DAVIE, Fla. _ Miami Dolphins coach Adam Gase said he still hasn't decided whether linebacker Lawrence Timmons, who is suspended indefinitely, will return to the team this season. Gase also said Dolphins executive Mike Tannenbaum has taken over the Timmons matter, for the most part.
"I haven't made any decisions," Gase said Thursday. "I'm going one day at a time right now. And I know there's steps that are being made with what's going on with him. Mike's really kind of taken the lead on that, and so I'm getting updates as we go.
"My biggest thing is, my sole focus this week, (is) guys that are here, focusing on the Jets, making sure that we're ready to go. These weeks come quick. And there's more down time when you get kind of that Friday/Saturday to where if I needed to kind of either look at something, research something, talk to somebody, it's better for me to do it toward the end of the week than right now."
Defensive coordinator Matt Burke said he was up until midnight Saturday making defensive adjustments after finding out Timmons went AWOL and wouldn't play in Sunday's 19-17 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
"We took some stuff out, and re-adjusted some things and then had some contingency plans," he said, "because then obviously we're going to be a little bit thin at linebacker, so I had to kind of put together some other packages just, again, kind of 'in case.' "
Apparently the contingency plans ranged far and wide.
"We had like three or four guys that we kind of grabbed Saturday night and talked to them about like, 'Hey, this may be a situation we're going to put you in,' " Burke said.
"We kind of had all different guys literally from (defensive end) Terence Fede to (safety) Mike T. (Michael Thomas) to obviously with (linebacker) Chase (Allen). So there were about three or four guys that we kind of had some contingencies on."
Burke said they were even thinner at linebacker after they had "something happen in the game."
Although the Dolphins were able to cover for Timmons' on-field absence, Burke said he's worried about Timmons for off-field reasons, too.
"Obviously there's a level of concern," Burke said. "We care for all of our players deeply. We're around them a lot. You went through a lot of stuff obviously. We were concerned for him.
"I know Adam wants to keep sort of all the details in-house. I'll be there for him whenever Adam decides he's back on the team."
