Brian Flores – November 4, 2020
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Wednesday, November 4, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to have you take us through the thinking on the two trades yesterday – trading WR Isaiah Ford away and obviously picking up the running back from Kansas City – the thinking behind that and is that a sign that RB Myles Gaskin is actually going to be out for a while?) – “I would just – like every trade or transaction – we’re just making adjustments to the roster that we think are going to help or be in the best interest of the team now moving forward. I have a lot of respect and admiration for Isaiah Ford. I think he’s a kid who worked extremely hard, made a lot of plays for us. As far as his work ethic and just team-oriented, put the team first, just great attitude; I just really enjoyed working with him, but at the end of the day we felt like the best thing for us was to make that particular trade. Myles (Gaskin) – yeah, Myles is dinged up a little bit. We’ll see. He’s a tough kid. He’s a competitive kid. We’ll see where this goes here, but we felt like we wanted to add some depth there at the running back position. DeAndre (Washington) is a good player. We had an opportunity to get one and tried to take advantage of it.”
(Does WR Antonio Callaway coming back from the suspension impact your thinking at all with that receiving corps and what are you hopeful that he will bring to your receiving unit?) – “I’ve yet to see him even in a helmet, so I don’t know if it impacted anything as far as – literally I haven’t seen him with cleats on – so I don’t think that that really had much of an impact on it. Those conversations as far as what it exactly was, those are just going to remain internal; but I can say Callaway as far as – look, we’ve got the film from two years ago, but things happen. A lot of things change in two years. I haven’t seen him with a helmet on, so that wasn’t much of a factor I would say.”
(DT Christian Wilkins showed off his great hands again Sunday and then was talking again afterwards, lobbying for some opportunities as a pass catchers. What do you think and how does his athleticism, kind of unique athleticism play into what he can do at the position that he does play?) – “Well that’s going to be a hard no. A hard no on the pass-catching opportunities. Hard no. We’ve got other guys we would like to rather see with the ball than Christian. I’m sorry, I was so focused on that that I didn’t get the second part of your question. (laughter)”
(What does his kind of distinctive athleticism – how does that play into what he can do at the position that he does play?) – “(laughter) Yes, he’s got some athleticism as a defensive tackle, and we try to use him in a variety of ways – stunts, games in the pass rush – but he does a good job really in all areas. He’s somebody who’s improved I would say from Year 1 to Year 2. It’s important to him and he’s got leadership and energy, and he does a lot of good things and he brings a lot to our team. He’s been fun to coach, but I don’t really see a pass-catching future for him.”
(I wanted to ask you about speed on offense. You’ve got some fast guys and I’m wondering if RB Matt Breida, WR Lynn Bowden Jr., WR Antonio Callaway eventually – they’re all fast guys – what impact do you think adding some speed into the group on offense could have for the team?) – “Speed is hard to deal with defensively and in the kicking game, so any time you can add that element, it forces defenses to deal with that. The worst thing that could happen is you allow that speed to create a big play defensively and then obviously offensively, you want to create big plays. You could use that type of speed to your advantage. We’ve got some guys who can run; but again, there’s a lot more that goes into playing the receiver position than just speed – blocking, route-running, catching the football and getting open. There’s a lot of fast defensive backs as well; so again, we need 11 guys to be on the same page. The quarterback’s got to throw a good ball, the offensive line’s got to block, the receivers have got to get open; but speed never hurts.”
(I guess to my untrained eye, the Cardinals defense and what Cardinals Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph does with them than what the Rams do schematically. How do you prepare QB Tua Tagovailoa I guess for this sort of defense and maybe more of the exotic stuff they may throw at him?) – “Vance (Joseph) does a very nice job over there. Kliff (Kingsbury) does – they’ve got good coaches over there. They do a good job really offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. It’s a good team. Just kind of watching the film and watching what they do defensively; yeah, there’s a lot of looks. I’m sure he’s over there cooking something up that we haven’t already seen on film as well; so at the end of the day with the exotics, it’s about following the rules and playing with good technique and fundamental because oftentimes, it looks like it’s a game plan – it’s a game plan rush, a game plan scheme – and he does a good job from that standpoint. A really nice job – create some confusion. We’re going to have to do a good job of like I said, following our rules, reading our keys. Really, they do that in all three phases – offense, defense and special teams. It’s a good ball club with some really good players.”
(I wanted to ask you about Cardinals Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury. Obviously you guys are two young coaches starting to see the fruits of your labor here in Year 2. What do you think about the job he’s done and I wanted to ask you – did you guys run into each other when you first got to New England and I guess he was probably in his last year there?) – “Yeah, I know Kliff. I’ve known Kliff for a long time. Like you said, (he’s a) very good coach. Innovative, smart, really good leader. (I have) a lot of respect for him and what they’ve done over there in Arizona. To include Steve Keim and Mike Bidwell – they’ve all done a nice job there. This is going to be a tough game for us. They’re well-coached. They’ve got good players. We’re going out to Arizona. Winning on the road is hard. I think they’re going to have some fans there as well, so this will be a tough test for us; but it starts with Kliff and kind of the leadership in that organization. I think they’ve done a really nice job and we’re going to have to play well against this opponent.”
(Earlier you mentioned that you’re not sure what you have in WR Antonio Callaway which is certainly understandable since he hasn’t practiced. But given that you lost WR Isaiah Ford, who are you looking to to fill some of that void at that position? I don’t know whether RB/WR Malcolm Perry continues to see his workload increase or WR Lynn Bowden Jr. or where you go? I know they’re different type receivers, but who are you looking to now that Isaiah is no longer in the picture?) – “You mentioned there’s only a handful of guys that we could go to, so Jakeem Grant, Malcolm Perry like you mentioned, Lynn Bowden, Mack Hollins has been in there and done a nice job in practice over the last few weeks. I think we’ve got some options, to include some of the guys we have on practice squad, but I do think we have some options. It’s a competitive group, so guys see potentially an opportunity there and I think we’ll see how it goes in practice. They’ll all get an opportunity to be at practice and that’ll go a long way to seeing who plays or gets a significant amount of snaps at that position.”
(WR Jakeem Grant – before we got on the call – was just named AFC Special Teams Player of the Week and I was just looking at some numbers and he’s one yard short on punt returns in terms of tying his career high. Could you just speak on when he’s able to really turn up like that, what that does for your team in terms of putting your team in good field position?) – “We talk about field position really on a weekly basis – how important that is. I think Jakeem’s done a really – he’s worked extremely hard really in all areas of his game as a receiver, as a returner. You can kind of see some of that starting to manifest itself on the field. We all know he’s an explosive player, but I’m proud of the way he’s worked and kind of seen some of that, but we need to continue. I think he knows that. He’s in here continuing to work and watching the film on the punters and the kickers and their walkoffs and any kind of tell he can get so he can get a better read on the ball and put himself in a position to get himself going. And then our team, especially in the kicking unit – let’s call it the return units – they understand that if we block, if we finish off blocks, we’ve got a chance to create big plays. That’s always good. He’s done a nice job. I’m happy he won that award, but at the same time, I know his focus is on Arizona.”
(I wanted to ask you – you guys are second to last when it comes to rushing. Now you lose RB Myles Gaskin. What is the challenge that this unit faces this week and how do you motivate these guys – I know you probably don’t need to motivate them – to step up and address the call?) – “Yeah, it’s a big challenge this week. Arizona’s got a good front, good d-linemen in there. (Corey) Peters is a hard guy to move. Angelo Blackson’s a hard guy to move. They’ve got good players in there, so we’ve got to do a good job up front like we talk about every week. It’s not just the running back. It’s the offensive line, it’s the tight ends, it’s the receivers. As a whole, we’ve got to execute the game plan and find the running lanes and pick up good yardage and try to be efficient in the run game and really efficient offensively. So moving the chain, picking up first downs, converting on third down, punching it in in the red zone. The run game is going to be a part of that and field position is going to be a part of that, so we’ll just continue to work at it and hopefully improve.”
