Brian Flores – October 7, 2020 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores Conference Call with San Francisco Media
(You have a former Niner on your roster – RB Matt Breida. How has he been throughout this whole offseason and so far?) – “Breida’s been great. He’s obviously fast and explosive, but he’s a hard-working kid. He’s tough. He competes. We’ve been very happy with him.”
(Obviously it’s not clear if 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo is going to play on Sunday, but obviously I assume you have a bit of history. What was your relationship like with him? Just your impressions of him as a quarterback?) – “…Jimmy (Garoppolo) – my time with him was very good. You could see the talent early. You could see the leadership early. He’s just a great kid. I’m really happy for him and the success he’s had. (49ers Head Coach) Kyle (Shanahan) and (49ers General Manager John) Lynch – they’ve done a great job. (49ers Vice President of Player Personnel) Adam Peters is a great, great friend of mine, so there’s some really good people over there at that organization. They’ve built a strong roster, a very good team and this will be definitely a tough game for us.”
(I’m sure you’ve had this scenario several times in your career where you’re not sure who the opposing quarterback going to be. What’s that like for a defense? Do you just prepare for the system in that scenario? What’s it like for a defense during the week when you don’t know?) – “We watch them all and you always prepare for the system, which this is – Kyle (Shanahan) is a very innovative play caller, so there’s a lot to prepare for from that standpoint – run game, pass game, gadgets. They’ve got some explosive players in Deebo (Samuel) and (Brandon) Aiyuk and really good backs and tight ends – obviously (George) Kittle, who I think is one of if not the best tight end in the league. So a lot of good players, a good o-line and yeah, this will be a tough test. But yeah, we prepare for all of them, or try to at least.”
(Going back to 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo, what was he like as a scout team quarterback and the looks that he gave your defenses there in New England and could you tell that he wasn’t going to be a scout team quarterback too long?) – “I barely remember what happened yesterday, so we’re going back a few years, but I’ll try hard here. He was – again, like I said earlier – he was very talented. He would make throws and make you turn back and say, ‘wow, that was a good one.’ I think he played early a little bit – I forget what year it was, ’16 maybe? I remember us going out to Arizona and he played well in that game and he played well the next week. I think just watching the preseason games and practice, I think we all knew he was going to be a good player and it’s definitely turned out that way.”
(Obviously there was a report today that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has allowed you guys, if you want to, to expand your stadium capacity. There’s also a report that you guys wouldn’t be doing that. What was your reaction to that news?) – “I’m just getting that report. (laughter) I’ve been hunkered down here. We just got done with practice. I’ve been watching meetings, so I’m not really up on – look, we love having fans at the stadium. I think it’s great; but those are decisions that are above me. My focus is on this team and getting ready to go out to California and play against a very, very good 49er team, organization and we’ve just got to try to get our guys ready.”
(You mentioned a few of the things that 49ers Head Coach Kyle Shanahan does – gadgets and whatnot – what is the toughest part about facing Kyle Shanahan’s offense?) – “It’s so multiple, I would say, so you’ve got to get ready for a lot. They’re multiple within their groupings. They’re multiple getting to different groupings. Their players are multiple and Kyle (Shanahan) is – he does a good job of mixing things up and keeping defenses on their toes, so we’ve got to play a smart, disciplined game against this group. They play physical. They do a good job of protection in the pass game, so we’ve got to play an all-around good defensive game. All 11 guys have to play well; but we have to play a good team game as well, so offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. It’ll definitely be a tough test for us.”
(When people usually talk about 49ers Defensive Coordinator Robert Saleh and the 49ers defense, it’s actually usually the opposite of multiple, so how do you think they’ve performed on that side of the ball through four games this season?) – “Who’s ‘people’ are saying that they’re not multiple? Who are those people? (laughter) I would say this defense flies around as much as any defense I’ve seen. They’re fast. They’re physical. I would say they’re multiple. They may – actually, I know that they’re multiple just watching them from my standpoint and kind of how I see things defensively. What may look the same to someone doesn’t look like it’s the same thing to me. They do a lot of different things, but I would say what’s at the core is playing fast, playing with great effort, playing physical. We see that snap to snap. They’ve got really excellent players. Obviously Arik Armstead, Fred Warner. Jimmie Ward is a guy I really liked coming out. So there’s players all over the field, and I know there’s been a lot of injuries, but they’ve still got a lot of really good players and the guys who have stepped in for guys due to injury have played well. So definitely, I would call it multiple. (laughter)”
(Regarding the 49ers run game, I know it’s not novel to have a lot of pre-snap motion and kind of the window dressing they have, but as far as that goes, do they do it better than most? I guess what are the challenges with that type of stuff?) – “I think – I’ve coached against (Kyle Shanahan) in the past and he’s done this for a long time and he makes it hard. He makes it hard for you to – he forces communication, I would say really across the board on the d-line, for the linebackers, with the secondary. He forces communication. He does a really good job of it. Obviously their run game’s been in the upper echelon of the league the last couple of years – the last few years, I would say – and that’s because there are some shifts, motions and they make it hard for defenses to get aligned. They create angles very well. So I would say yeah, they’re definitely in the upper echelon. And they’ve got good backs. They’ve got good backs and good players on the offensive line. I would say (George) Kittle is one of the best blocking tight ends I’ve seen and the fullback Kyle (Juszczyk) – I don’t want to butcher his last name. I’m working on it. I don’t want to butcher it. (laughter) He’s a good player. Very good player. He does a very good job with that. Can one of you guys help me out with that? I don’t want to screw it up.”
(It’s YOOZ-check.) – “Juszczyk. Okay, thank you. Thank you. And I hope he doesn’t have any – there’s no disrespect or malice there. Just, he’s a very good player. Juszczyk. Got it.”
(You just talked about 49ers TE George Kittle and how he’s great at run blocking and so difficult to stop. How do you stop Kittle? How do you plan to stop a guy like that?) – “I don’t think you stop him. I think you just try to limit him. I think you try to give him different looks – play zone, play some man. I think when you’ve got a player like this, you’ve got to think about doubling a guy like this; but again, he’s as physical as they get. He’s explosive, but they’ve got a lot of other players so you double him; then you’ve got to deal with (Brandon) Aiyuk. You’ve got to deal with Deebo (Samuel). You’ve got to deal with (Kendrick) Bourne. You’ve got to deal with the backs. You can’t double everybody, so you’ve got to kind of pick your spots; but yeah, he’s definitely one of the best in the league.”
(Regarding QB Tua Tagovailoa, where do things stand in terms of trying to balance his development, making sure his body’s right while also understanding that eventually he’s going to need reps in games?) – “Yeah, his development is the most important thing to us. He’s doing a good job from that standpoint – learning the offense, learning how to be a professional. He’s practicing well. He’s practiced well I would say for the last – since training camp, I would say. That’s where we’re at as far as his development is concerned. When he’s ready to play, we’ll put him in there. Right now we feel like ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) gives us the best chance to go out to California, compete and try to win a ballgame. That’s kind of our thought process right now; but Tua and the rest of the rookie class, they’re all gaining experience on a week-to-week basis – Tua obviously in practice. Some of these other guys are getting some game reps. But with any rookie, there’s some patience involved here, and I think that’s the case with Tua. When his time comes, I’m sure he’ll be ready.”
(Just kind of a big picture question for you. When you got hired there, what was your vision for what you’re trying to instill? What was your vision for the organization and where are you now that you’re one season and four games into that?) – “I think our vision was to build a tough, smart, disciplined team. I think we’re definitely moving in that direction. I think we’ve improved since the time I got here; but at the same time, we’ve got a long way to go and we’re trying to get better every day and I think just from a roster standpoint, we have a lot of guys that are tough, that are smart and they love to compete. They’re team-first guys. Those are the types of guys we’re looking for. Those are the types of people we want in the building. That’s players, that’s coaches, that’s equipment, that’s medical. Those are the types of people we want in the building. I think everyone has a role. We wanted to build a culture where everyone knew that their role is important. So the janitor’s role is as important as the head coach’s role. That’s the type of building that we have here right now. I think we’re building that and we’re building towards that on a daily basis; but on the field, again, tough, smart, disciplined, guys who want to play together, play for each other. That’s kind of what we’re trying to build.”
