Brian Flores – April 18, 2019
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Thursday, April 18, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Are you a practice in the rain guy or a like being indoors guy?) – “We play in the rain, right? I think you have to practice in the elements that you may play in. Unless it’s lightning, obviously, or a monsoon or something like that. I think it’s good. You work on your footwork, work on throwing the ball in the rain, work on catching the ball in the rain, work on playing in those elements. I think it’s good to practice in.”
(Is there a sense of excitement as you go through this voluntary minicamp leading up to the draft?) – “Oh yeah. Anything that involves being on the field, coaching, helping guys improve, that’s exciting to me. It’s a passion. I’m passionate about coaching. I’m passionate about the game. I’m passionate about teaching. I’m passionate about helping people improve. This is great. The draft process, that’s exciting as well to add players to the team, add young players coming from college who are young and driven, like all the guys we have here – everyone that’s here is driven. We’re excited about that.”
(What’s one thing that’s impressed you the first couple days, what you’ve seen?) – “I think guys are in decent shape. Guys are giving great effort. Guys are really working hard to learn the information and they’re really focused on improving on their techniques, which is what this is about. It’s a teaching camp, like we talked about the other day. We’ve tried to harp on that as a staff: let’s focus on improving on your individual techniques and learn the basic information of our offense, defense and special teams.”
(The schedule came out last night. I know we’re supposed to take it one game at a time, but I’m going to ask you about Week 2. As you know, you’re playing the New England Patriots that week. What’s that going to be like for you to look across the field, see those guys, see Head Coach Bill Belichick on the other sideline?) – “My first thought is I’m going to try to get through today. (laughter) But yeah, the schedule came out. Obviously, we’ve got the preseason schedule, starting with Atlanta to Tampa. We’ve got New England Week 2. Obviously, I know a lot of people on that team and (in) that organization. I had a great run there, but I’m in Miami now. We’re building a team here and that’s where my focus is. When we get to that, we’ll prepare and get ready to play them when the time comes.”
(Have there been many things over the first couple of months that you were truly surprised is on your head-coaching plate and how important is it for you to delegate in the course of your job?) – “Delegating is very important in this job. There’s a lot on the plate. As far as there being things that I’m surprised about, not really. I’ve had a lot of conversations with a lot of head coaches in this league. What a lot of them said was there’s going to be something across your desk every day. You have to be ready to deal with that. That was my approach coming in. Being adaptable is something that’s a mantra of mine and our team. Adapt or die is what I say a lot of the times. Delegating is definitely a part of that. I think when you’re in a leadership position, part of that is allowing other people to lead as well. I feel like that’s something I try to do well. Obviously, I can get better. Every day, it’s new, it’s all new, it’s all a process. There are some things that (I say), ‘Next time I’ll do that a little bit better.’ I think we all deal with things like that. The process has been good so far.”
(Do you have a go-to assistant, somebody that you’d like to be a right-hand man, so to speak, out of your group of assistant coaches?) – “We have a great staff, so pick any of the 20 guys. They’re all my right-hand men. We work well together. I tried to put a staff together that embodies the things that I want our team to reflect. I want them to be tough, I want them to be smart, I want them to work well together. We have a group that does that. They’re great teachers. We talk about technique and fundamentals. I harp to the players that these guys that are coaching you, they know what they’re talking about. So listen, try to improve and you’ll get better.”
(How has this experience the past two months – you said it’s been a whirlwind. A personal question, how has your mother passing kind of affected that or how have you dealt with that?) – “That was obviously hard. She’s someone I think about on a daily basis. I wish she was here to kind of enjoy this with us, but she’s with me all of the time. I would say she wouldn’t want me to kind of dwell or be upset. She would want me to have peace. I’m sad, I’m unhappy, I miss her; but I have peace in knowing that I did everything I could to make her proud, as well as my brothers. They did the same thing. We all have peace with that.”
(I don’t know if you have heard this from the national media, whether it be national or local, but a lot of the things I keep hearing is that you’re going to do it, in some ways, a different way. How important is it to establish your own identity with this team?) – “Call it what you want. I’m going to try to get our team to work hard, play together, play with good fundamentals and technique, play as a team, try to put the team first. You have to try to get 11 guys to play together and that’s a hard thing to accomplish as a coach. That’s my goal. You can call it whatever you want. You can call it ‘Patriot way,’ but to me, it’s just trying to coach and play good football.”
(We’ve seen QB Ryan Fitzpatrick play football in a regular game even. We haven’t seen QB Jake Rudock or QB Luke Falk do that in the NFL or even in the practice ring. How have they looked the last two days in practice?) – “Jake and Luke, just like everyone else, they’re working hard. They are doing everything possible to try to improve their techniques, their fundamentals – footwork, throwing the football, ball-handling – all of the really fundamental things. They’re working hard. They’re doing a good job. Really, all three quarterbacks. We’re excited to see what they can do moving forward.”
(When you and your staff watched film on TE Mike Gesicki and what he did as a rookie, what, if anything, gave you guys encouragement, things you can build on, potential strengths from Mike?) – “Mike’s a good young player. (He’s) talented. Like everyone else on this team, there’s places where he can improve, get better (and) develop. As a young player, there’s a lot of room for development I would say, and really as an older player as well. Mike’s working hard. We see what everyone else sees. He has size, he has speed, he can catch the ball. There’s things that everyone can work on. He’s working on those things and he’s done a good job these last couple of days.”
(We spoke with General Manager Chris Grier yesterday about the draft and he has the last word. How much of an influence do you have in the draft, specifically the first round, and how much influence do you want in that process?) – “I know Chris and I, we definitely work well together. He and I both kind of – I don’t want to say speak the same language – but when we say collaborative effort, I think we both really mean that. When I say that, I mean that as a coach with my coaching staff. When he says it, he means that with his personnel staff. When we come together, it’s the same. With the draft coming up, obviously we’re going to make some selections, we’re going to make some decisions. I think the both of us have had and we will have discussions about players, situations, scenarios and we’ll make a decision together that we think is best for the Miami Dolphins.”
(When it comes to evaluating college players, what is the most important thing? Is it production on tape? What is the most important thing to you?) – “I think it’s a combination of things – production, height, weight, speed, intangibles, fit. There’s a myriad of things there so to say there’s just one thing that’s important, they’re all important. Is one more important than the other? I would say no. It’s the total fit of the player and really how we feel like they fit with our team.”
(When you sit with them in interviews either here or at the Combine, what do you try to get out of them? What’s the most important thing for you to know?) – “You try to get to know the person. I think that’s a big part of this. I think a lot of times people see players as just players but you want to know about their mom, their dad, an important person in their life, what kind of adversity they’ve faced before. You’re trying to get to know the person. And does that person fit your style as a coach? Do they fit your locker room? Do they fit the culture you’re trying to build as each individual team and obviously our team? When you sit down with a player or really when you sit down with anyone, you’re just trying to get to know them.”
(When you have a meeting at 10:45, do you expect everybody to be there at 10:40?) – “I was taught at an early age that early is on time, on time is late and late is forgotten. I was taught that in high school (by my coach) Dino Mangiero at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, New York. That’s kind of been something that’s been ingrained in me. Is it a rule? No. It’s my personal mantra and I feel like I have a lot of respect for time. I really do. I think it’s precious. I think we shouldn’t take it for granted. I think if you want to stay on schedule, you have to stay on time, so (those are) some of my core beliefs.”
(Do you lay out the day? I mean, most coaches do but do you lay out the day minute by minute or hour by hour?) – “We have a schedule. It’s laid out pretty well. (laughter)”
(Along those lines, I know coaches like to have everything scheduled out. How have you found your time when you’re on the practice field and where to go? Do you schedule that out or do you think sometimes you need more time over here as a head coach?) – “Yeah, we like to schedule things but in this game, you have to be able to adapt. When I’m out on the field, it’s more of a feel thing. I spend time with the quarterbacks, I spend time with the offensive line, I spend time with the defensive line, I spend time with the safeties, I go watch the punter walk his lines. You have to do a little bit of everything. That’s more of a feel thing.”
(There’s so much talk about hybrid defense and multiple schemes and adaptability but now when you’re putting together your draft board and players fit three schemes or four schemes … When you want to play both, do you have to have a player that plays both or do you specifically target players that say this guy fits this scheme and this guy fits that scheme? Or do you need players that can fit both schemes?) – “We need good players. (laughter) I mean, that’s really what it boils down to. I think as a coach, when you get a good player, (you find out) what does he do well and you try to do that. I think that’s the good thing about having a versatile scheme is it fits the player. I think to answer your question, you try to get the best player and I’d like to think that myself and our staff, we can fit whatever we’re going to do around the skills of that player. Or I shouldn’t even say that player because there are 11 players on the field and you have to fit the group. Some guys are going to have a better fit than some others but you have to put the whole thing together. That’s the beauty of the game. That’s what I love to do. I enjoy doing it. But yeah, (we want) good players. That’s what we’re looking for. (laughter)”
(What’s your thinking on the back-to-back games in The Meadowlands? Do you stay up there and come back and go back to New York again? Is that something the Dolphins requested is to have them back to back?) – “That’s so far down the line. I’m going to go ahead and say that we had a brief conversation about it but nothing has been set in stone yet. When it is, I’ll let you know.”
(From watching tape when they were in college and over the last couple of months, if you could speak both on LB Raekwon McMillan and then LB Jerome Baker on the things you liked about each of their skillsets.) – “Raekwon is big, fast and physical. This is not on film but (he has) good leadership (and is) smart. (He) can play a few different positions. (He’s a) good young player. Jerome is another skilled player. (He’s) fast (and) a good tackler. Raekwon is a good tackler as well. (Baker) is smart. He can do a few different things. (He) can cover, which obviously in this league with it going in the passing direction, you want that out of a linebacker. Both (are) good young players. We’re happy to have them both.”
