Adam Gase Monday morning press conference breakdown
The day after a brutal loss to the Jacksonville Jaquars, Adam Gase took the podium to address questions from Miami’s press. We take a look at the answers Gase gave and what it means for his future in Miami.
The day after a terrible loss is hard for a head coach. The day after a terrible season is worse. Adam Gase is officially on the hot seat after Stephen Ross is considering “sweeping changes“.
The Miami media made quick work with Adam Gase during his Monday morning press conference. Questions centered around the reason the 2018 season went south. We will look at both topics that were discussed and try to get deeper into their meanings.
A chunk of the press conference addressed the 2018 season as a whole and why Miami continually went south. Gase stated that there is no minor league system for NFL rosters and that there is no such thing as 90 man rosters. Once the injuries started to pile up, the Dolphins commenced their pile drive downwards.
It was apparent that Adam Gase has targeted and pegged the injuries as his scapegoat. Whether this is in an effort to buy himself time with Ross or his genuine view is yet to be seen. Adam pointed out that when his team was healthy, they went 3-0. When players started going down, the Dolphins started to flounder.
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As an amateur writer who is a professional in the finance industry, I buy this and I don’t. The Dolphins were hit hard with the injury bug and many players that haven’t had a history of injury came up lame. However, when you take the dead cap hit in which Miami took and then re-invest your valuable cap in a top heavy roster, this is what happens.
There is immense light at the end of the tunnel. The dead cap money will fall off and the Dolphins will liberate themselves from Tannehill’s massive cap hit next year and the rest of Suh’s cap hit from last year. On top of that, Miami has drafted well the last two years.
2016 brought Laremy Tunsil, Xavien Howard, Kenyon Drake and Jakeem Grant. All consistent contributors.
2017 saw Raekwon McMillan, Davon Godchaux, and Vincent Taylor all take starting roles on defense.
2018 implemented Minkah Fitzpatrick, Jerome Baker, and Jason Saunders into a solid class.
Those are all players that are immediate playmakers. There could still be many more from those three classes that develop and make contributions down the road. My point is, draft classes bring cheap production and Miami is starting to get contributors on defense.
It was on Gase to re-invest his cap space and draft capital into depth and not into shiny toys. Gase spent assets on two wide receivers, two tight ends, Frank Gore, and two interior linemen to shore up his offense. From this group of new toys, three got injured early on, two did not contribute at all, Frank just got hurt, and Danny Amendola has been moderate all season.
Gase’s draft capital and cap investments went belly up and since he didn’t get depth at the offensive line and doubled down on new toys he rolled the dice and came up snake eyes. That’s on him. He can remedy the problem as cap space frees itself and I personally think that if Miami can stay semi-healthy, they will be a much better team.
However, if Gase takes the same strategy next year as he did this year and buys new toys and not trench depth he will be out of a job. And this is why we can’t have nice things.
Merry Christmas Miami!