Brian Flores – November 6, 2019
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Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(You have a decision due today on CB Cordrea Tankersley. Will he play this season and will any of your IR guys begin practicing today other than T Julién Davenport, who is already practicing?) – “We’ll make the decision on ‘Tank’ today. We’re going to get out there and practice. We’ve talked about it. We’ll take another look and make that decision this afternoon.”
(Any IR guys – LB Andrew Van Ginkel, DE Jonathan Ledbetter, anyone – resuming practice?) – “Not just yet. Right now it’s just Julién and the group we’ve had out there. I’m looking forward to seeing Julién in pads for the first time in a little while. It’ll be good.”
(What do you remember about RB Patrick Laird as a ball-carrier from the preseason, what he’s shown you and then in training camp?) – “Good vision. He sees the hole and hits it, north and south and gets vertical. (He has) good ball security. I think he’s a good, young back. He can break some tackles. He’s very capable, a good blocker, good hands out of the backfield. I think he does a lot of things well. We’ll see if he gets an opportunity this week.”
(You guys lost your top two backs for different reasons in the last week and a half. What gives you confidence that the group you have here is going to be enough?) – “I feel good about the young guys we have and (Kalen) Ballage, obviously – Ballage, (Patrick) Laird and (Myles) Gaskin. I think they’ve all shown that they are capable in games in the preseason or in practice. Those two young guys really have shown up and I’ve seen a lot of development there. I’m looking forward to them getting an opportunity and we’ll see if they can take advantage.”
(The decision to add a returner in CB Marcus Sherels, what did you guys think of him and what does that mean as far as WR Jakeem Grant and whether or not he’s still the top guy in the return game?) – “I think the return game and special teams in general are very important. We just felt like we needed another set of hands out there in an ‘in-case’ situation. If somebody goes down, you need somebody to go back there. I think that’s kind of the case with Sherels. This is a good player who has been productive in this league for a long time. I spent some time with him yesterday. (He’s) an impressive young man. We need depth. You’ve got to have several guys who can go back there and catch a punt and catch a kickoff. It’s a big play in the game. You see many of them every week. You get a muff or a dropped punt or a dropped kickoff; I think that ball security back there is very important. That’s part of the decision.”
(You were around Colts QB Jacoby Brissett for a minute or two in New England. What was your takeaway of him?) – “Leader. That’s the first kind of thing from my standpoint that you could see right off the bat. Guys gravitate to him. That’s the one thing that’s stood out to me. I really like Jacoby. I think – not I think, but when I was there – we had some injuries where he had to start a game early and I thought he went in and did a really good job. You could see the leadership and you could see the ability to handle the offense and operate an offense at a young age. He’s got a lot of the QB qualities you are looking for from an operation, leadership, guys rally around him – he’s got a lot of those qualities. I’m not surprised that he’s gone in there and done a really nice job for them.”
(We’ve had half a season now with the pass interference reviews. What have you seen on that? Does it make you more or less likely to challenge those calls?) – “Well, we had one last week. We had one earlier in the year. I think if we feel like there’s a situation where there’s a potential OPI (offensive pass interference) or DPI (defensive pass interference) and we can get one overturned, we’ll throw the flag. I think it’s based on the situation in the game. Whether or not it gets overturned or not, we’ve seen it go both ways. I’ve watched them all. I’ve watched every one. Anyone who has thrown a flag to pick up an OPI or put down a flag, I’ve watched every one of them. So I have a pretty good feel for what’s going to get overturned and what isn’t. I think everyone in the league kind of has their own different opinions. Like last week, we felt like we had an opportunity. It didn’t go our way but that’s like anything else in football. You win some, you lose some and you move on. You can’t cry over spilled milk .That’s kind of our approach.”
(The idea was to correct the most egregious mistakes, is that where you see it going? Kind of find that sweet spot?) – “At the end of the day, my opinion on that is whatever they call, they call. Whether you can put down a flag or challenge this or challenge that, at the end of the day, you get a call and either you’re happy with it or you’re not. One way or the other, you have to move on to the next play. That’s kind of my approach. I asked the players to move on to the next play, so I need to do the same thing whether it’s successful or not. I don’t really have an opinion on it. I just – if it works in our favor, great. If it doesn’t, we move on. We move on either way.”
(It’s been a while since we’ve seen S Reshad Jones. How has he been dealing with all that’s going on?) – “He’s getting closer, a lot closer. We’ll see. He’s got a chance this week. He’s doing everything he can to get back out there. We had him for a little bit at practice last week and hopefully we’ll see a little bit more of him. It’s still early in the week, so no decisions have been made yet. Hopefully we get him back out there. We could use him, that’s for sure.”
(I know the Colts went to Kansas City this year and did a good job against QB Patrick Mahomes. What about their defense stands out to you?) – “They play hard, they play together and they’ve got good players. They’ve got a lot of good players, it’s a good scheme and they play good team defense. From (Justin) Houston to (Jabaal) Sheard, obviously (Darius) Leonard – Kenny Moore is probably one of the most underrated corners in the league – Rock Ya-Sin the young guy they got back there. They have some good young players and they play together. It’s a good team defense, good coaching. (Defensive Coordinator Matt) Eberflus is a very good coach. They do a good job and they’ve done a good job over the last couple of years. Run game, pass game, pressure on the quarterback, negative plays, turnovers, they do a good job.”
(What did you want to see out of DT Robert Nkemdiche that you weren’t seeing?) – “I like Robert Nkemdiche. He’s a hard-working kid. It just wasn’t – we needed to make a change on the roster. It just didn’t work out. He worked hard. I know there are things floating around about his behavior and those aren’t true. He was a good kid and I liked him a lot. I wish him the best.”
(Back in July or August, we saw RB Kalen Ballage showing some signs. Then the regular season comes along, he’s had 35 carries and his average is 2.0. What needs to happen to get that average up to where you’d like to see it?) – “I think there is a lot that goes into that. I think we’ve got to block better. I think we – he’s got to run better, we’ve got to block better. There’s a slew of things we could – really at the end of the day, he’s got to run better and we’ve got to block better. I think Kalen is big, fast, explosive. I think he had a really good preseason and I think he’s going to have an opportunity to get more carries and hopefully he takes advantage of it.”
(When it comes to guys turning that proverbial corner – really I’m talking about TE Mike Gesicki, and WR DeVante Parker – do you take everything into account since April, and can you look at it now and say, ‘yeah they are about to turn a corner?’ Or do you also need to include a full 16-game sample size?) – “My first thought was, have they turned a corner? And I think for most players, I want them to feel like they never turned the corner and continue to build, improve and get better, and have that fire to feel as though you never actually turned the corner. I feel like that’s when you think that you’ve arrived and no one on this team has arrived yet. Yes, I would say that those guys have worked extremely hard since April to OTAs to training camp, and you see the steady improvement. You see the confidence building. You see production on the field and that’s really what you’re looking for – that exact process. Hopefully they continue to believe in that process. We’ll come out here today, have a good practice, have a good practice Thursday, have a good practice Friday and that will hopefully lead to production in the game. From a process standpoint, hopefully we’ve turned a corner and if they believe in that, I think the production will continue.”
(Your team is 32nd in rush average, 30th in rush yards per game and you just got your starter suspended. How do you – given those things – improve this run game to where it’s productive for you?) – “Well we’ve got four periods of run. We’ll be working the run game today. That’s really the only thing you can do. You can talk about numbers, you can talk about stats, you can talk about this or that. At the end of the day, we’ve got to go out there and practice it better, execute it better, and that’s the only way I know to get it better. I hear the stats. I know what they are; but we still have to go out there and try to string some good runs together from an o-line standpoint, from a play call standpoint, from a running the football standpoint. We’re just going to work at it and hopefully it improves.”
(RB Kalen Ballage has to be better?) – “We all have to be better. I have to be better, the backs have to be better, the quarterbacks have to be better, from a ball-handling standpoint to checking into the right run to the o-line has to block it better, to finishing our blocks, to the receivers finishing their blocks. Everybody is involved. We can’t put it on one person. If we want to put it on the backs, I think we shouldn’t do that. I think everyone is involved in the run game – backs, tight ends, receivers. I can pull up 20 runs right here today where if a receiver makes a block, it’s a much longer run and that average jumps a little bit. Everyone is involved, myself included. I’m not going to put it on one person. Don’t worry, we’re going to practice the heck out of it today.”
