sunday and Monday?) – “A good amount. It’s an interesting … Usually on the bye week you watch a little bit, but you almost avoid it a little bit. You’d rather not watch it sometimes. We hadn’t played a game yet. You’re watching guys that you’ve worked with before or friends of yours to see how their season is going to start off. That was interesting to kind of be a spectator that first week.”
(To follow that up, to be able to see the Chargers for a game, to get a little film, to see some of their personnel, how much is that going to benefit you?) – “It’s like being in Week 2. It’s no different than what it would have been for us if we would have played the first week. Seeing those guys in action, watching the defense, seeing them fly around in a different scheme, it’s really just carry over from what we saw in preseason and they’re always going to have something different each week. Watching their offense, you can see how explosive they can be. Myself, being in this division before, it doesn’t look far off from what I’ve seen in the past. I think between (Joey) Bosa and (Melvin) Ingram, they’ve really got it going right now.”
(How much concern are you sensing on the part of players for friends and family and property back home, because they are people too?) – “I think a lot of our guys, once we started today, they’ve wired in on what we’re doing. They’ve handled a lot of their business and communicated with the people they need to communicate with back home to figure out what’s going on and our guys have done a good job of keeping focused on what we have to do today. That’s kind of our job.”
(The Dolphins have said that they’re going to help Florida after the hurricane. What’s the plan there?) – “That’s going to be probably something that I worry about when we get through this game. We’ve got a decent flight home so we’re going to have time to discuss. I know some things have been kicked around already. I’ll probably know more of what our starting point is after this game on that flight back, and then Monday and Tuesday, obviously, we’ll be able to figure out what we’re going to do.”
(Given the stretch that you’re in right now: Los Angeles, New York, London, how much of a relief was it to find out that you will, at the end of this, go home and practice in Davie?) – “The fact that we can go back to our facility, our houses, that’s nice. Get back on the east coast and get ready for that next game. We weren’t sure what it was going to be and just to get that answer that soon, that was nice.”
(What kind of a sense do you get from QB Jay Cutler about his desire to play having had his debut delayed a week?) – “He hasn’t changed. He seems like he’s just ready to go play a game, just like the rest of the guys.”
(You have some very high-energy guys. Did you have guys in the last couple of days that seemed like they were bouncing off the walls because they had to wait another week?) – “I don’t think so, I didn’t see that. I saw guys that came here looking for the information that they needed to get ready for this next game, and I just think that they’re ready to play a game.”
(You guys got set up pretty fast. How accommodating was the city and the facility?) – “Everybody’s been great. I got here Saturday and it kind of had already started. The Rams helped us out with a lot of stuff. I don’t know how many IT guys they had sent over here to help our guys. They sent over a whole bunch of stuff as far as equipment that we needed, and made it easy for our guys to get things rolling before our stuff got here. Everybody’s been great and making sure we’re taken care of. It just seems like all hands were on deck to help us out.”
(Did you and your family travel with the team or did you guys leave earlier?) – “No, I left on Wednesday, so I was out of Florida on Wednesday after we found out what was going on and then my family was gone that night.”
(Did you suffer any damage from the hurricane to your property?) – “I have no idea. I haven’t asked. I’m not worried about it.”
(Now that we’re pretty close here to the first game, are you pretty settled in on cornerback and defensive tackle, as far as who’s going to start?) – “We’ll find out Sunday. We’re going to practice this week and see how it goes and then we’ll figure out what we’re going to do on Sunday.”
(What were your thoughts being here and watching all of the hurricane damage back home?) – “It’s a strange perspective, just kind of recognizing a lot of the things, watching it and getting text messages from people back there. You’re so far away. It doesn’t really seem real when you’re watching on TV; but knowing that that’s where you’re from and wondering how everything’s going to play out. There are a lot of friends that we have that are staff and players, that stayed back. So we were getting a lot of information as far as what was going on. We had a lot of guys scattered throughout Florida, too, so we were just getting constant updates with people that were still back there. It’s tough because you know that it’s going to take some time to recover and get things fixed, and it’s going to have to be a lot of people pulling together and finding a way to get things back to the way they were.”
