Adam Gase: With Alshon Jeffery, ‘you don't have to think, just throw it up'

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PHOENIX -- Just throw it up. 

Those were the words that came from Adam Gase during his one season coaching Alshon Jeffery. At times in 2015 with the Bears, Gase would forget about intricate play calls and offensive scheme. 

He had Alshon Jeffery. Just throw it up. 

"Alshon might be the only player that I've ever coached when I called the play to the quarterback, I said I don't care what the coverage is, throw it up," said Gase, now entering his second season as the Miami Dolphins' head coach, at the AFC coaches breakfast in Phoenix on Tuesday morning at the league's annual meetings.  

"He's got a unique body, the wingspan and the range that he has to catch a ball is unique. I don't think I've ever coached a player that had the body type he had. Unbelievable ability to go up and get the ball. And he makes a quarterback's life so easy because he is so big."

He'll be making Carson Wentz's life easier for at least the 2017 season after signing a one-year contract. In addition to the one year, the Eagles will have the first crack at re-signing the big wideout and will have the option of tagging him. 

That 2015 season in Chicago, when Gase was the offensive coordinator, wasn't even one of Jeffery's career years. That season, injuries plagued Jeffery, who played just nine games. 

But in those nine games, he still looked like the same player who had grown into one of the league's best receivers in the previous two seasons. In nine games in 2015, Jeffery caught 54 passes for 807 yards and four touchdowns. 

While Gase praised Jeffery's route-running ability, which often gets overlooked because of his other attributes, there's no mistake about what Jeffery's strength is: going up and making a play. 

What can that type of play-making ability mean for Wentz as the QB enters his second NFL season? 

"You don't have to think, you can just throw it up," Gase said. "Like, you can just legitimately throw it up with two guys on him and he'll go get the ball."

In addition to adding Jeffery this offseason, the Eagles also brought in former 49ers receiver Torrey Smith after two subpar seasons in San Francisco. 

Smith signed a big deal to join the 49ers, but his two seasons, under two different head coaches, were nothing short of disastrous. 

But Smith's former head coach, Baltimore's John Harbaugh, thinks Smith has something left and, when asked, said he wanted Smith back this offseason.  

"Torrey's a hard worker," Harbaugh said. "He's a very good football player. He's a better person. He's going to be great in the community. He's going to be great in the locker room. He's going to show up every day with a great attitude and he can get down the field and make plays. Those are probably his strengths."

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