Brian Flores – December 10, 2020
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Thursday, December 10, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to ask you about the barbecue care package Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid sent you after the season last year. He spoke a little bit about it with us on a conference call. Just what was that like to get that gift from them and what were some things in it?) – “It was good barbecue. It went fast. I had my brothers over. I’m not sure – we had a ton of people over and we enjoyed it, so I was very thankful to Andy (Reid) for that and it went very quickly. Kansas City barbecue is very good.”
(First, I wanted to tell you I was running yesterday and I listened to a song from 2 Chainz called One Day At A Time and I thought about you. I thought that would be a good song for you to put on your playlist because of the title.) – “I’ll write that down.”
(I actually do have a real question. We saw that QB Tua Tagovailoa shed that splint or the tape that he was wearing over the last week or so. How is he progressing and I guess it’s a good sign that he doesn’t need to wear that in practice anymore?) – “I think he’s feeling better from that standpoint. I think he’s got, like everyone else, bumps and bruises that he’s handled over the last few games that he’s been playing. But yeah, I think he’s feeling a little bit better as far as that particular – the hand – and I think he, like everyone else, is trying to prepare as best he can for a very, very, very strong opponent and a very good defense. They really do a lot of things from a disguise standpoint, from a front standpoint, from a coverage standpoint. He shed the whatever he had on his hand, but he’s got other issues as far as dealing with the Chiefs, so that’s kind of where his focus is and our focus is.”
(I was curious, you guys have a lot of championship pedigree on your roster. You have players that won championships in college, certainly in the NFL How do you look for that sort of personality? Do they have to be a winner in the past for you to even consider them a champion or can you sense those things going in? And how much can that pay off in huge games like you have now?) – “I don’t think really any of that – anything that’s happened in the past – really matters right now. Those are different teams, different years, people change over time for a myriad of reasons – on the field, off the field. Every team, every year is a little bit different, so college, pros, different teams; I guess I don’t look too much into that. I’m just focused on this particular team, this particular week against this particular opponent. I don’t think really much of that is – I don’t think it has much to do with this week. So I like the guys we have here. They’re tough, they’re competitive, they’re smart. Football is really important to them. They’re team-first. If you want to take those qualities and put a label on that, then to me that’s just what we’re looking for in a Dolphin.”
(I know we talked a lot about the pressure that you guys bring on the defense, but I guess I was looking and the Chiefs bring a lot of pressure as well. How do you prep the o-line and QB Tua Tagovailoa for that, knowing they’ll probably bring more against a young o-line and a young quarterback?) – “I know people talk extensively about the offense, but this defense and special teams is – they’re for real. I don’t think they get enough credit. This is a, I would say, top-level defense from my standpoint. I think ‘Spags’ (Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) does a great job. I think those two safeties are very good – really three safeties including (Juan) Thornhill. The corners are very good in press and man coverage, and obviously we know about Frank Clark and Chris Jones and (Anthony) Hitchens makes a lot of tackles. This is a good team, so this will be a tough – and they bring pressure. They bring pressure from a lot of areas like you mentioned. I didn’t mean to kind of go off on a tangent there, but the corners blitz, the backers blitz, the ends drop; they’ve got guys coming from all over the place. They do a good job of disguising. Yeah, this is a good group. This is a very good group.”
(Back in August, we talked about the offensive line makeup – how there was so much turnover. To be able to go back to that topic, what’s it been like having an G Ereck Flowers, a G/T Jesse Davis, a C Teddy Karras in the room to be able to kind of limit that rookie curve with those three primarily hoping to be options for you guys moving forward, in terms of the three rookies?) – “I think (General Manager) Chris (Grier) did a really nice job – Chris, (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore), the personnel staff – as far as having a feeling that we were going to have some young players and then bringing in some veteran players to help those young players along. So we had Jesse (Davis), we brought in Ted (Karras) and Ereck (Flowers) and I think those guys have really brought some leadership and good play to our offensive line and really helped these young guys along. We feel good about the entire group and hopefully we just continue to improve and get better. This week is challenging as a week as we’ve had all year, just from an opponent standpoint specific to players – individual players, but also an overall team defense that really communicates well, really disguises well, really gives you different looks in the back end but also different looks in the front. There’s a lot of, let’s call it … movement up front, so they really make you work from a communication standpoint across the board. That’s what good defenses do, and ‘Spags’ (Chiefs Defensive Coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) has done a great job. ‘B.D.’ (Chiefs Run Game Coordinator/Defensive Line) Brendan Daly has done a really nice job. This will be definitely a tough test for our o-line, but really our entire offense.”
(I saw something on social media about a relief effort in Honduras with the Honduran Consulate. How’d that come about and can you give us a little bit more detail on that?) – “I think we talked about this a couple weeks ago as far as some hurricane relief for the people down in Honduras, so we just worked with (Senior Vice President of Communications and Community Affairs) Jason Jenkins and our community relations (staff) and got in touch with the consulate from Honduras and put some – with help from Publix – put some packages together and with Spirit Airlines, we a flew a plane down there and just gave them some support, some things that they needed – a variety of things. They needed some support and we were happy to help and I just think about the family I have down there – aunts, uncles, my Tía Chola, my Tío Bocho, Tío Paulito – all my family down there. So I just think about them and to them, I just tell them I love them and I’m praying for them. Te quiero mucho (I love you so much) and we just try to keep supporting them.”
(I wanted to ask you a question about WR Lynn Bowden Jr. Obviously you guys have had him for a while and developed him for a while and he’s been behind in your stuff because he got here after the trade. What’s kind of holding him back from contributing more, especially since I know you generally give guys who perform well in practice that opportunity?) – “I think he contributed quite a bit last week. I think he had a run for a good chunk and a few passes. I thought he played well last week. I don’t think he’s really being held back. Maybe you see it differently. He had four or five catches last week, he had a run, made some blocks in the running game, so I think he’s really improving and getting better. His progress over the past three or four weeks has been good. Hopefully he continues to be productive and help us. I don’t think he’s being held back. I don’t really see that. If anything, he’s going the other way. Maybe you see it a little bit differently.”
(We saw on the wire that WR Isaiah Ford begun the COVID testing process with you guys. What was the thinking in bringing him back? Also, we saw Tight Ends Coach George Godsey working with QB Tua Tagovailoa again last week. Have you changed responsibilities at all for Godsey and Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown? I know Godsey was needed with the quarterbacks when Brown was out.) – “I wouldn’t go too deep into it. The game day process, I think we wanted to keep that the same after Robby’s situation. As a staff, we all work together. Robby is still with the quarterbacks, George works with the tight ends, George works with the – we all kind of work together. The quarterbacks coach really works with the quarterbacks specifically, but there is so much conversation between the backs, the quarterbacks, the receivers. It’s really pretty much intertwined. From a game day standpoint, we just wanted to keep that where it was. You mentioned Isaiah Ford. That’s really more of a Chris (Grier), (Assistant General Manager) Marvin (Allen), Brandon (Shore) question. I know we brought him in for a visit. We’ll just see where it goes. There are COVID protocols that we have to go through and then we’ll take it from there.”
