Brian Flores – August 4, 2021
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Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(This is probably more of a question to ask you like at a breakfast at the owner’s meetings when we’re relaxed but since there were no owner’s meetings and no breakfast, I just wanted to ask you just going back, what the thinking was in making changes in the linebacker room. Obviously you made significant changes. What did you hope to accomplish in terms of skills you wanted to add? Are you happy with the group now that you have after obviously adding a handful of players at linebacker?) – “I’ll take you to breakfast. That’s not an issue. We can go to breakfast. (laughter) Yeah, we made a couple of additions to the linebacker room – Duke Riley, (Benardrick) McKinney – and yeah, we like the group. They work hard, they’re tough, they’re smart, they’re competitive, it’s important to them. It’s early so over the first few days of training camp – and I shouldn’t say that. Going back to the spring and OTAs, it’s a group that works well together, or they’re trying to work well together. They’ve all got a different skillset that we can potentially use, whether it’s pass game, pass rush, run defense, kicking game. Again, (it’s) a very competitive room. The new guys plus ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker), plus (Elandon) Roberts, plus (Calvin) Munson, plus (Sam) Eguavoen – I think it’s a competitive group. If we continue to just build and take it one day at a time and try to improve every day, we’ll hopefully have a solid group.”
(WR Jakeem Grant was able to attain All-Pro status for his performance as a kick returner and punt returner. How do you value and balance a player’s ability in that area, even if he’s not necessarily say a starter at the receiver position?) – “I think there’s a lot of value in having an explosive returner who can flip the field and flip field position and score. I think there’s a lot of value – I think we all see the value in that. Jakeem, obviously is very explosive. He’s obviously productive, not only as a returner but as a receiver as well. We’re happy to have him. We’ll keep working. Obviously there’s a lot of competition in that room. Again, last year was last year. I think we’ve said that multiple times and I think while we use that as a barometer for what we know he can do, every day we’ve got to prove it. That’s kind of what we tell the players; and they know that. They understand that. We’ve got to prove it every day in meetings and walkthrough and practice. And if you put all of those things together, we feel like you’ll have success in games. But right now, we’re just focused on today.”
(What level of growth have you seen from QB Tua Tagovailoa as far as the deep ball? We’ve seen it from our eyes but from your eyes, what have you seen?) – “I think it’s something he’s placed an emphasis on, and we’ve placed an emphasis on. Not pushing the ball downfield but taking advantage of those opportunities if they’re there. Like always, we want to have good fundamentals, good techniques, good mechanics, go through his progression, and if it’s there and it’s open, we can throw them open and take a shot. We’re not going to make them if we don’t throw them. I think he’s taking more shots downfield and I think hopefully he’s gaining more confidence that he can make some of those throws. But at the same time, not every throw is going to be a 50-yarder or a 60-yarder. You’ve got to make good decisions. You’ve got to check it down when you need to check it down. We’ve got to throw the intermediate route when we need to throw the intermediate route. We’ve got to throw it away and take an incompletion when we need to do that. He just needs reps. We’ll just try to give him as many reps as possible. That’s the same with all of the quarterbacks – Jacoby (Brissett), Reid (Sinnett) and really all players at all positions. But specific to Tua and the downfield throws, that would be my take on it.”
(What have you seen out of DT Zach Sieler? We see him working a little bit with the ones. And did DT Christian Wilkins come out with a little more juice last practice after he had some reps with the twos?) – “Wilkins always has juice. Sometimes too much juice. He messes with me a little bit. (laughter) No, we like Christian’s energy. His energy, his juice, his theatrics – I think he adds a lot to the team from that standpoint. The ones, twos – there’s no ones, there’s no twos in my mind. Everyone is out competing. Sieler has done a good job. He’s working. He’s had some production in practices. We’ll just continue to roll guys and work guys against different players. Both guys are working hard and I’m pleased with where both guys are.”
(The other day you used the phrase “moving in the right direction” regarding CB Xavien Howard. Where do things stand today?) – “Moving in the right direction. (laughter)”
(This time of year and when training camp rolls along, maybe guys have seen some of the same drills over and over, the same route concepts or whatever it might be. How do you evaluate the process of those practice reps if guys might be – not cheating the drill but maybe they know what’s happening or what’s going on. Is there an evaluation difference with that?) – “Yeah, guys cheat the drill. That happens. But I think we just need to keep the drills moving and there’s always an element to a drill you can do to force a guy not to. Normally he goes in and we go out. If he goes out, we go deep. There is an element of that. I think it’s up to us as a staff to try to eliminate that as much as possible, but I think we just need to continue to work the techniques, work the fundamentals; and I think whether they cheat the drill or not cheat the drill, we’re evaluating the fundamentals and techniques now. They may look a little cleaner because they’re anticipating it and not truly reacting. That’s part of the evaluation also. Is that a true rep? Are we counting that one? The player may think so but we may not be counting that one.”
(Yesterday was your first day in pads, I wanted to get your evaluation of the good that you saw and also the things that concern you that you need to see get better?) – “Day one in pads is every year kind of the same conversation – pad level, technique, fundamentals, footwork, hand placement. It’s the first time you’ve done it in a long time. Everyone is a little bit rusty. That’s what we’re talking about – footwork, hand placement, pad level. That can always be better. We can always play lower. We talk a lot about leverage and how you win against an opponent. We make those corrections and we come back out here today and get a little bit better. Come back out on, (the next practice day) is a Friday, and a little bit better and try to make those improvements on a day-to-day basis. Then we get into preseason games and do it for real.”
(How much of a priority was improving the run game and then improving the run defense this offseason when you talk about how you were going to build the 2021 team?) – “I think you always want to improve on a lot of areas. Obviously, in every area. But yeah, run defense is important. I think that’s always kind of a standard, ‘hey, we want to be good against the run, force them to be one-dimensional and play defense that way.’ I think every defense – high school, college, pros is saying the same thing from that standpoint. So yeah, there’s importance placed there. We’re working on that. We worked on that yesterday. Conversely, it’s important that we run the ball so we are going to spend time on that offensively (and the) run defense, defensively. Hopefully, like everything else, we’ll just try to get a little bit better every day.”
(Rushing the passer obviously in this heat can be exhausting. Are you comfortable now after adding DL Adam Butler – obviously to mix with DT Christian Wilkins, DT Raekown Davis and DT Zach Sieler – are you comfortable with the number of defensive linemen that you have that you can alternate in in this heat to rush the passer? And what did you like specifically about Butler? You knew him obviously well, which made you want to sign him.) – “I think our guys are in good shape. You’re right, it’s hot. Our ability to roll guys in and out of the game is important. I feel good about that group. Adam, specifically, he’s tough, he’s smart, he loves to play, he’s competitive and he’s team-first. I think he fits in well with the group. He’s a good communicator. Again, it’s early so we haven’t said, ‘you’re doing this, you’re doing that.’ We’re still in the evaluation process. I think all those guys in that group are really working. They’re in there early watching film and trying to get better and just trying to string good days together.”
(We saw LB Andrew Van Ginkel leave practice early yesterday. What can you tell us about his status?) – “He’ll be out today. He’s day-to-day. He’s already in the training room rehabbing. He’s just going to take it one day at a time and get back as quickly as he can.”
(Sometimes things can get testy at training camp or joint practices. I guess there was like a little scuffle out at Giants camp. In your whole career, is there sort of a memorable training camp or joint practice scuffle or something that you actually keep in mind now that you’re a head football coach?) – “I mean you put pads on, things get chippy. It’s a chippy game. It happens. It’s also a game where you have to keep your poise. That’s what I talk to the players about and it’s something that we talk about as a staff. We talk to the players about – we know it’s going to get; somebody is going to be on the ground, somebody is going to do too much. We had a little bit of it yesterday. Your natural reaction is to react and fight back. As we know, it’s normally the second guy who gets the penalty and in those instances, we have to keep our poise and we have to practice that. Inevitably, there’s going to be some kind of fight on the field and we just have to learn from it and get better. We try to use it as a learning experience when it happens because when it happens in a game, it could be costly. We just try to use it as a learning tool.”
(Yesterday T Austin Jackson talked about the importance of the bone marrow transplant, what it did for his sister. He also mentioned specifically to use that platform as an NFL player. How important is it, do you feel, that players can use their status or platform to help other people, whatever it may be?) – “I think it’s very important. I think these guys have worked extremely hard to get to this point. When you’re talking about something like what he did for his sister or a charitable organization that’s important to them, I think they should use their platform to – acknowledge probably isn’t the right word and showcase probably isn’t the right word either. I can’t think of the right word but I think they should use their platform to speak out about the things that are important to them. Kudos to Austin for doing that.
(Is it because they are so recognizable that they have that voice and they can inspire people?) – “Yeah, they’re NFL players. He’s got a platform to speak to you guys and reach all the Miami Dolphins fans and football fans who watch. I think it’s great that he’s doing that and he has my full support to do it.”
(We are 10 days out now from the first preseason game. At what point do you start to switch from a training camp mindset to preparing for a game week mindset?) – “It’s a little different this year because we are going to practice against Chicago. In a normal year, probably three days before. I like training camp practices. Those games are about fundamentals and techniques. We’re not trying to out-scheme anybody. We’re just trying to really evaluate the players, I would say at least the first preseason game, and get your first taste of blocking, tackling – a live taste of it, I would say. This year against Chicago, we are going to practice against them so it’s a little bit different. We are going to see them and then play against them, so it’s a little bit different.”
