Robby Brown – August 20, 2020
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Thursday, August 20, 2020
Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown
(I find the personality dynamic in that quarterback room pretty intriguing and my question here is sort of two-pronged. One, how are those personalities meshing and do you find yourself not just teaching but also kind of learning from the cerebral guys you have in that room there in QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and QB Josh Rosen and QB Tua Tagovailoa?) – “The room does have a lot of personality. It’s fun to be in. Most quarterback rooms you go into, you’ve got to be on your toes because they’re witty. You’ve got to know what you’re saying, be ready for all kinds of comments and things like that; so it’s a lot of fun being in there and being around them. It’s fun watching them interact together, learn from each other and yeah, obviously you’re going to learn something from every single guy – how they see things, how they process things; so it has been a good time learning, seeing, teaching all three of those guys.”
(That was me asking about the wealth of experience and all those years that Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey and Offensive Line Coach Steve Marshall have.) – “’Wealth of experience.’ Well, I’ve been around both of them for a while, so I’ll make sure and use those terms. (laughter)”
(You were not even born when Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey started to coach in college. What is it about him that you have seen that just keeps him going to be around young people and to keep coaching? What have you seen?) – “First of all, he’s always – kind of playing off the last question – he’s always trying to learn. He’s always thinking through things for you. When I haven’t been with him, I would text him with questions and just the way he thinks through the game, the way he thinks through people; he understands how people operate, he understands the game. So I would say that that’s the biggest thing, is just how he processes that information and meshes it together is pretty special, ever since I’ve known him, to be honest.”
(I heard that the NFL is considering allowing artificial crowd noise to be pumped in to kind of create the advantage for the defense when it’s in their stadium. In your experience, what’s the relevance of noise?) – “There’s a lot of different things that you practice and try to do to, I guess, eliminate that. You can never really eliminate that, I guess, as a factor in the game; so if it is loud, you have to be ready to communicate, get the message to everybody, you have to be able to make sure that everybody knows what they’re doing and what we’re doing. It could be an issue, but I don’t know exactly how that’s going to work yet. Hopefully they won’t turn it up too loud when we’ve got the ball. (laughter)”
(Yesterday, QB Tua Tagovailoa escaped the pocket, got outside and then decided to end the play with kind of a half-slide, half-kneel type of thing and it looked bad. It really looked bad. So are you guys working with him on sliding and I guess that includes, ‘Dude, don’t get hit. Slide’?) – “It’s not just Tua. That’s a learning situation for everybody. I obviously remember the play. If you were out there, you saw it. That’s a learning situation for everybody. It’s not just him. Obviously he’s the one that did it. Had it been ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) or Josh (Rosen), we would have done the same thing; but you’re always talking about pocket presence, knowing when to throw it away, when to give up, when to get down, and it’s a feel thing. You’ve got a guy that’s a however-many-year vet ‘Fitz’ is. He talks through that. Josh talks through it. Tua talks through what he sees. (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) talks through what he sees in the meeting. But that’s always a process and it’s more about when to give up, when to throw it away. It’s not just Tua. Every quarterback lives through that. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are in the process. That’s always a decision and you’re a competitor, so it’s always a decision of what to do and when to do it.”
(Like you mentioned there you’ve got three guys in that room with different experience levels. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has been forever and two are younger guys. At some point obviously Head Coach Brian Flores is going to name a starter. How do you plan, I guess, to divvy up the difference between the present while still developing maybe the other two guys as the season goes on?) – “I would say the good thing in my position right now – in my point in my career – is that’s more of a decision that (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) and (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores have to make. My job, at this point in my career, is to kind of go out there and when they say ‘this guy’s going here,’ is to try to help them and get them better and help the other two – whoever that is – learn from what that guy is doing; so I would say I’m going to coach all three of them just like they’re going to go in the very next play, and let Chan and ‘Flo’ make that decision of how those are divvied up.”
(The last time we talked to you, you said that you hadn’t really see QB Tua Tagovailoa throw in kind of like a practice-type atmosphere. Now that several are in, what do you think how the ball is coming out and just also just his movement and everything of the like?) – “I did say that and I think that after seeing him go through practices – and I know I keep saying this, but it’s true for the other two guys as well – you see some good, you see some throws that they wished they could do better. And that’s the way practice is, and that’s the way games are. Every NFL quarterback is extremely competitive; so if they’re 59-of-60, they’re worried about that one. It doesn’t matter if it’s Josh (Rosen) or ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) or Tua (Tagovailoa) or whoever it is; but I’ll tell you, it’s just been fun to get out there and be on the grass and see all three of them throw – to see a practice go. I’m sure it’s been fun for you guys as well, but we’ve just got to try to get better each and every day, and all three of them, in every aspect, whether it be calls and throws, footwork, everything. Just trying to improve every single day.”
(Not much has been said or talked about in regards to QB Josh Rosen. From our untrained eye, it seems like his throwing motion has tightened a little bit. What have you seen from Rosen’s development? Obviously you weren’t here last year but what have you seen from him ability-wise?) – “I would say, for me, that he has come in mentally, really trying to learn the offense, understand the offense and just like the other two guys, he’s made some good throws the past few days. He’s made some not-so-great throws the past few days, but his effort to improve every day has been really good – improve mentally, improve his throws, improve his footwork. He’s always thinking through those kind of things and I think really, the mantra that ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) has put out – ‘hey, let’s go out there and get better today.’ I think he (Josh Rosen) is really trying to do that and living by that rule.”
