Brian Flores – August 21, 2020
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Friday, August 21, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Opening Statement) – “I just want to start before we start with the questions. So ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) and Kavon Frazier won’t be at practice today. They’re both out with kind of personal reasons. I’m not going to elaborate more on that; but just so you guys know when you don’t see them out there. Personal reasons – they both won’t be at practice today.”
(Do you expect QB Ryan Fitzpatrick to miss an extended period of time and what does QB Jake Rudock bring to the table if you guys bring him in again for a visit or a signing?) – “I’m not going to go into detail on ‘Fitz’s’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) situation. Again, it’s personal, and that’s kind of where I’m going to leave it. We’ll just take things day to day with him and Kavon (Frazier). With Jake, we brought him in for a visit. We’ll just see where that goes. We haven’t signed him. But that’s kind of just standard operating procedure to take a look and see where guys are just from a roster management standpoint.”
(I wanted to ask you about LB Andrew Van Ginkel. What is it about his skillset that makes him capable of playing his position and watching him in practice a couple of days ago, it seems like he’s a very long frame and that might benefit him in terms of like swim moves, etc.) – “’Gink’ (Andrew Van Ginkel) is tough. He’s smart. He loves to play. He’s got some length. He’s got some straight-line speed. He’s gotten stronger since we’ve gotten him. He’s made a lot of improvement. He played at the end of the season last year, so he’s got some playing experience under his belt. Not a lot, but he understands the speed of the game and how strong players are in this league. He worked extremely hard in the offseason to try to make that first to second year leap. He’s had a few good days so far. It’s still early; but he’s taken advantage of his opportunities and hopefully we continue to see that type of improvement.”
(I know you talked about the possibility of no fans in the stands the other day. I’m wondering how much you think that would eliminate home-field advantage or reduce it. Do you think that will equalize things more in a place like Buffalo or Foxborough than maybe some other places? How big of an impact is it?) – “That’s not really something I’ve thought about, to be honest with you. Off the top of my head, everyone is dealing with the same circumstances. I think the only thing we can worry about is what we do on the field. We try not to worry about fans or – obviously it’s an advantage when they’re loud in there, but we need to play through that anyway whether it’s the cadence, communicating – finding different ways to communicate – hand signals and things of that nature. I’m not going to sit here and say it is or isn’t an advantage. It’s honestly something I haven’t thought about. Right now my focus is on us getting better today, trying to improve today, getting in and out of the huddle, making sure our communication is good, making sure we’re focusing on the fundamentals and techniques. When we get to game situations, which is obviously three weeks from Sunday, we’ll talk about it obviously before that; but there will be less fans if there’s fans at all. It won’t be as loud. I think we all kind of realize that. We’re just going to make the best of whatever the situation brings – no fans, some fans, a packed stadium. Whatever it is, we’ll try to make the best of the situation.”
(The QB Ryan Fitzpatrick news obviously brings up a question about the backup situation. To my untrained eyes, it seems like QB Josh Rosen is ahead of QB Tua Tagovailoa. Is that how you see it? How do you see that competition going?) – “That competition is like every other competition on the team. Whether it’s the quarterback, whether it’s the running back, whether it’s the offensive line, whether it’s the defensive line, the tight ends – everybody is competing. We’re just trying to take it one day at a time to get better, improve, see what the strengths and weaknesses are on the team. That’s a lot of the conversations that we have on our days off, and trying to see where we can make improvements with each individual, and obviously try to improve each unit – whether it’s the nickel, dime, defensively to our base package defensively to our 11, 12 personnel groups offensively, punt team and kickoff return. Really, every phase. That’s where we’re at. Everyone is just trying to improve and get better. I think those guys are doing a good job. Rosen is doing a good job. Tua is doing a good job. I think a lot of guys at a lot of positions are making some progress.”
(You got an extended opportunity to look at QB Josh Rosen last year. What are your hopes for and the areas where you want to see improvement from him?) – “It’s a new offense so the areas of improvement right now are kind of honed in on that – communication, in and out of the huddle, 2-minute (drills) are obviously an important part of the game. A lot of what happens in 2-minute (situations) is quarterback driven. So how many timeouts do we have? How much time is on the clock? Do we need to stay inbounds? Do we need to get out of bounds? Those are things that we’re saying – that (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) is going to be saying to him in the helmet – but the quarterback needs to know that, and kind of have a feel for all of those things without being told. Essentially, they end up becoming the coach on the field, so improvement in that area for all quarterbacks – Rosen, they’re young. Rosen’s young. You can say … but he’s still a young player. The same as Tua (Tagovailoa). So the 2-minute red area, when do they try to make the big throw versus take the check down? We talked about that this morning, just your decision-making. Is it based on the read? Is it based on matchup? Is it based on the situation? We may just need a field goal and we may just need five yards, and your guy is wide open down the field down the sideline. Those are decisions that quarterbacks have to make. There’s a lot there. I know I probably went overboard on the question but there’s a lot there. I’m looking for a lot. I think every coach at every level is looking for the same things and that’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for leadership, we’re looking for communication, we’re looking for someone making good decisions – consistently making good decisions.”
(When you talk about maybe what QB Josh Rosen was doing last year, I guess from my eyes it looked like maybe some of those decisions you were talking about or the processing speed may have been something that he wasn’t fully up-to-speed on. With no true preseason games, how do you evaluate his development and maybe how he’s maybe improved in some of those areas?) – “All we have is practice. We evaluate practice; but at the same time, you just never know when the lightbulb goes off for coaches, players, writers. I think it’s different for everyone. He’s had a lot of good moments so far. We’ll just kind of see how it goes and continue to get better. Experience helps, for sure; but like you said, we don’t have the preseason games. We’re trying to create situations to see whether or not that decision-making process is where we need it to be (and) where he wants it to be. He’s putting the work in to do that. So are all of the quarterbacks. I know we’re spending a lot of time on the quarterbacks but it’s really each player in each position, from a situational standpoint and a decision-making standpoint, everyone’s got to make good decisions on the field, communicate and try to put this team in the best position to string good plays together.”
(I wanted to ask about scrimmage situations. What can you tell us about how you’ll approach scrimmages, the role they might have with the absence of preseason games?) – “That’s something we’ve talked a lot about. We’ll have – I try to use every team period as a scrimmage. I don’t know if you’re alluding to live tackling and things of that nature. It’s something we’ve talked about. We may or may not do something like that; but I think there’s a lot that goes into it. The health of the team, whether or not we feel like we need to do that – I mean, we probably do; but what’s the right setting? What’s the right timing to get all of that done? It’s an ongoing situation. It’s one we’ve had. Are we ready to do that right now today? We’ll see. You guys will be out there.”
(It would be helpful to know if these absences are expected to be a long protracted thing or not a long protracted thing.) – “When you’re dealing with personal matters, it’s case by case. I think we’ve all dealt with personal things. I’m sure you have; I have. I’m going to support my players and however much time they need with specific situations, that’s what they’re going to get. I think we all should have an understanding from that standpoint and quite honestly … when we’re talking about things of that nature, some things take precedent and I’m going to respect that.”
