Brian Flores – December 4, 2020
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Friday, December 4, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Will QB Tua Tagovailoa play Sunday and can you please address the status of the four running backs who have either been injured, or in the case of RB Matt Breida, not spotted by reporters today?) – “Similar to last week, we’ll review the film and talk as a staff about the quarterback situation. As far as the backs, DeAndre Washington will be doubtful. He’ll be listed as doubtful. (Salvon) Ahmed will be listed as doubtful. We’ve got to talk as a staff and I’ll talk to (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and the personnel department – Chris, (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore), (Assistant General Manager) Mavin (Allen) and talk about Myles (Gaskin) and whether he’s ready to come up or not. And then (Matt) Breida – Breida is dealing with an illness and we’ll try to update that one as soon as we can.”
(With QB Tua Tagovailoa, when you watched him this week, did you see the thumb impacting throws, velocity, accuracy, things of that nature? And will that be a factor in the decision that you make?) – “Again, any time you’re dealing with something that’s bothering you, there is some impact on all those things you mentioned – accuracy and velocity. Obviously any time you have an issue on the hand, there’s some impact. So yeah, obviously that’s part of the evaluation and we’ll go through it as a staff. We’ve gone through it really throughout the entire week and both guys were quarterbacks in practice, so we’ve got to make a decision and we’ll make a decision here pretty soon.”
(I’m wondering if I’m maybe just looking a little bit too much into this, but I noticed QB Ryan Fitzpatrick wearing a mask actually outside during practice this week. I was wondering if that by design you guys wanted to have at least one QB always in a mask just to avoid a situation like what happened in Denver where they weren’t wearing masks and then none of the QBs could play?) – “That’s part of the new intensive protocol, so if you don’t have a helmet on, you need to have a mask on. That’s really kind of the case with everyone and we try to encourage the mask wearing as much as possible and that’s at all positions, not necessarily just the quarterback position. Everyone’s health is important, I think you may have spotted Ryan (Fitzpatrick), but I’m not sure – you probably saw multiple guys wear masks or maybe you didn’t, but we try to encourage most everyone wearing them if they don’t have the helmet on. And obviously the helmet has a visor that protects them. We’ve encouraged all the players to, if they’re not wearing helmets, to try to wear a mask.”
(We talked to a few of the guys this week about QB Tua Tagovailoa and how he looked at practice and one of them said that he looked great and sort of similar to what he did before. I’m curious, do you talk to the players about what they view in sort of the passes or is that just a strictly you and the medical staff and Tagovailoa who make that sort of decision?) – “It’s myself, obviously our medical team, the coaches. I don’t know what kind of evaluation eye these guys have, as you’re talking to these players. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it, in their scouting prowess. That’s just me, but we’ll go through it and we’ll make the best decision for the team like we always do.”
(How much concern is there, if any, that RB Matt Breida’s illness might be COVID-related?) – “Again, I don’t get into people’s medical situation. I never have. Again like I said, we’ll try to update you as soon as we can on status and things of that nature. But again, player, coach; I think I’ve been pretty consistent from that standpoint. It’s an illness and you’ll get that information as soon as we put it out.”
(I wanted to ask you about the offensive line. Obviously G Solomon Kindley came back and wanted to know what his status is for this game, but also are you beginning to gain a comfort level with what you’re seeing from the offensive line, or if not, what do you want to see?) – “There’s always things we can improve on at every position – o-line, d-line, running backs, linebackers, receivers, DBs. Specific to Solomon (Kindley), he’ll be – we’ve got him as, yeah, he was limited – I figured it would be questionable. So he’s questionable. He was limited this week and did some things. Definitely trending in the right direction, but as far as the group as a whole, like always, we’ll play the top five guys and the guys who we feel give us the best combination of players, I would say. But yeah, we can improve on the o-line, but we can improve in really all areas; so offense, defense, special teams, coaching. We’ll try to do that against a tough opponent in Cincinnati. They’re really good in the kicking game. They present some issues defensively, specifically on third down with their different looks and offensively, this is – I would say the strength of this team is these receivers. A.J. Green and Tee Higgins and (Tyler) Boyd. (Drew) Sample – the tight end – is a pretty good player, too. And Gio Bernard. He’s a problem, too.”
(Regarding the starting quarterback, is your plan to choose a starting quarterback later today or is there a chance you want to see this kid throw on Saturday or even Sunday before finalizing the decision?) – “We’ll make a decision probably here in the next hour, right when I’m done with media. (laughter) Right when I’m done with media. Next time you guys see me, it will be postgame and you’ll have the information by then. (laughter)”
