Dolphins defensive end Mario Williams still hasn’t been cleared after suffering a concussion on Sunday. If he can’t play, it doesn’t mean veteran Cameron Wake will slide into a full-time role.
“It’s just going to have to be a group effort,” coach Adam Gase told reporters on Thursday regarding the plan for replacing Williams. “We’re going to have to have some plans in place as far as how we’re going to rotate and how many plays we’re going to expect from each guy. . . . We’ll have a good plan in place as far as how we’re going to rotate those guys.”
For Wake, the plan won’t change even if Williams doesn’t dress.
“I think when you start getting in that 50 range, 50-plus range, that’s probably where we want to avoid that, for the most part,” Gase said regarding Wake’s workload. Generally, Gase wants to limit the team’s workload to 50-60 total defensive plays. In Week One, Seattle had 78 total offensive snaps.
“When we put them in the situation that we did last week, it kind of put a lot of guys in a bad position,” Gase said of his defense. “If we can keep [Wake] on the lower end of that and keep him fresh, we think that’s going to help through the duration of the season. That’s what we’re looking to do.”
Mainly, they’re looking to win in New England, something Miami hasn’t done since 2008.
“I do remember that game,” Gase said, “because that was the ‘Wildcat’ game. I was in San Francisco, and we played New England the next week. So I remember that very well.”
The Patriots surely do, too, and Gase’s goal will be to give them something new to remember on both sides of the ball, one week after he nearly scored a major upset in the first game of his head-coaching career.