**
HC Chan Gailey**
Monday, December 24, 2012
Q: Can you give us an update on TE Scott Chandler? I know he went onto Injured Reserve.
A: Yeah. It is a knee. It is bad. He will have to have surgery.
Q: ACL?
A: I think it is. I think that is what they said, ACL.
Q: Does that put him in jeopardy for the start of next year then?
A: Yeah. It does.
Q: What about TE/FB Dorin Dickerson?
A: Not as bad as we thought which is good. All the x-rays and everything were negative. He may even make a little bit of practice Wednesday.
Q: Do you expect that he will be ready to play?
A: Yeah. I think so.
Q: Do you have to add a tight end?
A: We are looking at all the different things we might have to do between now and Wednesday. See what we need to do.
Q: SS Da'Norris Searcy?
A: It ended up being bad. He will not make it this week.
Q: Knee?
A: No. He has a groin.
Q: How disappointing is another season with six wins or less?
A: Yeah. The job is production and winning and we have not gotten there. We knew that we were going to have some work to do to get it done and have not gotten it done yet. You keep trying to find out the winning edge for this group of men. That is what you keep looking for. What is the winning edge for this group of men? We have not been able to get to it yet. We are getting closer, but we are not over the hump.
Q: What case can you make to have this team come back intact next season?
A: I am not into that right now. I am into let's beat the Jets and finish this thing the way it needs to be finished.
Q: Is there any thought to giving QB Tyler Thigpen or QB Tarvaris Jackson a shot this week?
A: No.
Q: It is going to be QB Ryan Fitzpatrick's show?
A: Yes.
Q: What is the rationale behind that?
A: He gives us the best chance to win.
Q: That is basically it?
A: Yes.
Q: Did this team get what it needs to from DE Mario Williams yesterday, not even just statistically, but in effort?
A: I think all our guys played hard. I think everybody can make more plays and everybody can do a little bit more. Everybody can on every team throughout the NFL, but I think our guys played hard overall. I really do.
Q: The expectations for him are understandably raised.
A: Yeah. Sure, everybody puts him on a pedestal, in the limelight or whatever the terms is that you use. That is part of the business. He understands that. He has been there before and everybody that is paid a lot of money, that automatically becomes your spot.
Q: Has the thought ever crossed your mind of putting Tarvaris in just to find out or take a closer look?
A: No. I try to win every game. I do not care what the situation is. I am trying to win every game. Who gives us the best chance to win? That is what I am about.
Q: On the radio this morning you referred to yourself as a 'big boy.' You understand there could be repercussions?
A: Sure you do. You understand that, but again my focus is on trying to win this week. That is what my focus is. All of that is postseason stuff.
Q: Has this organization given you any indication whether you are safe or not for next season?
A: If they had or had not, I would not tell you anyways.
Q: Have they given you any indication?
A: I would not tell you if they had given me an indication or not. You have to ask the question, but I have to say my focus is on the Jets. That is my focus. That is my only focus.
Q: Would have like to move faster on the last drive yesterday?
A: Yeah, you do. They were moving around with protections. We were trying to make sure we got protection right. (Ryan Fitzpatrick) had to change protection about three or four times because they were moving around and getting in some different looks. We wanted to make sure we got on the right people so we could get the ball off. That was the biggest thing that took the most time. We were up there ready to go and then they would give us a different look. He would want to get into a different protection. We had to walk back up, change the protection and get back again. There is a difference in what we call our red ball going fast and our two minute, which we are at the line and whatever protection is called we go with it no matter what. We just handle it. There is a difference in those two speeds of the game.
Q: Is Fitzpatrick healthy enough to play? He looked like he might have gotten dinged up.
A: He did not say anything to me about it after the game.
Q: On the WR Stevie Johnson non-touchdown catch, the official Walt Anderson said it was not the Calvin Johnson rule. Have you looked at that again?
A: Yeah. He did not come up with the ball. They have basically said, and Walt said it was before Calvin—I did not know that because I thought Calvin's was a touchdown when it happened in the game. What I thought they had said since Calvin Johnson, maybe it was part of it but maybe they have made a big deal about it since everybody recognizes it that you are supposed to get up and have possession of the ball whether you are going out of bounds or into the end zone if you are a receiver and are headed to the ground. You have to come up with the football or they are going to call it incomplete. Easy on the officials from that standpoint. Sometimes a guy has possession, but he loses it coming up. If he does not have it coming up off the ground, they are not going to give it to you.
Q: Did it look to you as if Stevie had possession before he even got into the end zone?
A: Yeah. He had possession before he went into the end zone, but when he went to the ground he did not come up with it. That is why I did not challenge it. I knew they were not going to give it to us.
Q: Might that be the dumbest rule in history or is there another one that is worse?
A: If I had time to think about it, I might come up with a dumber one or two. That would probably be in the top five.
Q: Does it leave you wondering sometimes, because I will speak for myself and I do not know what is a catch sometimes?
A: I think it is very discretionary upon who is looking at it.
Q: Were you familiar with the rule on the play when Mario hit Dolphins QB Ryan Tannehill and it looked like the ball went backwards?
A: I was not, to be honest with you. I did not know if you were trying to throw it forward and it ended up getting hit, your hand getting hit. I do not know how they know if it slips out, does not slip out or if you were trying to throw it forward which is intent. Are they registering intent now? I have never understood that. Never heard that. That one surprised me.
Q: Yet Fitzpatrick's fumble was called a fumble.
A: Yes. We have had that about three times this year. We had it once in Cleveland. We had it once here against St. Louis, Tennessee, Jacksonville or somebody.
Q: Aaron Williams, I know you said before the game, that you were a little hesitant about him going all of the snaps basically he did.
A: He did. He came through well, no negative residual effect from playing that many snaps. I think he's fine today.
Q: I had asked you last week about that No. 2 cornerback job that was up for grabs. Did he do enough to maybe start next week?
A: You know, we'll see. We're going to practice this week and see how we need to go with that position. He played good but he didn't go out there and dominate the position, so we're going to look and see what we need to do this week.
Q: Are there ways, or would you experiment in other places?
A: No.
Q: Fitz hasn't dominated the quarterback position and yet he continues to go out there.
A:Yes.
Q: So I don't know if it's a double-standard or I'm not hearing it right, or?
A: It depends on who's in competition for the job. What you think their position is, is there somebody like (Ron) Brooks whose played quite a bit that can go out there and play and you try to make a decision between two guys that have played a lot. You're not going to make a decision between Eric Wood and David Snow. If Eric Wood can play, he's going to play.
Q: On that note, Week 17 is usually evaluation mode. Is there any more guys a little further down the depth chart that you want to see more time out on either offense or defense?
A: No, the best players are going to play. They've earned the right to play. They want to play in the games and that's what they want to do. They want to play in the games, so they've earned the right to play. If they're ready to go the best players are going to play.
Q: Five rookies that were drafted that are playing meaningful minutes for you. Can you as a whole just give us an idea of how their performance has been?
A: I think very positive as a whole. I think that you always hit either a lull or a wall at some point with each guy that's a rookie. Very seldom does a guy go the whole 16 weeks and not have a lull or hit a wall to a certain extent and not grow for two or three weeks, then he might start back and keep going. I think we've had guys that have been productive and they've played some good minutes and I think they'll help us get better as time goes on.
Q: Is Cordy (Glenn) one of those guys that's in a lull right now?
A: He didn't play well last week, played a little better this week and I think that he kind of – I don't want to say hit the wall – but he was pressing a lot the week before. And this past week he found a better handle on things and I think now he'll be able to take another step and keep going forward. Because he had been making giant strides throughout the season, really.
Q: He hasn't looked the same since the ankle injury. Is that still a factor?
A: Oh no, not at all.
Q: Going back to Fitz, do you possess the same confidence in him going into the future as you did a couple of months ago?
A: You know that's something that we'll evaluate at the end of the season. I still have a great deal of confidence in Fitz. Fitz played, really, he threw the ball extremely well yesterday. If we'd just hang on to it and catch them the game's totally different to me. I thought he did some great things yesterday and he competed his rear end off, so I have a lot of confidence in Fitz. But future, four, five, six or 10 years down the road – you're always looking for that future guy that you can develop and I think that's what Buddy's always said and I think I've always said that. You're always looking for that young talented guy that you can develop.
Q: Is that a change in philosophy? Just to clarify because two months ago you said you see foresee him as being the starter going into next season.
A: Well I do. I don't see anything that would change my mind there right now. Something may change my mind as time goes on, but right now I don't see anything that changes my mind in that. But let's get back to the Jets. That's this week.
Q: The penalties, I think it was another 10, what do you attribute those to? And in Week 16 that doesn't seem like that should be happening.
A: It shouldn't be – lack of concentration. We had I think three false starts by the offensive line and one by a wide receiver and that's just lack of concentration. Then we had some face mask, late hit and a couple of defensive penalties. But the pre-snap penalties are the ones that make you the maddest as a football coach because we're just not concentrating the way we should.
Q: It stands out when you see the defensive struggles. You seemed to take a few steps forward out of the bye and then lately it's kind of reverted.
A: Yea, I really think we have played a little bit more tentative the last couple of weeks than we did there for a while. I thought we were starting to hit our stride and make a lot of progress defensively and then we didn't play as well two weeks ago and didn't play as well yesterday.
Q: Why do you think the Jets are such a mess? They've had quarterback problems, too, it seems.
A:Oh gosh, I have no idea. There seems to be a lot going on there right now and we got enough to handle here that I can't worry about their problems. You just hope they continue for another week (jokingly).
Q: What silver lining is there looking ahead to the Jets?
A: I thought we competed. C.J. (Spiller) really played well. I thought Sam Young played extremely well at right tackle. He gave up that one sack that ended up being a fumble, but other than that he competed and played pretty well against a great pass rusher. I think that if we'll focus on the little things like catching the ball and holding onto the ball I think that we'll be able to be productive offensively. Overall the season has been similar to last year, not exactly because we never had the three or four big spurts that we had last year, but the biggest problem's been red zone. I think offensively we can figure it out. It's going to hurt not having Scott Chandler and we're going to have to adjust. You don't have he, Donald Jones and David (Nelson) – we've had to make some adjustments – but our guys have handled it fairly well. And then defensively, hopefully we can get back to the things that we were doing well four or five games ago.
Q: What concerns might you have in regards to your very depleted receiving group?
A:Well we're going to have to wait and see how that mixes and matches for this ball game. Hopefully we get Marcus Easley back and we'll see if he can fit in somewhere to help our offense.
