Chris Grier – April 21, 2021
Download PDF version
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
General Manager Chris Grier
(Opening Statement) – “I appreciate everyone coming on this morning, but I thought there was something we really need to talk about before we get started, obviously with the George Floyd verdict last night. You guys know me and I’m not a prepared statement type of person and doing stuff, but I just think it’s important for me to organize my thoughts, and I wanted to put them down after the last few hours and like everyone kind of dealing with what transpired yesterday. Yesterday’s verdict was a very emotional day for me. For me as an African American, there was a sense of relief and sadness. George Floyd was senselessly taken from family and friends. His story was one of many that have taken place in our communities over the years. It’s 2021 and yet, people of color are still asking for equality and justice. The jury in Minnesota served notice that police brutality is unacceptable, and people will be held accountable for their actions. We as a people should all be touched by the raw emotions of joy and relief by the verdict. The justice system worked for people of color yesterday; however, we cannot forget that a life was lost. I am proud of the work our organization has done in the South Florida community over the years led by Steve Ross, Tom Garfinkel and Brian Flores. Our players are actively out in the community trying to make a real difference. There’s a lot of work to still be done in terms of reform and equality. We will continue to do more and ask others to do so as well, across the NFL. We have the opportunity to make things better for everyone in our country. There are a lot of good people that want to make a difference. It’s encouraging to hear and see the number of white people and big companies willing to be uncomfortable and speak out against systematic racism. There are a lot of good law enforcement officials who want change for the better. These are good men, women, who uphold their oaths. We need to support them as well. We have made tremendous advancements in our way of life, except for dealing with race. It’s not just (Black) people being affected. Look at what’s happening with all the hate being directed towards the Asian community right now. I am hopeful, but not naïve to think that this verdict will change things. Politics and rhetoric have created a great divide in our country. We as an organization believe in bringing people together and valuing all human life, and I hope our country can move towards that, too.”
(Before I ask you a football-related question I have, if I could follow up with your comments, I’m wondering how surprised, if at all, you were by the verdict? Is that what you expected at the start of this trial?) – “You know me, I don’t dive into politics and stuff much on-camera. I think a lot of people were very hopeful that the verdict would come down the way it did; but just being honest, that always hasn’t happened. When things look like clearly something was wrong and happened in this country, and particularly with people of color, it hasn’t turned out that way. So I think that was the relief, I think some of the joy; but again, it’s also saddening that it takes people dying for people to realize and want change. But I was hopeful, and then when it happened, I was happy.”
(Moving to my football question if I could, obviously you made a couple of moves up and down in your first-round draft position, and there’s talk that you might well have opportunities to make a further move out of six. How likely is it or how much more open would you be toward listening to offers for that No. 6 pick after the No. 5 pick is made and you have an idea of what kind of draft board you’re looking at at No. 6?) – “I think you said it right there. I think we’ll always listen to everything. We’ve shown that. I think you owe it to your team and your organization to always listen to any offers that may or may not come. At the end of the day, as the draft falls and gets towards our pick, if someone wants to call and they make an aggressive pitch to us, we’ll evaluate it, look at the board and look at our options and we’ll make the decision that’s best for the Miami Dolphins at that point.”
(If there’s a player that’s taken in the top 10 that you may feel like you missed out on, would you guys have any regrets on trading out of three?) – “No. I think when we made our move, we had targeted a number of players that we liked that we’re comfortable with getting. So I think with us, when you make a move like we did and doing what we did to get back up, we’re very comfortable where we are; but again as I said, we’ll always evaluate it and drafts change as you know. People fall for some reasons unknown or people select players for their roster based on their needs. We’re comfortable where we are. We feel very good where we are and we won’t have any regrets.”
(The second question I had for you is kind of just the opt-outs and how you view them. I look at QB Tua Tagovailoa, T Austin Jackson, CB Noah Igbinoghene all having kind of something particular to them with being your first-round picks last year. Do you look at the opt-outs as something being bigger than what they are or do you look at it like a player has missed time due to injury or missed some experience along the way?) – “I think 2020 was such a unique year with the pandemic. All players have reasons for opting out and I don’t think it’s right for us to hold it against any player whether it’s family or – we don’t know all the circumstances until you get to this point and you talk to players. But a lot of players opted out. You also have schools that – some schools played four games, some played 10. So however you look at it, it wasn’t going to be an apples-to-apples comparison around. But for us to sit here and judge players on opt-outs for their reasons why, it’s unfair and I think it’s unrealistic.”
(I’m wondering just your thoughts, your thinking, for making the move, the trade – coming down and then going back up – that you did. Just your mindset for doing that.) – “We’ve had a number of teams call us. They were talking about coming up to three. We were comfortable being where we were and once we evaluated it, obviously San Francisco was very aggressive. (General Manager) John (Lynch) was great to deal with. He was very open and honest, transparent. As we worked through it, we thought with the offers that we talked through, once they gave us the offer that we were comfortable with taking, we decided it was important for us also to get back into that top 10. Once it looked like San Francisco could happen, we kind of reached out to a few teams just gauging whether they would move or not. Philadelphia was a very good partner to work with. (Executive Vice President/General Manager) Howie (Roseman) did a good job with us in terms of what we were looking for and what we were looking to do, and I give them a lot of credit. There were a lot of teams that wanted to wait. They wanted to wait and see. It takes guts to make a move like that so I give San Francisco and Philadelphia both credit for doing it.”
(The second part of that, does it bother you at all that you didn’t get back more for this year? That the stuff that is coming is out in the future. This year, you are weakened by those trades.) – “I don’t think we view it like that, we still have four picks in the first two rounds. I just view it completely different. We just have a difference in opinion. We feel very good about it and we also added a lot of stuff for the future, including two picks in 2023 – two first round picks in 2023. At some point – I’m sure someone will ask the question – we picked three guys in the first round last year. We’re going to keep adding young players and talent and growing. We feel good. We feel really good about how things transpired for us.”
(I know Bill Parcells was a mentor of yours and he had a saying about height, weight, speed exceptions. What’s your philosophy? There are a couple of smaller players in this draft whether it’s WR Devonta Smith or WR Jaylen Waddle. How does your philosophy impact evaluating those guys?) – “It’s all a part of the evaluation but every player tells their own stories as a different player. I think the league has changed as well. There are more rules. It’s more of an offensive league. I think that what’s been evident is that there is a lot of smaller players that have become really good players in this league, as well. You always evaluate it. You always talk about it. But again, each player is their own case. Those guys have shown that they’ve been good players at a high level of play in the SEC. That goes for a lot of players around the country. I just think the game has changed a little bit, and I think these smaller players are given more room and freedom to showcase their talents.”
(We’ve talked to you about playmakers and you’ve talked about wanting to get more playmakers. How much do you grade what QB Tua Tagovailoa’s skillset is and what maybe fits best for him versus what you guys view as the best prospect overall?) – “Yeah, I think especially when you’re picking where we are picking, you’re always looking at your team and Tua is a big part of that. So as we build around and what we’re doing, yeah, you’re always looking at what your quarterback does best. But you’re also looking at weighing that versus the best player that is available for your team because at the end of the day, it’s always about the team. It’s not about one player, one pick, one person. You’ve heard Brian (Flores) talk about team-first players that fit right. For us, it is – it’s just looking for the right player, the right person, the right fit for our team as well as the mesh with the quarterback.”
(My question is about QB Tua Tagovailoa. At the end of the season, you said that you were very happy with his development. I wanted to ask you for an update in regards to what’s the team’s communication been like with him this offseason. We’ve seen him posting on social media with him training with some of the Dolphins’ receivers. What type of benefit do you think that has with this full healthy offseason for Tua heading into next season and just what the communication been like with him?) – “The communication has been great. He’s been around. He’s been working hard. I know he’s been working with the receivers. He’s a very competitive kid as you know. I think coming off the injury last year with no OTAs, no minicamp and just being thrown in right away, that is a hard transition, especially with the rehab part he was doing. He’s healthy now. I’ve seen a couple of videos – I’m not on social media very much. He’s been working very hard. Our guys have been around and popped in and out here. He’s been great with the players and the receivers have been working. Like I said, he’s got to take the next steps. He’s been a winner everywhere he’s been and I’m really excited for him to have an offseason under his belt. I think that will be really important for him.”
(Regarding the pandemic protocols, how are you organizing your room and how does it compare with normal? How close are we to getting back to normal?) – “We talk about that constantly between Brian (Flores), Brandon (Shore), Tom (Garfinkel), Steve (Ross), Kyle Johnston. The big thing is trying to get back some sense of normalcy. We’ll be in the draft room this year back for the draft; but it will be a much smaller group following NFL protocols. Things are still different at the end of the day. We’ll adjust according to the league rules, but it is different still. The good thing is that we’ve all gone through it before, so we’re finding ways where things could maybe work better and working with the league to see which rules work best for teams going forward.”
(How many people will you have in the room down here compared to normal and how many people will you have at the draft?) – “At the draft, just like every team there will only be one person that goes. We’ll have – 10 people max is the guideline for our room here so we will have 10 people in the draft room.”
(I wanted to ask a little bit about free agency. I wanted to get your thoughts on moving on from LB Kyle Van Noy. You didn’t sign a big name pass rusher in free agency. That seems to be the one position you didn’t address with a big name. I’m curious your thinking on moving on from Kyle, not spending big money on an edge rusher and where do you see the position going from here?) – “Kyle did a good job for us last year and provided a lot of things. He helped us win 10 games like a lot of our players on this roster that are no longer here. I wish him the best. But for us, we had some young players we were developing that we felt good about and those guys need to get on the field. At the end of the day, it was a decision we made as an organization going into it. We talked about the roster at the end of the season between Brian (Flores), myself, the coaches and the scouts. At the end of the day, it was a move we made. In terms of the pass rush, we feel good about it. Like everything, we’re always looking to keep upgrading. It’s just such a unique year with the pandemic and so many teams releasing players, players taking one-year deals on cheaper – or below market value I should say – because of the lower salary cap. For us at the end of the day, we’ll continue looking at turning over the roster. We’ll go through the draft here and keep looking at free agents that are on the streets as well.”
(A number of the best defensive players in the draft opted out last year. Miami had one and obviously Penn State had one. How do you, as a personnel department, evaluate players that opted out in 2020? Are you less likely to take risks on guys that you don’t have 2020 film on? What’s your thinking, particularly on the defensive side of the ball?) – “Like I said earlier, I don’t think we can hold that against these players. Even some of the guys that played this year only played four or five games because of pandemic rules at their schools. You go back, you watch the 2019 season. I think our scouts and coaches have all done a great job of working through that process and spending time here getting to know these players. It’s a challenging year. Every team is dealing with the same level playing field. At the end of the day, you just get as much information as you can and rely on the relationships that scouts and coaches have with the schools to really get to know these players – from coaches. At the end of the day, you really can’t punish these kids because again, every team and every college is so different this year in terms of games played, etc.”
(How do you feel about the group of sort of upper-echelon running backs in this year’s class, as you evaluate it with the group from last year?) – “Every year is always different. This year’s class, there’s good players at that position throughout the draft, just like last year. Last year I know there were no backs I think taken in the first round, I believe. And there was a big run in the second and third rounds. People talk about valuing and devaluing positions. At the end of the day, I think teams are always looking at their rosters and evaluating, and good players get picked where teams feel that value is for their roster. It’s a good group of backs. At the end of the day, where they all fall, they’re all good players and they’ll be good players in this league.”
(You had mentioned briefly about the right players. You have four picks in the top 50. The players that you’re targeting, considering if you stay where you’re at, are those players you feel maybe not starters immediately but could contribute immediately?) – “I think it all depends on where they fall. At the end of the day, some of these players, yeah, they will be starters and impact players; but again, you’ve heard Brian (Flores) say this and I love this statement, that when they’re coming in, no one is a starter in April. Guys have to – and these rookies have to come in and there’s such a transition for them to learn. I think that’s why you always see guys take those huge second-year jumps, like (Andrew) Van Ginkel for us last year. I think ‘Mike G’ (Gesicki) did a few years ago, made a jump after his rookie year when people were unsure of him. I think with all of these guys, you preach patience for them a little bit; but I know because guys are first-round or second-round picks, you’d like them to be impact players right away. And they may be, but it may be subtle to where the coaching staff and the personnel staff, we all feel good about it and you’re just waiting for the public to see it. At the end of the day, they could be starters; but again, the players make their own way and create their own jobs on the team here. Brian (Flores) has created a great environment here of competitiveness and that’s what I love about our guys here. I think that’s why we won 10 games last year is guys here generally know it’s about competition and taking care of each other, and that’s an important thing.”
(I’m curious if you have any more clarity on who is going to call plays for you this year offensively, and the follow up to that would be how that collaborative effort has maybe influenced your evaluation of players and whether Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey or Co-Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs Eric Studesville and their input, how that affects the kind of players that you guys are going to want next year?) – “Coaching staff stuff, I’m not dodging the question, but I’ll leave that up to Brian (Flores). It’s not fair for me to come out here and talk about coaching staff stuff. But at the end of the day, yeah we are familiar with George and Eric and our communication has been great. Getting everyone on the same page, working through it has been good. I don’t think there’s any issues for us and we’re all on the same page on what we’re looking for and what we want to add to the team.”
(I was curious, how much does Head Coach Brian Flores and his coaching staff’s ability to develop talent, like you mentioned with LB Andrew Van Ginkel and TE Mike Gesicki, how much does that kind of weigh into the decision to acquire as much draft capital as you guys have accumulated the last couple of years?) – “That’s part of it. We’re not afraid to make picks. At the end of the day, we’ll make the picks, but we have great confidence that this coaching staff has shown that they can develop players and get the best out of them. That’s the exciting part of it. Listening to them, the thought process in watching those guys coach every day and the details that Brian (Flores) and his staff are on is what makes it fun here. The players know that and they appreciate it. Finding those right types of guys that love to work and do everything is very important because we know those players can get even better. So that’s the exciting part of working with Brian and his staff.”
