Brian Flores – August 22, 2020
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Saturday, August 22, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Correct me if I’m wrong – it’s fair that a young quarterback learning a new system might not look so great in every practice or on every throw, but it’s also fair that sometimes on a throw or in a moment, they show you a glimpse, they show you something that’s special that makes you say, that’s the reason that we have this person.) – “I think that’s fair to say that for any player that’s new, that’s young, that’s in a new system, new environment; there’s going to be some mistakes. I think you could say that for any young player and really quite honestly, for any veteran player as well. I think if you’re in this league, it’s because you’re talented. There’s a lot of guys who played in the college ranks, the high school ranks who don’t make it here at all, so anybody who’s on an NFL roster – the 90-man roster and definitely an 80-man roster – they have some talent, so you’ll see flashes or a glimpse – or you should see flashes or a glimpse – from any player that’s on an NFL roster or else – look, this is going to be my 17th season so any player that’s been on any roster has had some talent or some ability or else they wouldn’t be there. So to answer your question, yes, that’s the case for a quarterback, but it’s the case for every position – punter, kicker, long snapper, running back, linebacker, etc. Everyone in this league is talented and then we have to, as a staff and as an organization, field the team with what we deem is the most talented of the group that we have.”
(I wanted to ask you, we ask a lot of questions about G Solomon Kindley, but we have not addressed T Austin Jackson and how he’s been playing so far in his elevated role.) – “Austin, along with the other rookies, he’s obviously learning. He’s improving on a daily basis. This is a talented kid – tough, he’s smart and he is like all the young players, all the rookies, all the rookie players, he’s improving every day. He’s getting better. He works at it. He’s doing extra in the meetings, doing extra on the field in practice. It’s important to him. He’s making mistakes like everyone on the team is. None of us are perfect, myself included, and he’s learning from them and I think he’s getting better. He’s getting better on a daily basis and that’s the case with Austin and Robert Hunt and (Solomon) Kindley and all our rookie o-linemen.”
(Just a little bit of housekeeping. I wanted to make sure – you do expect QB Ryan Fitzpatrick back with the team at some point?) – “Yeah, ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) will be out there today.”
(I wanted to get an update on LB Jerome Baker. He left the practice field yesterday. What’s the update on him? Will he be out there today?) – “Jerome is taking this – it’s day-to-day. He’s getting treatment. He’s doing everything he can to get better. There’s guys getting nicked up in training camp. We’re out there in pads. It’s hot, so we’ll see. He’s kind of going through some treatment this morning, last night. This is going to come down right to the wire whether or not we can get him out there today, so we’ll see.”
(I haven’t seen anybody run to the T.N.T. [Takes No Talent] wall this year. It kind of led me think – what is from Year 1 to Year 2 things that you may have, I guess, changed about maybe how you’re going about coaching and maybe what you learned from Year 1.) – “From a scheduling standpoint, there’s only so much time we can be out there, especially in the early part, so it was 90 minutes the first day, an hour and 45 (the next), I just wanted to – there’s not as much time as there is, so as far as running to the wall or anything like that, I’d rather just get onto the next play and not lose a rep for another guy, which in other years that’s not the case. You have enough time to do that and get all of the reps in. So as a staff, we’re kind of running off the field because we hit our 90 minutes or we hit our hour-45 or we hit our two hours. We’re at the point in training camp now where we do have enough time, so we could incorporate that, but don’t worry. I hammer these guys when we have penalties pretty good in the meetings. You can ask them about it and it’s not something we take lightly at all. I just felt like we’re better off like we’re better off like we would in a game, let’s just move on and go on to the next play and we’ll hammer time them later in the day.”
(We’ve already talked about the three offensive linemen who you drafted earlier today. What I’m curious about is if those three perform among the best in this training camp, would you have any hesitation to fielding three rookies on the offensive line just for the experience factor?) – “It’s kind of a loaded question. (laughter) At the end of the day, the guys who perform the best, they’re going to play. I’d say the offensive line unit is a little different in that you need five guys who perform well together, so there’s some communication that goes with that. There’s some experience that goes with that. We have to get all three of them up to speed pretty quickly to do that; but look, if they’re the five most talented players and that gives us to have some success, then we would have to do that. We’ve got some veteran players – (Michael) Deiter who’s played a lot, Jesse Davis who’s played a lot, (Julién) Davenport who’s played a lot, and so the question becomes do you play the three young guys or do you play a combination of two of the young guys, one of the young guys, all three? There’s so many different combinations and we’ve got some other guys who have played and started some games, so we just have to find out what the best five guys are from a communication standpoint and from a talent standpoint, and we’ll try to put the best team in. But the three young guys are playing well. They’re learning. They’re improving. Are they ready to jump in and play 60-70 snaps today? Unlikely, given having not played in an NFL game and not feeling the speed of the game and I don’t think anyone’s going to be ready to play a 60-minute game right on the onset, so we could see different combinations on the o-line as well as other positions.”
(How did the quarterbacks look with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick yesterday and are you seeing the flashes in them that you mentioned earlier that you like to see?) – “I thought they both made some good throws. They both made some not-so-good throws, but I think every day is a little bit different and how practice is structured – early downs, third down, red zone, 2-minute – we just want to see them in those different scenarios and see if they can be successful in those areas; but I think they’re both working hard. They’re both improving and every play for both guys – and they’re both young – every play for both guys is a good experience for them. It’s a learning experience and I think they’re improving and getting better specifically in those situations. In the red area there’s less field, so they’re tighter throws and they’re smaller windows. You’ve got to make a really good throw and a really good catch and we’ve got to catch the ball in the tight windows with receivers playing tight man coverage and there’s just not as much field. I think everyone can understand that, so how we evaluate them in that area of the field is different than when we’re in the actual field – not necessarily the red zone – but the rest of the field and it’s also different how we evaluate them in two-minute and the decision-making, which also includes the clock and timeouts and things of that nature. The evaluation is not just ‘did he complete’ or ‘how many?’ There’s a lot that goes into it, so I think they’re both improving and getting better.”
(I wanted to ask you about Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey. In an earlier interview he talked about the process of what made him come out of retirement – the call he took from you – and he wasn’t sure at the time. What have you seen in him now that he is back coming out of retirement and the passion he has to work again with young players?) – “Chan is a great teacher. I’ll start with that. He’s a great teacher offensively. He understands the game defensively. He’s obviously very, very experienced. He’s very meticulous about who’s playing where, the techniques, the fundamentals; so I’ve been very pleased with Chan and what we’re doing offensively, but we still have a long way to go. He communicates with the players, the coaches, with myself – that’s been good – and obviously he’s done it for a long time and yeah, I’m excited to see where this goes; but at the same time, it’s still early. We’re still in the installation phase so as we get through the installation and then come back and rep it again and hopefully improve in the various areas offensively – run game, play action, third down, 2-minute, drop-back – all those things – screen game. I hope we’re doing well, but Chan’s been great.”
(RB Myles Gaskin is a guy who has flashed just about every day that we’ve watched practice. What were your expectations coming into the season and what kind of role do you see him carving out for himself if he keeps it up?) – “I think Myles has done a very good job. He’s a kid who has really improved over the course of last season. Really from OTAs to minicamp to training camp, you could see kind of the growth throughout the season. He’s playing well running it, catching the ball out of the backfield. His blocking has improved. I tell him like I tell all the other players – their role is going to be what they make it, so if you go out there and you continually make plays and handle your responsibility and you’re someone we can depend on, we’re going to find a role for you. If you’re productive along with being dependable, along with doing things the right way really on and off the field, then you could have a really big role. That’s kind of what we tell every player. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rookie, a veteran, undrafted, drafted; that’s the standard and we’re going to try to hold the guys to that.I think Myles has done a good job of doing everything he can off the field, on the field to make himself the best player he can be and that’s showing up a little bit in practice; but again, in this league it’s got to show up in practice, in games and you’ve got to have consistency, so that’s what we try to stress to the guys – Myles along with really every other player.”
(I wanted to ask you about T Robert Hunt. It’s not easy to make a transition from the Sun Belt conference to the National Football League. What has been your message? What would be your message for Robert specifically?) – “For Robert specifically – but really it’s for all rookies – it’s different from college. The speed of the game, the amount of time that we put in compared to what they’re doing in college. There’s no classes and they’re not working on protections against a blitz or four different blitz looks and – I don’t know what classes they’re taking – doing psychology class. That’s not part of this. So the amount of time they’re asked to spend – not just football – but from a treatment standpoint, from a weightlifting standpoint, from a nutrition standpoint; I think initially you’ve got to try to be good in all those areas to be the best version of yourself on the field and that’s kind of what we try to coach to all players, specifically the young ones. The competition – Sun Belt, ACC, Ivy League – it’s going to be better. That’s just what it is. The receivers in this league – we were just talking to our young DBs, with Brandon (Jones). Receivers in this league, they’re good. They’re fast. They’re big. They’ve got good hands. They’re quick. It’s no different than on the o-line. It’s an adjustment for (Solomon) Kindley, who played in the SEC, Austin (Jackson) who played in the Pac-12, and Robert who played in the Sun Belt. The defensive linemen in this league, they’re fast. They’re big, they’re fast, they’re strong, they’re mean. They bring it every play, so we’ve got to bring it every play. So that’s the message to Robert, Austin, Kindley, (Jonathan) Hubbard, all of the guys who are here. That’s the message to the veteran offensive linemen as well. If you get complacent and think you’ve got it, you’re going to get hit right in the mouth so that’s kind of where we’re at.”
