Brian Flores – November 19, 2020
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Thursday, November 19, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(How do you think your safety combo of S Eric Rowe and S Bobby McCain have played this year?) – “I think they’ve grown together over the course of the season. I think the communication’s gotten better week to week, not just between those two but everyone in the secondary, second level at the linebacker position, d-line, really across the board from a communication standpoint. But obviously it starts with those two at the safety position. You’re really talking to obviously each other, but the corners, the linebackers. When you get down in the front – I know Bobby’s been down there quite a bit, so has Rowe – you end up talking to some defensive ends. So their communication’s vital and both have done a good job from that standpoint. Then just as far as their play, I think it’s been solid also; but like everything else, we can get better. We’ve got to continue to try to play consistent football and we need that from them as well as everyone else on the team.”
(You’ve talked at length about your past and growing up in Brooklyn and all that and all that you had to overcome. I’m curious, how much of what your past put you through and developed you as a leader, as a person, has prepared you for a season that no one ever kind of considered possible? Certainly you need a level of mental toughness to be a coach in the NFL, but to deal with what you guys are doing now, how much did that prepare you for this moment?) – “I think right now the focus is on our team and what we’ve got going on right now. I’m not going to get into my past and the things that I’ve been through. I think we’ve all had experiences that have helped us grow and get better. Everyone deals with some form of adversity throughout the course of their lives. Some are different than others. No one’s is more important than anyone else’s, but I think we learn from them and I know for me personally, they’ve made me better and I continue to try to get better for this team, this organization. I think all of our players feel the same way. They’ve all dealt with things as well that have helped us in this type of year. I think this year in itself has been – we’re all dealing with some of adversity. How we deal with that or how we’ve dealt with that hasn’t been easy, but I think each one of has had to make some sacrifices over the course of this particular season and I think as coaches, as players, as executives and really any field, no one’s really exempt from making those sacrifices. I’m not going to get into my personal situation and I’ll leave it at that.”
(With the NFL sending out that memorandum basically saying everybody is going into the intense stage of the COVID protocol – I don’t know if that’s the right name for it – how does that change the dynamic of your preparation in terms of less meeting time or less in-person contact? How does that change the week of preparation?) – “Yeah, the entire league is going into the intensive protocol. We’ve been in it the last 10 days, two weeks; so from a scheduling standpoint, from a meeting standpoint, there’s definitely some things that are different than before we were in the intensive protocol. I want to say we’ve gotten into a little bit of a routine from that standpoint. Again, virtual meetings and less contact with the players, players having less contact with one another. Look, we’re just going to follow the lead of the league and follow the protocols. I think everyone’s trying to do what’s in the best interest of the players and give us all an opportunity to play games, which we all want. Again, the players love playing, coaches love coaching, I’m sure you guys love reporting on the teams; and I think if the league feels like this gives us the best opportunity to get all those things done, we’ll follow suit. I think Commissioner Goodell, he’s doing everything he can possibly do to help, to find a way to keep this season going. (NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations) Troy Vincent has done a good job from that standpoint, (NFL Chief Medical Officer) Dr. (Allen) Sills, (NFL Senior Labor Relations Counsel) Meghan Carroll – these are names of people you probably don’t know – (NFL Chief Football Administrative Officer) Dawn Aponte. They’re constantly on the phones, they have all the information, they’re the ones we’re going to for answers; so they’ve got to deal with all 32 teams, so I imagine their phones are ringing constantly. And they answer all the calls. They answer at all hours. They try to answer questions as best as they can. They understand just like we do that everyone’s got to be adjustable, flexible given where we’re at and I think we’ll just continue to – at the end of the day, they’re looking to keep the players and the coaches and everyone safe and healthy and try to play football.”
(I wanted to ask you about I guess your “amoeba look.” I’m not sure if that’s what you call it, correct me if it’s different. But sort of where everybody’s doing something different at the line and confusing. I heard Chargers WR Keenan Allen say that he was confused or the offense was confused after the game. It’s not the first time an opponent has said something like that after facing you guys. I guess one, how important is that confusion to the defensive scheme and two, how do you create confusion on their side without having it on your side when you run that element of your defense?) – “I think (Defensive Coordinator) Josh Boyer and our defensive staff, they do a really nice job of trying to come up with different schemes, ideas that – to answer your question – we can handle, but we also feel like will be an issue for the offense. And again, we try to promote creativity really on all three sides of the ball and an outlandish idea to some may – I try to be open to any idea from a football standpoint. If we can get it and we can execute it, we’ll give it a shot. That may be different from week to week and it should be because everyone gets the film and I’m sure people have seen what we did last week and they’ve seen what we’ve done in previous weeks and they prepare for them and try to give them something different. I think every team tries to do that, but I think our staff on all three sides – (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) obviously offensively, (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny (Crossman) in the kicking game and (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) defensively – I try to let them be as creative as they can be and not try to hold them back from anything; but obviously we’ve got to be able to execute it.”
(Have you guys determined if WR Preston Williams will be out for the rest of the season or if he’s going to return at some point? And for RB Myles Gaskin, do you expect him to return in a week or two?) – “I think both guys are doing everything they can to get healthy as quickly as they can. Again, I don’t like to put timetables on guys. A hand for you might take a day, a hand for me might take 10 days. Everyone is a little bit different and it’s hard to put a timetable on specific guys; but I can tell you that all of our players are working hard to get back as soon as they can.”
(The Florida Panthers and Brett Peterson made a little history this week. Brett Peterson being the first African-American Assistant GM in the NHL. I believe you guys knew each other back at Boston College.) – “I know Brett.”
(How happy are you for him to see him make a little history in the NFL?) – “I was looking for my Florida Panthers’ hat this morning. I couldn’t find it. Yeah, I’m excited for Brett. We went to school together. This is a smart, talented – I think they got a great hire there. (Florida Panthers President & CEO) Matt Caldwell is someone I’ve been in contact with also. I support the teams down here in South Florida. I’ve been to a couple of Panthers games. I look forward to going to a few more. They have all of my support and I’m excited in the direction they are moving.”
(I wanted to get an update on LB Kyle Van Noy. He’s an important piece for your defense. If he doesn’t play, who and how do you fill in that void in terms of guys and their ability to play so many different roles?) – “Kyle is like all of the other guys, he’s doing everything he can to get back as soon as he can. He plays a number of roles – linebacker, defense end, he’s inside, he’s outside, rusher, in coverage. It’s almost you’ve got to get a couple of guys to say ‘hey, you’re Kyle on this play. You’ll play Kyle’s role on this play.’ It’s by committee. We’ve got a few guys – a number of guys – whether it’s Kamu (Grugier-Hill), whether it’s (Andrew Van) Ginkel, whether it’s (Sam) Eguavoen. We have a few different guys who can fill those roles in practice; and hopefully not, but if we had to go that route in the game, I think our guys are ready to step up if that’s the situation. Kyle’s going to do everything he can to get ready to play. It’s important to him. Hopefully we get him back, but it’s the National Football League. Nicks and bruises happen everywhere. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our players and we’re not going to put anybody in a situation where they could do any further harm.”
