Brian Flores – August 24, 2021
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Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(The three roster cut down days all come on Tuesdays that you are practicing, I know last Tuesday you all practiced with a full roster and then made the cuts. Are you doing that today or are your five cuts going to come before? What’s the thinking on that? Are you just trying to take a final look at guys before cutting them?) – “We’ll do them after. We are still kind of going though those conversations. Yeah, we’ll do it after”
(With guys like WR William Fuller V and WR Devante Parker, I know they were doing some work before the game and obviously they work with the rehab assignment group. Where do you get to a point where you begin to worry about them, not necessarily Fuller, but for their season-opening status?) – “Those guys are working hard to get back. I wouldn’t say there’s any worry, it’s more they’re working to get back. They’ll be out there today. From that standpoint I know they are doing everything they can and that’s really all we can ask of them. That’s kind of the approach I take. Injuries happen, guys get dinged. All that we can ask is that they do everything they can to get back as quickly as they can. All the guys who are dealing with nicks and bruises are doing what they can to get back.”
(Would they be out there if it wasn’t a walkthrough today?) – “Look, they are doing everything they can to get back. I think we are getting closer. Would they be back if it wasn’t a walkthrough? I think they are getting closer. We will have to find out tomorrow since we will be here tomorrow.”
(WR Jaylen Waddle went back in last game but is it something that you will still have to monitor this week going forward?) – “Jaylen is a tough kid. It’s his first training camp, dealing with some nicks and bruises. He’s in the training room doing preventative work, getting treatment. He’ll be out there.”
(What have you seen from TE Hunter Long? And if you could also include in that he seems to be showing some toughness playing through this leg deal.) – “He was down for some time there. Worked hard to get back. Got back last week and did a couple good things in practice against Atlanta and then played in the game. He’s a tough kid, he’s a hardworking kid. He’s young, he needs reps and he’s getting them. We’re going to try to get him in this practice week, which is an important week for us, in the game and just try to take it one day at a time and get better.”
(I know you said you were going to have a meeting to decide how many of your starters might play. I guess I’ll start with QB Tua Tagovailoa, do you know if Tua is going to play?) – “We are still going through that. Still having discussions about how much we will play those guys. Still undecided.”
(When it comes to the new IR rules the league has – I know it carries over a little from last season – how much thought does that play into when you are putting together the 53 and trying to figure out whether or not guys can begin the year on IR and come off?) – “They’re different. It’s different in training camp. The IR rule, I think you are alluding to…”
(When it’s regular season in terms of guys who initially make the 53, then once that day has passed you can put them on IR with the opportunity to remove them after three games.) – “I guess for right now, if we put a player on IR, he’s done. If a player who makes the 53, after that day then assuming an injury, which you never want to assume that, but if an injury happens you can put him down for a minimum of three games. I don’t know how much that applies right now because we would have to release a player and he’s out on the street and he can get picked up by anybody. I guess the conversation is whether or not that’s worth – I guess I’m having a hard time understanding the question.”
(I will rephrase it later.) – “So basically, when we get to the 53, those guys are healthy.”
(But you have guys like WR Lynn Bowden who is not healthy.) – “Right.”
(Initially he can go on the 53 and the next day go on IR and create an extra roster spot for a wide receiver or…) – “A wide receiver that we just let go?”
(No, I’m saying carry him. Yeah, good point. You create an extra roster spot for somebody else if he’s not going to be healthy to begin the season.) – “Yeah. All of those conversations, Chris (Grier) and his staff, we have those conversations. Look, if you like a player then you keep him because you don’t want to expose him to the rest of the league and think you’re going to finagle a rule. That’s not what the rule is made for. I think what you’re alluding to, I’m not really sure how we can get that done given how – the mechanism you have to go through to put a player on IR. To make the 53, which means you have to cut 30 or 20 or whatever the number it is to get to 53, then after that you can put a player on IR but you just exposed a player you are going to bring back. There’s a lot of, ‘do you want to expose said player or just put that player you are going to put on IR on IR.’ There’s a lot of moving parts there.”
(In terms of the shape that LB Elandon Roberts and WR Preston Williams are in, obviously rhythm and getting back into football activities. From what you see and what the medical staff tells you, does it look realistic that they could help you in Week 1 potentially or might this be a several-week ramping up process to team football activity for those two?) – “You always want to ramp up and give them as much time as possible. I thought getting them out there last week was good for their confidence. I think they both felt good getting out there on the field with their teammates. They did some good things. They weren’t out there all that long. We will try to ramp them up, get them into some more team drills this week and hopefully build on what we got started with last week.”
(I’m sure there’s a lot of thought that still remains on this subject but even at this relatively early stage, what are your thoughts on how difficult it’s going to be to set the roster at wide receiver?) – “There’s a lot of competition in that room. That competition is still playing out and again, this is a big week. We’ve got guys who have practiced, we have guys who haven’t practiced and we’re always going to do what we feel is best for the team. There’s a lot of competition there and there’s going to be some tough decisions that are going to have to be made, and we will always make them with the thought that we are doing what we think is best for the team.”
(I know rosters are fluid, especially the back end of an NFL roster, but in terms of the importance of this week and the last preseason game; is it fair to say that there are literally three or four or more spots that have just not been claimed and are still being fought for?) – “Yeah, that’s fair to say.”
(What would be the message to those guys who are acutely aware that they are literally on that cliff?) – “Work hard. Keep improving. Take advantage of your opportunities. I mentioned that to our team many times. In life, it’s about taking advantage of your opportunities. Whether it’s football or business or really anything that you’re working towards, if you get an opportunity, you want to take advantage of it. For those guys who are two, three spots that are available, they’ll have some opportunities to practice, they’ll have opportunities in the game. If they play well, then they give themselves the best opportunity to maker the team and if they don’t, then they don’t give themselves the best chance.”
(With the NFL preseason going three games, you have that extra week. In your eyes how beneficial is that extra week and will the preparation for Week 1 start when you get top the 53-man roster?) – “You’re talking about that three-day weekend that they got?”
(Yeah.) – “Yeah, that’s different. It’s something that we haven’t really delt with before. We’ve had some conversations about how we’re going to handle that week with the strength staff, with the medical staff. How we are going to prepare, whether we do it before or whether we do it after. We’ve had those conversations. That’ll be a good weekend for our players. They won’t be here. They won’t have our direction so they are going to have to do a lot of things on their own from a hydration standpoint, from a workout standpoint. You don’t want to lay on a couch for three days and think you are going to get up and practice and practice well. That’ll be the message to our guys. Scheduling-wise, we will try to do what we feel gives us the best chance to have success. We’ve had some of those conversations. I would say they are in their early stages. We always come back to, ‘hey, let’s focus on today.’”
(Going back to the two or three spots that are still available, is that something that you like to see in camp? What does that tell you about competition in camp?) – “That tells us that there has been a lot of competition on the team. That’s a good thing. Competition brings out the best in all of us and it’s no different for the players. Hopefully that’s something that motivates them to do a little but more in meetings, do a little bit more in practice, do a little bit more in walkthrough, study a little bit more and that’ll give them a chance to take advantage of the opportunity.”
(I know you value high-character guys. We’ve noticed over the years how many guys come in and out and all of your coaches yesterday mentioned how unselfish the players have to be, so where does that factor when you have such few spots? Character guys vs. guys who could jump out of the gym. How much harder is it becoming to evaluate that?) – “It’s a sport where you have to get 11 guys on the same page. Selflessness is a trait that’s important in this game. There’s just no way around it. I learned this at a young age from a high school coach. You played baseball; one guy can hit four homeruns. You play basketball; a guy can score 70 points. Football is not that way. You have to throw it, if you want to throw it to somebody then somebody has to throw it, somebody has to catch it, somebody has to block. If you want to tackle somebody, somebody has to set an edge. You need your teammates so there’s an innate selflessness that you have to have to play this game. Yeah, it’s an important trait along with everything else; speed and quickness and intelligence. I think it’s a characteristic that’s important in football and we have a lot of good guys from that standpoint. They do a nice job; they understand that and they lean on each other. That part of it has been good.”
(T Liam Eichenberg has been back and forth; right tackle, left guard. G Solomon Kindley up and down units. Could you assess each one through their movements on the line or through different units?) – “Both guys are working hard, both guys are making improvement. Both guys are competing to play. They are competing for an opportunity to play, to play a lot. Both guys have had good moments and not so good moments and again, this week is a big week for everyone on this team. We’re still competing, we’re still trying to get better, we’re still evaluating and that’s where we’re at.”
