Reshad Jones – September 25, 2019
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019
S Reshad Jones
(Are you back healthy and ready to play?) – “Yeah, I feel pretty good. It feels good to be back out there with my teammates. I’m just taking it a day at a time.”
(Was there any rust today? Head Coach Brian Flores said it’d be natural for you and WR Albert Wilson probably to have a little rust.) – “Not too much. I feel pretty good. It’s going to take probably a couple of days to get back and acclimated or whatever; but for the most part, I’m where I need to be.”
(You’re coming back to a different secondary. Obviously S Minkah Fitzpatrick is not here. CB Jomal Wiltz is out at the moment. It would seem as though you’d be back at strong safety and playing a lot. Is that what you would think? Do you have any sense of that?) – “We’re taking it a day at a time. I’m definitely going to be playing wherever is needed. Wherever I’m needed, I’m willing to go out and do what it takes to help this team win.”
(How frustrating was it having to fight through an injury – not only that but seeing the way the team had been losing?) – “I’m a competitor so I always love to be out there with my teammates and the guys and doing whatever it takes to help this team win. (I was) definitely frustrated not being out there and being able to help my guys, but I’m back now. Like I said, I feel healthy. I feel pretty good and I’m ready to go.”
(What was your reaction to losing S Minkah Fitzpatrick?) – “It’s just part of the business. I only control what I can control. He’s not here anymore, so it’s the next guy up. We’ve got a lot of good talent in this locker room. That’s what it is.”
(What’s made you want to still be here because you’ve made clear you’d like to still be here?) – “I love my home. I’ve been here 10 years. It’s home for me. I love the guys in this locker room. I just love South Florida. I just want to see the Dolphins win football games, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to win.”
(Have you reiterated that to the club that you want to stick around or do you think there’s a need to say it?) – “I don’t know if they know. I mean I think they pretty much know. If I wanted out, I had a chance to make that known. I’m here for the long haul. Like I said, I’m here to help this team win football games.”
Jesse Davis – September 25, 2019
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019
G/T Jesse Davis
(First of all, how is the arm doing?) – “It’s doing good.”
(Obviously you are practicing today. Do you expect to play? Any limitations with it?) – “As of right now, it’s day-to-day. I’m not counting myself out. We’ll see moving forward where we’re at at the end of the week.”
(Has it been tough not knowing – not just for you but the line in general with a lot of shuffling, even this past week and now whether you’re in or not.) – “No. I think everybody takes it in stride. We don’t sit there and look for answers with different guys. It’s a next-man-up mentality and that’s what it’s always been when I’ve been here and that’s going to continue.”
(I think you mentioned that you’re going to have a brace on. Have you ever played with one and what’s that going to be like?) – “No, I haven’t played with that certain brace but I had a soft one last year. It’s not going to be a big issue. A lot of tackles around the league wear one, so I don’t think it will be a big issue.”
(What stood out for you as far as QB Josh Rosen, especially in the first half, as the starting quarterback?) – “Definitely a lot of confidence in himself, which was nice. For us, it just made everything else a lot more smoother, when you have a guy in the huddle that confident, especially when production was happening early. So it was really good.”
(QB Josh Rosen was talking about how he tried to keep people’s spirits up. From a leadership standpoint, can you give us an idea of what it’s like working under a guy when he’s calling the shots like him?) – “Yeah, it was just in the huddle. You get the call and there was no stuttering. There was no, ‘Hey guys, give me some time here.’ There was none of that. It was, ‘Here’s the play,’ and we went out and executed it and got stuff done.”
(What was a factor in you guys – it seemed like the offensive line played probably its best game of this season. What do you think was a factor in that?) – “I think – that was Week 3, so there’s a lot of stuff going on between line changes to people coming in. Now we’re getting more used to playing next to each other and talking the same language. Our technique is showing up a little bit better. Moving forward, it’s just keep hammering and doing what we’ve been doing, and continue the course.”
Brian Flores – September 25, 2019
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Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(To ask what may seem to be an obvious question, is QB Josh Rosen your starting quarterback this week and presumably the foreseeable future?) – “He’ll be the starter this week, for sure. You can write that one down. (laughter)”
(What is your system for challenges? Who’s your eye in the sky and how does all that work?) – “The system starts during the week. I spend a lot of time – a good amount of time – on challenges throughout the league and the way things are being called. Then we’ve got a team of guys up in the booth who have obviously the video footage and are taking a look at it and kind of helping me out as far as the challenges are concerned, rules, etc. We’ve got a pretty good system, I feel. Hopefully as we get into more games – look, at the end of the day, we just want to make the best call and do what’s best for the team because it’s obviously a long process that goes into it, and we just try to do everything possible to get all the right information and make the best call.”
(Do you have any update on S Reshad Jones or WR Albert Wilson? Do you expect either to practice today?) – “I expect to see both of those guys at practice today. Again, they’ve both worked extremely hard to get back and we’ll see. We’re taking it day-to-day. They’ve been out for a little bit, so from a conditioning standpoint, from a communication standpoint, from a technique and fundamental standpoint, there may be a little bit of rust. We’ll try to knock some of that off hopefully in practice.”
(Regarding social media, I know it can be kind of bitter out there. Do you talk to your players about that, and have you talked to them maybe since the second week or last week about not getting caught up in it or anything along those lines?) – “I’m not really on social media, so I don’t really know what’s out there. Again, I tell my guys really the only thing that matters and is important is what happens on the practice field and what’s going on in our meetings, in our walkthroughs. Good, bad or indifferent – it doesn’t matter what anyone else is saying. I think individually, we need to come in, try to improve and get better and nothing that anyone says on social or outside of our building – it really shouldn’t affect anything we’re doing in the building. That’s kind of my message on a daily basis and really a message to myself. It doesn’t matter (whether it’s) good, bad or indifferent, we’re always trying to improve and get better. So that’s really the focus and the message.”
(I feel like every day you try to present to us and I’m assuming to your players the same tone, the same attitude, the same approach. Can you talk about how you’re managing your emotional stability?) – “My entire life I was taught, ‘never get too high, never get too low, you want to stay even.’ I’ve had some highs, I’ve had some lows and I always stay the same. I think that’s the way you have to approach really anything because you’re going to face adversity, you’re going to have success and you don’t want to let success get to your head, and you don’t want to let adversity get you in the tank. I guess that’s how I handle the emotional part of the game. If that makes me ‘emotionless’ – but I just try to stay even.”
(When do you process the pain of the losing? When is your time to process that and flush it?) – “It’s after the game and then the day after, we make the corrections and then we move on. That’s the beauty of the game is we have another opportunity on Sunday against a really good opponent. We get to come back to practice today and try to find a way to win a game, so I’ve moved on. I move on from wins and I move on from losses very quickly. I think when you dwell on either, you just kind of get stuck. I’m always moving forward and improving, and that’s really the message I give to the team, and that’s not just for football. Everyone’s going to face some adversity and hard times and hopefully a lot of successes as well. How you handle both kind of speaks to the kind of person you are. People handle success the wrong ways as well. That’s really my message. I just try to stay even always.”
(How much of an immediate impact do you expect or do you want to get out of T Andrew Donnal?) – “Immediate? (laughter) Well, let’s see if we can get him into practice, get him lined up. We’ll just see how much he can – there’s a lot to digest in a little bit of time. If we can do one or two things or if he can do a lot, then he may be able to help us, but I think this being Day 1 for him, we just need to get him in the huddle, get him aligned and let him know his assignment. We’ll be in pads today and see if he can execute some basic fundamentals and technique and take it from there.”
(How are the linebackers doing so far?) – “I would say as a unit – obviously everything could be better – I think from an alignment, assignment and execution standpoint, there have been some good plays. You see speed and athleticism out of (Jerome) Baker, Sam (Eguavoen), Raekwon (McMillan), guys playing downhill, guys playing hard, guys getting off blocks and making tackles. We just need to see more of that more consistently. I think as a unit, we’re playing okay. It could be better. I would say each one of those guys feels the same way, and we need to do it over 60 minutes. I think there have been spurts of good play, and I think you could say that about really every unit on our team – spurts of good play but we just need to do it more consistently and really over the course of a 60-minute ballgame, not a quarter, not a half, not three quarters but 60 minutes. That’s been another message to the team and hopefully we get there, but it starts in practice.”
(And are the run fits okay?) – “The run fits, there is a lot that goes into it. Setting the edge, run fits inside – inside are we playing the blocks the way we practiced them? I wouldn’t put it solely on the linebackers. Again, it’s a defensive – It’s a team defense and a defensive effort, and again, if one guy is out of his gap, there’s a problem. When you’ve got 11 guys and you’re expecting one guy to be in his gap and he’s not, and you go to your gap, that’s how big plays happen. When you’re playing team defense, when you’re expecting everybody to do their job and one guy doesn’t, we have problems in the run game and the pass game. It’s the same thing offensively and the same thing in the kicking game. We’ve just got to shore that up, and then guys got to defeat a block and make a tackle.”
(Can you talk about Chargers QB Philip Rivers a little bit and the challenges he poses for your defense?) – “Again, he’s one of the top quarterbacks in this league. He’s done it for a long, long time. Very cerebral, great arm, can get them in and out of plays – will get them into the best play. He definitely (has a) perfect play mentality. To him and to that team, they do a really good job from that standpoint. He gets up to the line of scrimmage quickly, he surveys the defense, looks at it. If there is a weak spot, (he) puts them in a play and tries to attack it. That’s hard to defend. They’ve got a lot of good skill players – obviously Keenan Allen, (Austin) Ekeler are guys that have been very productive this year. But, they’ve got obviously a lot of good skill players and it starts with Philip Rivers. (They have a) good o-line. This is a good team – another good quarterback. We’ve got to do a good job really as a total defense. From stopping the run, to rushing the passer, to doing a good job in our zone coverage and playing with good leverage in man coverage, and with our picks and games in the pass rush, we’ve got to execute it correctly. Run fits as we mentioned, everything has got to be spot on. They are going to stress us. That’s what Rivers does. He does a good job putting his team in positions to stress the opponent. They’ve played well this year offensively. It’s a good team.”
(The first red zone drive, QB Josh Rosen came over to you guys on the sideline and kind of signaled that he wanted to go for it on fourth down. Do you like it or do you encourage guys having that confidence in themselves and his teammates to want to go for it on fourth down?) – “Yeah, I love it. We want competitive players. We’ve got a group of competitive guys. We just didn’t feel like that was the right call in that situation. We kind of had a different plan of action, so we moved forward with the field goal. But the fact that he wanted to go for it, I liked that. I want our players to want to go out there and put it in the end zone. We need to do more of that for sure.”
(What did you notice about how QB Josh Rosen reacted, communicated, interacted after some things went wrong?) – “I thought he was good on the sideline. I thought his interactions with his teammates, receivers, line, tight ends, backs were very positive – trying to get guys going. I think he saw, just like a lot of guys saw, there were some plays to be made in that game. That’s good as we move forward to this week in particular. Hopefully there is some confidence that we can get open, we can move the ball offensively and there are some plays out there that we could’ve made and that we did make, and hopefully as we move forward, we continue to improve and do that more consistently. I think that’s kind of – for all of us – coaches, players – that’s what we’re looking for.”
(Did you see during the game any frustration in CB Xavien Howard that might have affected his play, and if so, have you talked to him about that?) – “I mean look, he played against a good player. I think when you have a tough player, yeah there is always frustration. Xavien is very resilient. The kid has been through a lot. He’s a tough kid. He’s very resilient. He definitely has a next-play mentality. What you may see as a frustration on one play and it’s gone the next. That’s what you want out of a corner, specifically one as talented as he is. That, to me, is not anything that’s a red flag or anything. I think he’s – I think Xavien will be good to go. He’s a good player and I think he’ll be ready to go.”
(It’s been a while sense we’ve asked you about CB Cordrea Tankersley or DT Robert Nkemdiche. Are you confident that both of those guys will play at some point in 2019?) – “I know they are both working to get back. They are working extremely hard – both guys. As far as the time table – They are working to get back. If they are healthy enough to get back into practice, I’d love to have them. But right now, I’m not even sure of the exact date – I think it’s October, somewhere in October where they are eligible to come back. Actually it’s October 14th. We’ll see. If they are ready then, great. If not, then we’ll just continue with what we have and hopefully they’re back sooner than later.”
(Are we going to see G/T Jesse Davis working today?) – “Jesse thankfully felt a lot better than Monday and these last couple of days. We’re going to take this thing day-to-day and see how he’s feeling. He’s as tough as they come, so if he can get out there, he will. I know that. He’s one of those guys where you almost – he’ll try to get out there. That’s what you want. That’s what you want out of your offensive line and out of leaders on your team, and he’s certainly that.”
Patrick Graham – September 24, 2019
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham
(One of the areas that defense has done really well in is the penalties. Just 17 – third-fewest in the league. What have you guys done from the preseason to now to really improve in that area?) – “I think it started when ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) put together his vision of the team. We said ‘smart, tough, disciplined football team.’ Part of being smart and disciplined is not being penalized and not beating yourself. We talk it about it all the time, especially early on in the year. More games are lost because guys – whether it’s penalties – you end up beating yourself, and we’re trying to avoid that just by harping on that. The stuff that takes no talent, that’s the stuff we’ve got to make sure we get done.”
(How would you say your defense hung in there in the first half? I know it was different for the second.) – “Right now, I’m thinking so much about Los Angeles right now. There were some positives from the game last week that we can build on. I think the fundamentals – we were seeing some improvement in that, and we’ve just got to keep going with that. That’s what’s going to carry us into this week against the Chargers because we’ve got a pretty good offensive team coming in here. They’ve got a head coach who has familiarity with the system. He knows us pretty well in terms of just having been in our division for a while. I know it’s been a while for him. This is his third year. The quarterback, the o-line – the o-line is probably one of the more athletic o-lines in the league, and they do a good job of getting to people and the first and second level. Then the skill players – the backs – these guys are dynamic. They’re dynamic skill players. They can run the ball. They can catch passes, and I think the receiver (Keenan Allen) – obviously he’s been targeted 200 million times. (laughter) This guy’s a good (player). They’ve got good players out there, and they’ve got explosive players with (Travis) Benjamin. There are a lot of good players out there to worry about.”
(Three games, four sacks – where is the heat going to come from?) – “The heat’s going to come from the guys on the field. We’ve got to pressure – however you define it – and the main goal is to affect the quarterback. We’ve got to find ways to improve that. It starts with me. We’ve got to do a good job of that. We’re constantly just evaluating it week-to-week. The main thing though is not necessarily the sack numbers or the pressures. It’s affecting the quarterback, whether that’s disrupting his passing windows, getting our hands up and making sure that it ties together with the coverage and the rush tied together. We’re working towards that, and we’re working to improve that.”
(Is the run defense a concern right now?) – “I think overall, we’re looking to improve in all facets of the game whether it’s the pass game or pass coverage, pass rush, run defense. We’re trying to improve all of them. We’ve got to do a better job. We’ve got to set the edge, especially against the Chargers. If we don’t set the edge, these guys can get out there. We’ve got to do a good job with that. We’ve got to play with power inside, play with extension; but it’s all a process. We’re looking to improve and it starts really today – guys getting in, getting an understanding of who the Chargers are as a run team, what they do in the run game and in the pass game. For us, once we get to practice, working on the fundamentals that are going to help us improve there.”
(You’ve twice now in the second half been on the field a lot during the game, and players may be worn down a little bit. I don’t know if that’s a fair criticism or not. How do you guard against that when you’re not – when it’s three-and-out on offense and you’ve got to come right back out and you have all those snaps for your defense?) – “Our job is to play defense, and that’s what we’re going to do. When we go against the Chargers this weekend, whenever they have the ball, we’re going to go out there and we’re going to play and we’re going to do our best to limit the points and limit how many snaps they have and we’ve got to get off the field on third down. That’s our job. That’s our job, so we don’t worry about other stuff. We’ve just go to make sure that we’re doing our job. That’s what I’m worried about most.”
(Where can you improve on your third-down defense?) – “We’ve got to do a good job – a better job of – it starts with me doing a better job of preparing the players. Obviously, that’s always the case. I’ve always got to do a good job of coaching if it’s not getting done. I think that we’ve got to do a good job of just some basic fundamental stuff that we’ve got to keep working on, but we’re making strides in it and we’ll keep working towards that.”
(I know turnovers are a real quirky thing. Sometimes it’s the right place at the right time, but how do you guys go about trying to force more and trying to always get the ball back?) – “Turnovers – part of it is, are they a turnover team? Like a team that is prone to give up turnovers? That’s one thing. Then it’s just putting pressure on the ball. Putting the pressure on the ball whether in the running game, passing game – just putting pressure on the ball and then usually good things happen with the turnovers. That’s the main focus on that: putting pressure on the ball and the people that have the ball and just attacking that.”
Chad O’Shea – September 24, 2019
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Tuesday, September 24, 2019
Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea
(With the linemen who were injured in the game, you went almost exclusively to shotgun with QB Josh Rosen; but for running plays you went under center. How do you kind of try to work that so you’re not tipping off the other team, and I guess where do you go from there? Is Josh going to play a little bit more shotgun?) – “I think whenever you have things in the game that you have to adjust, there’s a balance that needs to happen whether it’s a player being injured or maybe a scheme being altered based off what the defense is doing. I think one of the challenges that we always have on game day is to make sure that we’re balancing that during the game. Certainly, the protection aspect is one part of it. The choice to be under center and in the gun is another aspect of it. Whether that has a stronger tendency to be run or pass obviously is an issue, so I think the word balance comes up a lot for us. It’s something that we strive to really do both in-game adjustment-wise and then in our preparation.”
(I know stats aren’t everything, but the stats don’t look great for this offense. What is your assessment of where you guys stand after three games?) – “I think what’s really important for us is to keep improving, and although the stats aren’t exactly where we want them to be, we are just going to continue in the process of improving and that’s what we’re asking our players. That’s certainly how we’re approaching it from a coaching staff – just to focus on improving every day, of getting better at not only the schematics but the fundamentals and our overall preparation improving. I think all of those things are continuing to improve, and we’re making progress. I think that’s where our focus is – on just improving.”
(Was there one part that had you particularly kind of perplexed that it hasn’t been better or one part that has been better than you expected?) – “I think it’s – when you look at it – it’s everything. We just need to improve really in all areas. There’s not one area that I think that we necessarily need more improvement or less in. It’s really just all areas, even some of the areas that might be some positives for us right now. There’s still plenty to improve within those areas. We have a long way to go. I think our players have done a good job of trying to embrace the challenges that we’ve had along the way. I’ve been impressed with the way they’ve worked and handled some adversity here early in the year.”
(I think you were either one or at most two injuries away from having to have a non-offensive lineman playing offensive line. So who’s your emergency tackle, your emergency guard? Who would slide into those roles?) – “Because of the NFL, the way it’s set up on game day, you have usually seven offensive linemen, so when you do incur injuries at that position, there are some special considerations that you have to bring another position in and that’s something that we’ve looked to. Obviously, we didn’t have to do that. In our preparation this week, we’re going to talk about that, so that’s something we’re going to talk about today. If that does come up – and we talk about a lot of situations that might come up during the game just not the offensive line situation. We’ll talk about it as a staff, but we certainly have to have a plan in place for that because we were close to having to play with a player that was going to be playing out of position.”
(Who would it have been?) – “I don’t want to necessarily comment on that specifically, but there was definitely a plan in place for that. Certainly the choices we have are offensive players, as well as defensive players.”
(With QB Josh Rosen playing shotgun again, could you guys see yourselves practicing a little bit more pistol stuff and maybe some RPOs maybe just to give him back there and give yourselves some more time and more protection?) – “There were some things that he did well in the shotgun and certainly there have been some things that he’s done well under center here that he’s comfortable with, so I think that with Josh (Rosen), he’s fine in the things that he’s very comfortable with and confident in and that’s a work-in-progress for us as a coaching staff to identify those things and really to play to his strengths. Certainly, I think one of his strengths is to be in the shotgun, but I’ve also been impressed with some of his under-center snaps and his ability to still be balanced and our ability to throw the football when he’s underneath has been a strength of his also.”
(Could you take us through your thinking – I think in the goal-to-go situation the was I believe three straight runs?) – “It was. We ran the ball three straight times. Again, like I’ve spoken in the past – we’re always going to try to do what’s best. Certainly, the calls that are made are pre-planned and something that we work really hard on. In that situation, the outcome wasn’t exactly what we wanted obviously. We didn’t score. (We were) disappointed in that but not disappointed in our plan, our preparation and our choice to run the ball in the red zone. That’s something that we’re going to have to – we will pride ourselves on – we’ll have to improve, just the ability to stay balanced inside the red zone and just not throw, throw, throw. Certainly, we were run, run, run there; but it’s something that we do put a lot of time in. When we feel like we have maybe an advantage in that area, we’re going to do it. Sometimes the execution and the outcome might not be as planned, but certainly there’s a lot of preparation that goes into that choice.”
(During that drive specifically though, QB Josh Rosen found TE Nick O’Leary for the first down after he scrambled out. I think he found WR Preston Williams downfield, too. Why would you want to take it out of his hands if he was making those plays?) – “I think that each area of the field is very different. We talked to the team a lot about situational football and how each area of the field is different. Certainly, inside the red zone, there were some things that we looked at and maybe saw a little bit differently than the other areas in our game planning. Whether it’s a third-down situation, red zone, those were early-down calls for us in which we had success with him throwing the ball and that was our plan there to use the flea-flicker and to use some of those other things. Things might change for us as far as our mindset and our game-planning when we get into that next situation. So I think it’s just based off of the opponent, it’s based off of week-to-week, it’s based off of where we were (with) personnel at the time. I think there’s a lot that goes into that, and there are some things that we have to adjust during the game based off of some things that – maybe it’s an injury we incurred or maybe they played something differently than we expected.”
(Have you given thought to maybe getting RB Patrick Laird some more work from scrimmage?) – “I think that certainly, (Patrick) Laird has really done a good job for us in the preseason and during practice. I know his role right now is special teams. It’s a great problem to have at the running back spot because we have really good players, and it’s tough to get them all in there right now. He knows his focus right now is on special teams for us; but certainly, he prepares and is ready to have a role on offense at any time if needed or if we think he’s going to be part of our game plan. I have a lot of confidence in him, and if he does get an opportunity, I’m sure he’ll do very well.”
(I guess with RB Kalen Ballage, we haven’t seen the production. Why do you remain confident that production is going to come?) – “I think that again – I said this last week and I believe this – there’s a lot that goes into being successful as a running back, and one of the things is they rely heavily on the people around them. I was very impressed with Kalen at the end of the game when he caught a swing screen for us and ran like it was the second play of the game. It just showed great effort and showed the type of runner he is and that’s what I think Kalen is, and I think if we give him the opportunity to do that, I think that Kalen is going to perform very well. I just think that there are a lot of things that go into him performing well, and one is the 10 other guys that are out there with him. It takes all 11 to have a successful run game or a pass that might be thrown to him. It takes the other guys to really do their jobs for him to be successful. But I have confidence in Kalen – a lot of confidence in Kalen. I have a lot of confidence in our running backs, and we’re working really hard to put them in the best position they can to be successful.”
(One general question on QB Josh Rosen – how do you think he played?) – “I thought that from an operations standpoint, there were some things that were really positive. I think that was – going into his first game in AT&T Stadium wasn’t an easy place to start his first game with some of the elements that we had whether it be crowd noise or just playing on the road for the first time. I thought that he really – from a communications standpoint, from an overall operation of in and out of the huddle – I thought he did a nice job there. I really did. And I thought the one thing he also did is we were also able to protect the football in the pass game. We asked him – that was going to be really important, and I thought he did that. I thought he tried to play on time in the pass game, so there were some real positives coming out of this and the one that really sticks out is just his overall running the offense from an operations standpoint at the line of scrimmage. The things we’re asking him to do, I thought he did well and I think there were some positives moving forward on that.”
(Do you think QB Josh Rosen would’ve probably been a little bit more further along if he started the first two games?) – “I don’t – I think that Josh’s improvement since he’s been here has been good and certainly we were excited to get him in here in this third game. I just think that for him, what’s most important is he just continues to improve and make progress moving forward. I know that he’s very – he was excited about his opportunity. He’s even more excited about another opportunity on Sunday.”
Preston Williams – September 23, 2019
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Monday, September 23, 2019
WR Preston Williams
(You said you watched the dropped touchdown three times. You said what after watching it three times?) – “Honestly? I should’ve made that catch. I feel like I’ve been (expletive) in the end zone. I’ve just got to come down with those. I wish I had them back.”
(Had you felt it was a touchdown, like you had possession, when you looked back at it three times you watched it?) – “I need to look at my handbook again and see what the rules are on possession of a catch or whatever. For a minute, I thought I caught it. After looking at it, I can’t really tell.”
(You got by far the most targets than any of the receivers. How would you describe the chemistry between you and QB Josh Rosen?) – “A couple of them got batted down. Coach called certain formations for certain plays for what the defense was running. Josh goes through his reads and makes the best throw possible. A lot of times I was in the right situation.”
(One thing they said on the CBS broadcast yesterday is that QB Josh Rosen said that you could be his best friend on the team. How have you all form that relationship, what things do you have in common outside of football that’s helped develop that?) – “Me and Josh came up in high school together, the same year. We played in The Opening together. We’re familiar with each other just from past events. We’re just reuniting back here. It’s pretty cool. We’ve got to get a little bit more chemistry down, a little bit more work together so we can just polish up some things, and get on the same page. I feel like me and him will be real fine – me and Josh. Josh is a great quarterback. He knows what he is doing. He is a talented guy with a great arm.”
(How did you feel QB Josh Rosen did in the game yesterday? Obviously he made some good throws, your view on how he played?) – “I feel like Josh played exceptionally well. There is always room to get better. Nobody played a perfect game. I feel like Josh played really consistent, and I’m excited to see what he’s going to do this week coming up.”
(Obviously it’s unusual for an undrafted rookie to come in and play as many snaps as you did, and you’ve earned a lot of it with your play in preseason. Do you look at this as a special opportunity that maybe not a lot of undrafted rookies get to play so much so soon?) – “Undrafted, first round – I never doubted my talent and what I can do. I had a chip, that gave me drive; but at the same time, I still felt like I could still compete in the league and be one of the No. 1 receivers one day.”
Michael Deiter – September 23, 2019
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Monday, September 23, 2019
G Michael Deiter
(How would you describe the experience of being a rookie and in-game, going ahead and playing left tackle?) – “Just another day of playing football. You never know how it’s going to play out. I definitely didn’t expect to play left tackle, but it is what it is and I just had to adjust to it. It could’ve been better. It could’ve been worse. There are two ways to look at it, but it was cool. It was just another little challenge that I had to navigate through, and I thought it went alright.”
(What does it tell you in terms of the coaching staff’s confidence level in you that they would put that responsibility on you?) – “It’s nice that they felt okay enough to put me out there. It’s cool to understand that, but I haven’t played tackle for a while and I don’t want to say that they’re like, ‘oh, he’s for sure the tackle we want,’ but it was cool that they were like, ‘he can do it.’”
(When was the last time you played left tackle in a game?) – “(I played left tackle in) college in 2017.”
(What are the adjustments you have to make? Obviously you’re going against a fast edge rusher as opposed to an inside guy, but what technique-wise and your steps and all that kind of stuff. Did that come back to you?) – “That’s the biggest thing is there’s a lot of different techniques. Especially when you’re throwing the football, it gets a little bit different with technique – how you set, where you want to punch, where your landmarks (are), all this – it’s all different. The first thing is knowing that. You can’t go out there and not know what the tackle’s assignment is, how he’s supposed to set, all that. That’s the toughest part and then the speed. The speed and the space is the biggest difference. Those guys – they’re not as powerful – some guys as powerful – but it’s just way more speed.”
(How many snaps would you say it took before you kind of felt like – I don’t want to say back at home – but felt like you were comfortable at left tackle?) – “I don’t know how many. It just took a little bit of feeling out, I’d say. Not too long. My first play at tackle was like a third-and-7 or third-and-6 and I was pretty rusty. That was bad, and I just kind went into ‘don’t get beat too fast’ mode. The first play was rough, but from there on it got better and better. There was some good. There was some bad, but it started getting going.”
(How long had they been looking at you at tackle because I think in the second game, I think I noticed that C/G Evan Boehm and G Shaq Calhoun were the extra linemen and I asked Head Coach Brian Flores what were you going to do at tackle, and he was like, “oh, I don’t want to give it away right now,” but that had to be a few weeks or so since regular season? I don’t remember it in training camp.) – “It was just the last two weeks. It was maybe, if need be, play some tackle. It was ‘he did it in college’ and I got a couple reps in practice at it, but not much. It was a very just-in-case thing. That’s it.”
(Are you going into this week with the mindset that that’s where you’ll be if G/T Jesse Davis can’t make it on Sunday?) – “No idea. I have no idea.”
(How many practice snaps have you gotten at tackle the last three weeks?) – “Probably no more than 15.”
(Combined? Each week or combined?) – “Combined.”
(I know your short-term goal is becoming entrenched as an NFL starting guard. Do you have any aspiration to being a tackle long-term?) – “I have aspirations of starting in the NFL on the offensive line. (laughter) I don’t care where – just as long as I’m playing. That’s it.”
(Anything shocking to you about left tackle whether it was being out in space – I know that stuff comes back to you, but…?) – “Just the speed was a little bit shocking. I just kind of had like weird flashbacks of ‘I remember doing this.’ I just kind of remembered getting the guy is just a little bit easier. In the league they’re just past you, so you’ve just got to be that much cleaner with your sets, that much cleaner with your hands, footwork. It was cool.”
Brian Flores – September 23, 2019
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Monday, September 23, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(On the two players that made their debut, can you talk about each one of them separately? DE Taco Charlton first of all and DE Trent Harris. How did they do after watching the tape?) – “I thought Taco – he had been here a couple of days. I thought he went in, I thought he played hard. I thought he handled his assignments. We didn’t give him a lot to do. I thought he did an okay job with his assignment. He lost contain on one play in particular that I’m thinking of; but I think he’s off to a pretty good start. He was very into the game, very into everything we’ve been doing since he’s gotten here. It was good to have him. As far as Trent, I thought he had a couple of good games and twists inside. I thought his communication was good. He hadn’t been out there (much). He was just getting out to practice, (so) he had a little rust on him. Overall, I thought it was a good start for both guys.”
(I know we get an injury report on Wednesday. Is there anything you can tell us on G/T Jesse Davis, or WR Allen Hurns?) – “Allen is in the protocol. Our medical staff, obviously I’ll defer to them from that standpoint. I think they do a great job and were doing everything they can with Allen, leaving him in Dallas and felt like that was the best thing for him. He’s on his way back and from what I understand, he’s doing a lot better.”
(As far as G/T Jesse Davis, and G Danny Isidora?) – “It’s Monday so those guys, just in talking to them today, I think we’re just going to take this day-to-day. Hopefully we can get them back this week. But yes, it’s early in the week and those guys are very upbeat about the possibility of getting back into practice and playing. We’ll just take it day-to-day.”
(What things did you see yesterday that you think you can build on?) – “There were definitely some opportunities for us to make plays in all three phases. From the surprise onside kick, to there was a kickoff return where if we make one block – there was a lot of should’ve, could’ve, would’ve in the game; but definitely some opportunities for us, offensively. Obviously we had some drops. Defensively, we had some missed tackles. Some opportunities on third down we didn’t take advantage of – third-and-long, second-and-long. I think the team, from what I’ve seen, there seems to be some opportunities for us to have a little bit more control of the game, and we just didn’t take advantage of them. There are plays to be made that we can make, that we just aren’t making – in all three phases. I think if we make two, three, four, five more plays, the game is a little bit different.”
(Are guys pressing at this point? Do you think that is part of the problem now?) – “Pressing?”
(Yeah, with the way things have gone and wanting to…) – “I think these guys want to win. They want to do well. They play hard. No, I don’t think they’re pressing. I think we’re close to stringing some good plays together, and then we’ve just got to make the routine plays – routine catches, the routine blocks. This is a game they’ve all played since they were little. I think as a team – individually and as a team – we just need to stay in the present and just play the way we’ve practiced, the way we’ve talked about playing, and I think good things will happen.”
(A couple questions on the RB Kenyan Drake fumble. That ball – was that clearly stripped, or was that caused when he roll-spun into TE Durham Smythe?) – “I think it was a little bit of both. He spun, the Dallas defender got a hand on it. Obviously there are a lot of bodies flying around; but any way you slice it, we’ve got to secure the football. We hit it, they hit it, an official hits it – it doesn’t really matter what happens. We’ve got to secure the football. We’ve got to do a better job of that. Obviously that was a critical point in the game. We had an opportunity to go up at half or at worst, kick a field goal and go down one. That’s why ball security is so important in this game, and we need to do a better job.”
(RB Kenyan Drake made a comment: “I’m not going to change my running style.” I guess he was referring to spinning off of hits, I guess. You can’t really always put two hands on the ball when you spin, right? Does he need to change anything? We see running backs do that all the time, including Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott yesterday.) – “I think – Drake’s a good runner. He’s fast, he’s explosive, he can make people miss, he’s physical. He’s a good running back. In that instance, he’s just got to secure the ball better. No one’s asking him to change his style. I’m not. But we’re always asking him to secure the football. He knows that. We’ve talked about that. He’s a good player. No one’s more upset about that than he is. He wants to do well for this team. It’s important to him. He’ll get that done and corrected.”
(Time of possession was almost even. How do you interpret that, and how much of a step forward is that? What does that say about the team?) – “I think it just means we kind of strung some plays together offensively. (We) got off the field defensively at least in the first half. We made some plays – explosive plays – down the field; but at the end of the day, this comes down to putting points on the board. We were 0-for-3 in the red zone. We did a good job I would say on early downs – first and second down – of picking up first down, but we were 3-for-15 on third down. That’s really how you change the time of possession and you change controlling the game. We need to do a better job, specifically in the red zone, of putting the ball in the end zone and then third down, that’ll go a long way to helping us both offensively and defensively. We have to keep them out of the end zone and then we’ve got to get off the field on third down.”
(How would you assess how G Michael Deiter did at left tackle?) – “I think he played – it was pretty admirable of him to go out there and (with) limited practice reps – he’s practiced at that position for sure, but when Jesse (Davis) went down, he went out there and look, they’ve got good ends. There were some tough matchups out there, and he performed – I thought he performed well. Not perfect, but given the circumstances, I was happy he was there to kind of fill that role. He’s got a lot of versatility. He’s a tough kid. He’s smart – just from a communications standpoint, there were no issues. He had some tough matchups for sure. I was happy with watching a guy – a rookie at that – in that environment, step into that type of situation and give us some really good effort and give us some good plays. I thought that was really admirable.”
(You had 72 defensive snaps. LB Raekwon McMillan played 21 of them. Considering you gave up 6.9 yards per carry – he did well obviously his first full season last year against the run. Does he need to play more?) – “Raekwon (McMillan) – we’ve got him in in some of the bigger packages. He’s played well, but I’d say Sam (Eguavoen), ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker) – those guys have played well also. We’re kind of splitting reps between the three of those guys. I’ve got a lot of respect for Raekwon. I think he’s doing a good job. Again, we’re evaluating all positions and getting him in there a little bit more is something we’ve talked about, and we’ll see how that goes this week. Obviously, if he has a good week at practice, we’ll take it from there.”
(Is there one specific message you have for the team this week?) – “Get better. That’s the message every week. Let’s get better, let’s come back, let’s practice, let’s improve, let’s get better. I think it’s pretty clear that there are some plays that we could’ve had out there. That’s disappointing, but I guess the silver lining there is there are some opportunities that we can definitely take advantage of. If we continue to put ourselves in those positions where we have those opportunities, then I think we will take advantage of them. That’s my message. Just keep continuing to get better. I feel like that’s been the case each week. The results haven’t been what we want them to be, but I think in time, things will turn.”
(I want to go back to something you said yesterday when we asked you about the WR Preston Williams play in the end zone where the ball was stripped. You said you watch every touchdown every week. Is that every contested touchdown or every single touchdown in the NFL you’ll have them cut it up and you watch?) – “Every one that’s, let’s say, up for debate whether or not it’s in or not in; but I do end up watching a lot of the touchdowns over the course of the week. Any one that is on the line of ‘do we throw the flag, not throw the flag?’ ‘Is he in, is he not in?’ I watch them all. Those I get. Every single touchdown – I wouldn’t say I watch all of them throughout the entire league, but I watch a lot of league footage along with our opponent.”
(From watching those touchdowns, do you have pretty good clarity on what to challenge and what not to? You seemed certain yesterday that that was the right decision. Do you have clarity?) – “As far as going through the process of watching them – what were the results? Were they overturned? Was it in? Was it not in? From that standpoint, you have pretty good clarity. Obviously that’s subjective in a lot of ways; but yeah, I have fairly good clarity. I spend a lot of time on that. We need to be sure about those decisions because they’re big ones in a game.”
(I know you said after the game that you were advised that you didn’t need to review that, but after watching that play itself did you feel like maybe a review – not was warranted – but you could’ve gotten something from that?) – “No. I trust the guys in the box, and after watching it myself, I was convicted that that was the right call.”
