Minkah Fitzpatrick – August 5, 2019
Monday, August 5, 2019
S Minkah Fitzpatrick
(Is it fun to be more at safety the last couple days? That’s one of the many things you’re good at. Was it enjoyable to be paired with S Bobby McCain a lot at safety?) – “I mean, that’s what I’ve been doing most of camp…“
(Some slot a lot though, too?) – “Yeah, I’ve been playing a good mix of the slot corner, the safety and everything else and all that; but it’s just different schemes, you’re seeing different looks and everything like that. Mostly I’ve been playing at the same position, so it hasn’t been too much different.”
(Was there anything different in practice today with this being a game week unlike the first couple of weeks of camp?) – “Today was hot. I’ll say that. Today was real hot. (laughter) But no; today, (Head) Coach (Brian Flores) challenged us just to play faster. He put us in shells, so he wanted to see us just move around and play fast, play quick, get in and out of the huddle, lining up fast and stuff like that. I think we did a pretty good job doing that. Execution could have been better, but I think it was a faster pace, faster energy, faster getting out of the huddle just to prepare us for Thursday.”
(Looking forward to seeing a different team out there as opposed to just those guys all the time?) – “Yeah, for sure. It’s your team. Going against your team, seeing the same guys every single day, it’s real repetitive and everything like that, so I think…”
(How much can you actually put into motion in these preseason games without giving away some of the state secrets that you want to accomplish during the season as far as multiple looks and just keeping the other team guessing?) – “I think you can keep it as basic as you want and get as complex as you want. It all depends on what Coach (Flores) wants; but I think if you’ve got your fundamentals and your basics, then you know you can run the more complex stuff. If you go out there, you run the easy calls, the fundamental calls, the coaches know, ‘all right, they can do this. We know that they’d be able to execute this in a real-game situation.’ You don’t want to give away everything and all that and on multiple looks, but you want to try and challenge us at the same time.”
(What aspect are you the most excited that maybe people don’t see coming from you guys?) – “As a team, I would just say just, honestly, just being hungry. I think a lot of people are counting us out. We had a lot of things going on and stuff like that. A lot of people are just saying whatever about us, and I think a lot of us are real hungry. A lot of us are winners on this team and just ready to show everybody that.”
(How comfortable are you with S Bobby McCain? I know Bobby says he’s really excited to play centerfield.) – “I’ve been playing with Bobby since last year. He’s a great player, a versatile player. He communicates really well. He’s easy to play with. I love guys like that that are just easy to play with. You know you’ve got some guys that – they don’t like to communicate. You’ve got to scream at them every single snap, but he’s not like that. You give him yes, no, maybe so, and we’re good to go. It’s like I said, he’s easy to play with. I love playing with him.”
(S Bobby McCain is kind of loud. He talks a lot, too.) – “He talks a lot? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In a sense of communicating, yeah he talks a lot. He’s a passionate player. I’ll say that about him. He’s a passionate player. He loves the game. He puts a lot of energy into the game, and he shows that.”
(LB Jerome Baker is also in his second season now. What can you say about the stride that he’s made since last year?) – “I think he’s made big strides. I think this defense has definitely helped him out schematically. It allows him just to play fast, play his type of football because he’s a fast linebacker. Downhill, east-west, whatever you need him to do, he’s going to do it. I think this defense allows him to do that.”
(With LB Jerome Baker, if you don’t have him, how do defensive guys get their play calls?) – “The next man comes in and they call it.”
(When you think about Head Coach Brian Flores and coming here and starting a new program and trying to build it up, what’s the most impressionable sign that something is different here?) – “I would say just the constant challenge that he’s putting on us. I think every single day, every single rep, he’s challenging us – whether it be just challenging us to run to the ball, challenging us to execute, challenging us in conditioning. He’s just constantly putting that challenge on us, and I think with that, we’re all going to grow as players, as men, and we’re just going to be able to win more games.”
(Can you give me an example of one of the challenges that and how it looks?) – “I would say just not accepting little mistakes. Like I think in past seasons, people would just let things slide that he won’t let slide – whether it be just, instead of taking, ‘the pass goes over my head. Throw it to another receiver.’ Instead of just taking a little burst one step out, he wants me to run and get to the ball. Tag off on the ball. That’s what he wants you to do. It’s going to help you in the game. If somebody tips the ball up, you’re running, practice habits and everything else like that, you’re going to get to the ball. It’s little stuff like that. Making sure we’re doing the little things right and making sure our habits that you relay over from practice to the game are right.”
(From a DBs perspective, what have you seen from QB Josh Rosen? What’s it like to play against him?) – “He’s a good quarterback. He gets the ball down the field really well. I’ve just seen today and other days, he fits the ball in windows real nice. He has a good eye. He takes chances, which is a good thing as a quarterback. You can’t play too safe, but obviously you don’t want to do too much. He’s a good quarterback, and he’s going to keep growing in this system and keep making plays.”
(Your coach – the defense he ran in New England really revolved around the secondary. That was really the strength of the team and really the safeties, they kind of all revolved around the safeties. How exciting is that for you now to kind of be in the similar situation?) – “It’s exciting. It’s really exciting. The scheme I ran at Alabama was kind of set up that way. It was based around the DBs. The DBs would move around, do different things, and obviously, we had a great d-line in front of us to support us and help us. I got excited when I heard about we’re installing and what we’re doing. I like just moving and making plays. It’s a challenge, though, at the same time, but it’s definitely going to benefit us.”
(Are you watching film of New England Patriots S Patrick Chung?) – “I’m watching them all. Patrick Chung, the (New England Patriots DBs Devin and Jason) McCourty brothers, (New England Patriots DB Jonathan) Jones – all of them. Just watching all of them. That’s who we watch. We watch a lot of New England.”
(Is that how you’re going to learn the defense by watching Patriots film?) – “Some of the stuff, yeah, and then obviously we have to put our own little wrinkles on stuff. They show us a lot of Patriots stuff in film.”
(Are you Patrick Chung, and is S Bobby McCain like Devin McCourty? Like are you doing the one-for-one comparisons?) – “No, not really. I think we have a little bit of different type of personnel than the Patriots – just body-type-wise and skillset-wise – I think it’s a little bit different.”
(Also, everyone here talks about Head Coach Brian Flores’ punctuality. Apparently with the media, if you show up five minutes early, you still might be late. Is punctuality a big thing with him?) – “Yeah, he has a saying. ‘Early is on time. On-time is late, and late is forgotten.’ He has that up on one of the walls – as soon as you walk in where the players walk in. He has that saying on the wall. He’s just real big on punctuality because that carries over onto the field. If you’re late to the meetings, you’re going to be missing something in the meetings, and then you’re going to be missing something on the field. It’s going to lay over and snowball effect and all this other stuff. I think the punctuality is something that he’s definitely enforcing.”
(Have you experienced where you thought you were early and you come in and the meeting’s already going on or anything?) – “Nah, I’m always early. (laughter)”
Bobby McCain – August 5, 2019
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Monday, August 5, 2019
S Bobby McCain
(How are you liking that freedom back there at safety?) – “How am I liking it? I like it. You can control, you can see the ball out, you can see the ball coming from the quarterback. You can make plays at the end of the day in this defense, once we get more in depth in game plans, and playing different teams, and playing different people – it will all change.”
(I can’t remember, were you a catcher or a center fielder in your baseball career?) – “I was both. I was a catcher and outfielder – center field, left field, right field.”
(So playing center field is pretty normal for you?) – “Yeah. I’ve done it before. Not in football but other sports.”
(The combo we saw today with you and S Minkah Fitzpatrick back there. It’s rare to have two safeties with corner skills. What sort of challenge could that provide for teams if you all are on the field together?) – “Just controlling the middle of the field, controlling the deep part of the field. You’ve got guys back there that can go get the football, that can judge the football well and understand that when the ball is in the air, it’s not just theirs – it’s everybody’s. Being back there is definitely different but you’ve got to be comfortable being uncomfortable. That’s just one of the things we’re doing, and you have to get the job done at the end of the day.”
(With CB Eric Rowe out today we saw CB Nik Needham again with the starters. What’s he shown being around him for a couple of months?) – “He’s smart, he’s a good player, he goes hard. He works his tail off, he comes in everyday and doesn’t say much. He works his tail off. He does what he’s told, does what he’s supposed to do, and that’s why he’s getting work with the ones. Just trying to make him better, they don’t care where you come from, were you drafted or undrafted. That’s the name of the game. If you can play, you can play. He’s going to keep coming along and I can see he’ll definitely be good for us.”
(How much are looking forward to testing this out on Thursday night?) – ‘I’m excited. I’m excited. It’s our first preseason game, our first game coming up. Everyone should be excited. Football season is back. Not just to be tested, but just to be out there on the field with your brothers and with your teammates, it’s fun and I’m excited.”
(How much attention to you guys pay to not getting any respect? You guys are going to do this and do that. How much do you guys feed into that?) – “They don’t respect us right now and we don’t care. At the end of the day, we don’t care. We’re just going to come out here and keep working and take it one day at a time and one game at a time throughout the year. We’ll tally it up at the end of the year and at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what they are saying. We’re just coming in trying to compete and get better every day. That’s all it’s about.”
(How different do you think this preseason will be with so many moving parts?) – “It’s definitely going to be interesting because we have a lot of different guys, especially in my case and a lot of guys in the back end’s case that can do a lot of different things and play a lot of different positions. With this defense, you have to be able to know it all, and know – not everything, but you want to know a lot. You want to know more than you’re supposed to, and it will help you in the long run.”
(What kind of growth have you seen from LB Jerome Backer this year from his rookie year?) – “Big. He’s definitely stepping up, he’s understanding that he’s not a rookie anymore. You can tell he doesn’t act like a rookie. He’s keeping it professional. He comes in, he works, he gets in early and does what he’s supposed to do. He keeps coming along, and if you can keep doing that you’ll last a long time in this league.”
Akeem Spence – August 5, 2019
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Monday, August 5, 2019
DT Akeem Spence
(You mentioned motivation. Do the players talk about that? Do you guys feed into what people say about you to prove them wrong?) – “No. We’re more so taking care of our business. We take care of ourselves and then when it’s time to go out there and let the pads talk, that’s what Sundays are for. As long as we’re taking care of everything and being on the small details, the minute things, running to the ball, getting our conditioning up, executing our blitzes and whatever we need to do, then we’ll let things handle themselves on Sundays.”
(How has this training camp gone for you?) – “It’s been one of the tougher training camps in my career but it has been fun as well. Just being the older guy in the room, being able to come out and show the young guys how to work each and every day. Some days I don’t have it, so Christian (Wilkins), (Davon) Godchaux, Vince (Taylor) or somebody has to pick me up. So we’re pushing one another, which is good. That’s what you want in our room and on our defense. We’re just coming out every day and just getting better and just trying to execute what the coaches want. It’s getting closer to the games, so guys are getting tired of (hitting) one another. It’s about that time. I just can’t wait to get to the season to start playing.”
(What’s been the tough part about it?) – “Well, wearing knee braces for me. I’m going to speak for myself. Wearing knee braces out to practice, it’s all new to some of us. So just that and then…”
(Are the coaches encouraging you to wear it?) – “It’s been excruciatingly hot but it’s something that we have to do and it helps with our stances and our plays. It makes sense in the long run.”
(So it’s safe to say you are chomping at the bit to hit somebody else?) – “Absolutely.”
(Can you tell me about the d-tackle rotation because between DT Christian Wilkins, DT Davon Godchaux, DT Vincent Taylor and you, that’s a pretty veteran – I know Wilkins is a rookie but there’s a lot of potential right there.) – “Absolutely. The thing is, we have to police ourselves in that group. That group, we have to push one another. If Godchaux doesn’t do something all the way right, I have to be able to police him. And me too. (If someone says,) ‘Hey Spence, your hands weren’t right. Get your hands right.’ Okay. Just creating that competition in the room, like ‘Dang, that guy went out and made a play. I’ve got to go out and make a play,’ but at the same time, making plays within our technique and just believing in one another and pushing one another. That’s how you keep raising the bar in the room.”
Brian Flores – August 5, 2019
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Monday, August 5, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(We saw S Reshad Jones in a walking boot on Saturday. Do you expect him to be back by the start of the regular season?) – “Reshad’s getting – he’s working hard to get better each day. He’ll be back as soon as he can be back. I’ve had a couple of conversations with him. He’s making progress on the injury. He’ll be back as soon as he can be. When that will be will – every injury is a little bit different. Everyone’s different, but I know I can tell you this: he’s doing everything possible to get back. He wants to get back in there. He’s made that very clear to myself and the entire staff. Hopefully we see him soon.”
(Does S Reshad Jones know when and where it happened? We didn’t see it out here.) – “I think we have a pretty good idea of when it happened. It’s one of those things where – he’s a tough player. He’s been that way for a long time, so who knows? I think this is one of those situations where I think he toughed through it for a few days and then got off of it for a couple days. We’ll see where it goes from there. Again, Reshad – like a lot of our players – look, you’re going to be sore. You’re going to have some nicks. You’re going to try to play through them; but at some point, if we feel like we’ve got to back off, we’ll do that for sure. Obviously, nothing’s more important than the health of this team. He knows that. We made that clear to everybody on this team. That applies to everyone.”
(Can you talk about your two coordinators – Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea and Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham – and the fact that both will be calling plays for the first time in a game?) – “I think it’s exciting for both guys. I would say both have called a game previously – not in the regular season, but preseason games. It’ll be exciting for both guys. I remember being in that role just a year ago. There’s some excitement. There’s this feeling that you want to do everything right, make the perfect call on everything, but the game’s not played that way. It just doesn’t work out that way normally. I’m excited to see both guys perform on Thursday night. I have a lot of confidence in both – well really, all three coordinators and the entire coaching staff, or else they wouldn’t be in that role. Both are smart. Both are creative, and I’m excited to see both of them Thursday night.”
(Didn’t get a chance to talk to you after the practice scrimmage on Saturday. I would imagine, knowing your attention to detail and discipline, you were not pleased with the number of penalties that was committed?) – “Yeah, I think that’s something I talked to the team about. I think that’s something we need to work on. It starts with me, I’ll say that. Our goals really moving forward – and really every day – are the same. We want a clean operation. We want to get 11 guys in the huddle – the right 11 guys. We want to get in and out of the huddle quickly. We want to have good communication. We want to play fast. We want to have good, sound fundamentals and technique. We want to be a disciplined ball club. I think that there were too many penalties in the scrimmage the other day that I was – (the players) heard about that. They understand that – I think people think of football, and they think of touchdowns and sacks. They don’t think about penalties and negative plays and being in good field position and taking yourself out (of it). Nobody thinks about those things, but those are how you lose games. Those are how you lose opportunities to score points and to put yourself in good position. I think those are the little things that are very important. We need to be good at those things to give ourselves a chance. The team knows that. I think that’s the case for every team in this league. Again, it’s early. We’ve got an opportunity to correct those or to right those wrongs. That’ll be an ongoing thing the entire year – is to have a clean operation, play with discipline, play with poise, play penalty-free, limit the turnovers. If we do those things, we’ll give ourselves a chance. If we don’t, it’s hard. It’s hard in this league if you don’t do those things.”
(With the referee situation – you guys only had refs at once practice since the first two weeks of training camp outside of the scrimmage. Was that intentional, and do you reconsider that stance in terms of making sure refs are out there a little bit more?) – “I think you’re wrong on that as far as the refs at practice. I think we had them at more than one; but at the start of training camp, we didn’t have the refs. That was for a reason. We brought them in – I think to include the scrimmage –four days straight. We didn’t have them for four days and we had them for the next four days. It was good. It was good to kind of hear their perspective on holding calls, OPI (offensive pass interference), DPI (defensive pass interference), hands to the face, just from a rules standpoint. It’s a good learning tool for the players, for the coaches. Those first few days, we just kind of want to get out there, get acclimated, get them in pads, get them focused on the fundamentals and the technique and then bring the refs out to really reinforce the idea that the fundamentals and technique are why we preach them so much – because if you don’t play with those techniques, then penalties happen. All that’s done for a reason. They were there – I want to say four days straight.”
(We noticed that T Jordan Mills on the first depth chart is listed as the starter at right tackle. Can you tell us how he has performed, what he needs to work on and what went into the decision to start out the preseason in this manner?) – “I think Jordan is – he’s a guy who’s started a lot of game in this league. (He’s a) veteran (who is) tough, smart, works hard. He does a lot of things behind the scenes that we like as a staff; but again, there’s really still a lot of competition at that position as well as some of the other – really all the positions. Jordan’s done a solid job. We’ve had a few guys in that position. Jesse’s (Davis) been there. (Will) Holden’s been there. We’ve had Isaiah Prince – he’s been in that role. You’ll see multiple guys in that spot. Hopefully, out of that group, the best guy will play.”
(It appeared QB Josh Rosen had a good day Saturday and he’s had a good week. Is this a guy who was hot for a week or is this a guy who is turning a corner?) – “I think the big thing for everyone on this team is to try to improve on a daily basis and I think Josh has taken to that, along with a lot of players on this team. I’ve seen a lot of improvement from a lot of guys. He’s one of them but he still has a long way to go. By no means are we anointing him or crowning him. I think he has strung a couple of good days together. We still have the preseason games ahead of us. We still have a lot of practices ahead of us, starting with today. Hopefully it continues on this trajectory and that’s the case for not only him but everyone on this team. I think the one thing is if you start to focus in on what you did the last practice, you lose a little bit on today. He just has to keep stringing them together. Really, we’re telling that to everyone. Yesterday only matters if you build on it today, to be honest. That’s something that we talked to everybody about within the entire organization. I think they understand that. I think that’s how you build and get better and improve. Once guys really internalize that and have urgency and urgency and you’re neurotic about that, I think that’s when you’ll start seeing really great improvement. Until then, it’s just day by day. One day it’s good, one day it’s bad, one day it’s good, one day it’s bad and you’re really never stringing them together. Until then, it’s day by day.”
(Fairly or unfairly, QB Josh Rosen came here with question marks about his maturity, leadership and the way he related to his teammates. I’m wondering what you’ve seen from him in that regard, particularly since training camp started.) – “I think this is a mature kid. I think he relates well to his teammates. I think every young player is developing in those specific areas. I think that’s something you have to develop. You don’t just walk into a place and say I’m the leader of the team or the franchise or the building. It doesn’t matter what field you’re in. I don’t think that happens anywhere. It’s something you have to earn. I think he understands that. I think every player on this understands that. You don’t just walk in and you’re a leader and at the top of the food chain. It doesn’t work that way. He’s got to earn it. He’s got to earn the respect of his teammates. I think he’s doing that. I think for any player – not just Josh but speaking specifically about the quarterback position, those guys are in more of a leadership role and have more of an opportunity to take control and lead. So you see it a little bit more at that position, but it’s earned. It’s earned on the practice field, it’s earned in the meeting room, it’s earned in the weight room, it’s earned in the locker room, to be quite honest. It’s things that we won’t see, that you won’t see, that I won’t see. I get a little bit of a closer view but that’s the position – the quarterback position. Any leader on this team, specifically young guys, that’s something you develop. You have to earn the trust of the coaches, the players and everyone within the organization before you can kind of take that step.”
(Are there things in QB Josh Rosen’s personality that are holding him back in that regard, just the way he is by nature you think?) – “I think it’s too early to tell. I think everyone is a little bit different. People lead in different ways. I would say this: I think if you work hard and put the team first, you’re leading. I think I’ve said that before to you guys, that we want 53 leaders on this team, and he’s done that so he’s on the right path. As far as being vocal and do you have to be a ‘rah-rah,’ vocal, jump up and down (guy)? No. I don’t think he has to be that. I don’t think anyone has to be that. I think you just have to work hard and put the team first. And if he does that and he’s productive on the field and they see that he’s working his fundamentals and his techniques and he’s getting better, finding a way to be consistent and does those on a day-in and day-out basis – I’m not just talking about Josh. I’m talking about the quarterback, and we’re talking about anybody. That could be – John Denney is a good example of that. He comes in, he works hard, he puts the team first. He works hard in the weight room. Nobody is in better shape than him. When he speaks, people listen. So he has leadership attributes from that standpoint. I think you start there from a development standpoint. We can get into – if you have to get into a guy’s face, you get in a guy’s face. That’s something that we can talk to him about. But right now, I don’t think there is anything about Josh that is holding him back. I think it’s a learning process.”
(This time last week you gave us an update. You had a day off to look at the film and talk to the coaches about where the quarterback battle stands. Does it still stand that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has a gap on QB Josh Rosen or has that gap closed?) – “I would say that both guys are doing well. I like some of the things that Ryan did. I like some of the things that Josh did. I think this is a good quarterback competition. I’ll stick by what I said last week but I think Josh – I think Jake (Rudock) went in there and did some good things, as well. This is a quarterback competition. That’s what I’ve said all along. This is going to be an ongoing process. The preseason games will tell us a lot, practice will tell us a lot, and we’ll just keep going. I think both guys are working. I think all three guys are working and the best man will win.”
(Some guys may look at that first unofficial depth chart and see S Minkah Fitzpatrick and S T.J. McDonald as backups per se and wonder why they aren’t full-time players. How do you plan to play them a lot even if they aren’t necessarily starters per se?) – “We have a lot of packages where – we’ll get the best 11 guys out there – trust me on that – one way or another. You mentioned Minkah, T.J., it could be Akeem Spence, it could be – there are a few other guys there. If you practice well and you play well in the games, we’ll find a role for you, and the best 11 will play – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. That’s kind of how we’re going to operate. That’s one grouping. I’ve got 12 of them. (laughter) We’ll get the right guys out there.”
