Brian Flores – December 2, 2019
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Monday, December 2, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Could you share what the offseason plan was for WR DeVante Parker – I guess getting him ready for the season?) – “It was the same it was for everybody else – conditioning, playbook, obviously weights and practice, fundamentals, technique. Obviously he took to it and worked hard like a lot of guys. He’s done a good job and he’s played well the last few weeks.”
(Do you think WR DeVante Parker’s breakout season is simply a function of him staying healthy or is there more than that?) – “I think it’s a little bit of everything. It’s health. It’s maturity, his experience. It’s him. It’s DeVante. He’s worked extremely hard. This is very important to him. Football is very important to him. He’s a guy who puts the team first, and we’re really happy with the way he’s played in games; but also how he interacts with the team and how on a day-to-day basis, he’s really shown a professional approach to how to do this.”
(And what about Wide Receivers Coach Karl Dorrell’s role in it? Do you think he’s connected with WR DeVante Parker in a special way?) – “Oh, yeah. Karl does a great job. He’s done a great job coaching that position and other positions for a number of years. He’s a really good coach. He’s smart. He’s diligent. He expects a lot from that group. Really, Karl’s a very fine coach, and we’re lucky to have him.”
(How would you describe what’s happening with the two of them – WR DeVante Parker and Wide Receivers Coach Karl Dorrell – as far as the way they’ve connected and Karl bringing out what he’s brought out of him?) – “I think Karl connects to each one of his players. I think they respect him. They want to play hard for him. They know that he has a standard – a high standard – for those guys from an alignment, assignment, technique, fundamentals, communication, blocking (standpoints). He’s got a very high standard, and they’re trying to play to that standard. They’re doing a good job, and he’s done a great job.”
(I wanted to ask you about over the years – I know you inherited him – but there have concerns, criticism, comments about WR DeVante Parker’s professionalism and doing what it takes to be a pro. Now he says he’s doing acupuncture, massages every week, hydration. When do you players generally get that level of preparation as part of the game, in your opinion?) – “It’s something that they need to be taught, I would say. Not to say that he wasn’t taught that – that’s not what I’m saying at all, but I think that’s part of coaching; but also it’s up to the player. When you’re 22 years old and you’re just coming in the league and it’s the first time you’ve ever had any money and it’s the first time you’re dealing with playing in this league and it’s a long season, some of those things that you’re talking about – acupuncture and massages and hydration – they kind of fall by the wayside. As you get older in this league, you understand that those things are very important and that everything you do counts. I think there’s a level of maturity that if you can – if we can get guys to mature as quickly as possible, that’s the goal for each staff on every team. I think he’s – I wasn’t here with him prior to this – my dealings with DeVante have been very good, and I think he’s really taken a professional approach and he’s done a very good job.”
(I know you like to tune out the outside noise. I wanted to ask you a question however about…) – “The outside noise? (laughter)”
(There were some prominent voices in the football community – Steve Young, Dominique Foxworth, Louis Riddick – who had some not just strong criticism of this franchise, but personal it seemed like. Words like “morally reprehensible” about what the Dolphins were doing. Obviously you guys have proved them foolish, wrong, all of those things with how you’ve played over the last month, month and a half. Did you hear that criticism at the time, and when people of that caliber – it’s not just like talking heads on TVs, these are real established people in the National Football League said that – did it hurt you at the time and what do you think now after proving them wrong?) – “I just focus on the things that I can control. My focus is on the guys in that locker room – people within this organization. I really try to tune out all the noise. That’s why I don’t have any social media or I don’t watch much television. I watch tape of our next opponent. I watch our practice film and I try to leave it right there. A lot of the things you’re referencing, I don’t know very much about. I don’t really take – I don’t know much about it; but at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says. All that matters is our approach, our process, the things we want to get accomplished in this building and that’s all that really matters.”
(Let me ask you this way, then. Teams want to be a place where free agents want to come to, obviously. They want to create a culture and have a stability all that free agents see as a destination. Do you think how you guys played over the last month and a half, two months has made this a more desirable place that you can grow your program?) – “Free agency is so far from my mind. We made the corrections from, or we’re trying to make the corrections from yesterday. We’re going to move onto the Jets here in the next couple of hours. That’s just, that’s way too far out into the distance for me. I think – look, if we’re going to be a tough, smart, disciplined team, we’re going to work hard. We’re going to give great effort. We’re going to compete. If that’s the type of player you are or if that’s the type of person you are, then this is the right place for you. If it’s not, then it’s not the right place for you. If that’s attractive, then great; but that’s the way it is. We’re not going to change.”
(I talked to guys in the locker room about you, and the first thing they say is consistency. When you hear that and players pick that up from you, what does that mean and how do you want that value…) – “I think in this league, consistency is so important. I think – hopefully if they see consistency from me then they know how important it is for them to be consistent as well. Again, I’ve said this before, if you are in this league that means you have talent, you can make a play. Can you consistently make those plays, consistently block, consistently tackle, consistently do your job, communicate. This team is a reflection of me. I try to be consistent on a day-to-day basis. Hopefully that works.”
(How have you dealt with this season and the ups and downs and everything personally, and how does this compare to other seasons in your coaching career?) – “I just try to take a day-to-day approach, and try to improve and get better on a day-to-day basis. Up, down, highs, lows I just try to stay pretty even. That’s always been my approach and I don’t think that will change. It’s been a fun year, I’ll say that.”
(I wanted to get your update on RB Kalen Ballage, who we saw get carted off with the leg injury. And, also how prepared are the rookie running backs – Patrick Laird and Myles Gaskin – to carry the workload?) – “Kalen, we’re still going through the evaluation process with him. He did get dinged yesterday. We’ll see how that progresses over the course of the week. No official word on that. As far as Myles and Patrick and De’Lance (Turner), I think the three of them – Myles and Patrick, obviously we got De’Lance a few weeks ago – but those two, their work ethic is very good. They’re in early on off days, they’re lifting, they’re running, they’re in there preparing for the next opponent and they’ve prepared as if they were starting all year. From that standpoint, they’ve done a really good job and I think they will be ready to go – both guys. So as far as carrying the load or splitting the load, however we’re going to handle that if that’s the situation, I’m confident those two will be able to get that done. De’Lance as well. If he’s got to step in there and play a little bit more, we’re confident he can do that as well. But again, it’s a great opportunity if that’s the case for those guys. Life is about taking advantage of opportunities.”
(What tipped you guys off on RB De’Lance Turner that said ‘hey, let’s go get him from the Ravens practice squad?’) – “We saw the speed, a physical player, a guy who can play in the kicking game which you always want an offensive, or running back, or receiver, or tight end, any of those guys to play in the kicking game, just to give us depth at those positions. He’s a smart kid, he’s hard working and he’s tough. We like those things about him.”
(Can you talk about the job CB Eric Rowe did on TE Zach Ertz in the game and how much of an influence you feel it had on the game?) – “Yeah, I thought Eric played well. (It was a) tough matchup. Ertz is a very, very good player. I’d say he’s one of the top, if not the top tight end in the league. I thought Eric did a good job, and I thought collectively as a team, we tried to hit him and disrupt him as much as possible. Eric played a big role in that. He’s a good player so he made a few catches, but we were able to limit him. That was one of our goals and we accomplished that.”
(You say it’s been a fun year. How so, because people on the outside might be surprised to hear you say that?) – “I enjoy coaching this team. We’ve got a group of guys who really work hard. I’ve been impressed with how they’ve dealt with the adversity. They keep coming back, they keep fighting, they keep practicing, they continue to work. I’m proud of this team. We’ve improved and gotten better, and that’s the goal in coaching. As a teacher, as an educator, you want your pupils, your students to get better. I think we’ve seen that and I think the season is not over. We still have more time to improve and get better, and we’re going to try to take advantage of that.”
(I know most teams break up the season into four quarters. I’m assuming you do as well. What is the goal for the final quarter of the season in terms of what you want to achieve?) – “We want to improve. We want to get better. We want to improve individually. I want our players to improve individually. I want our coaches to improve individually. I’m going to try to improve individually, and if we all do that, then collectively as a team, we’ll get better. There’s different areas that we can all get better in. We can go down a line – third down, red area, two-minute, run game, run defense, drop-back passing, play-action passing, RPO (run/pass option) – we can go down a list of things we can get better at. We’ll try to get better at them all. I think if we can do that, then that’ll only help us down the road. Just overall improvement in every area and just continue to stay the course with the way we’ve done things; I think when you get towards the end of the year and the holidays, you need a lot of mental toughness to continue to just fight and improve to get better. That’s something we’ll talk about a lot.”
(With T Julién Davenport, I know he got hurt in the game, but he seems to be giving up a lot of pressures. Is that something that can be addressed, or is it just a game-by-game situation?) – “I think he struggled early. I thought he got better as the game went on. I thought the entire line got better as the game went on. That’s a good front we were playing against – a very good front – but look, we’re going to play against a good front every week. I think Julién knows that he’s got to improve (and) get better from a technique standpoint, from really across the board, he’s got to play better. He knows that and he’s going to practice and try to improve and get better. That’s part of the ups and downs of playing in this league, but that was a good front.”
(Have you seen examples of your team using the adversity you talked about or maybe even some of the outside noise to fuel them in individual or team ways?) – “I can’t speak to everyone’s individual motivation. I think that’s different for each one of us. To me, in this league, if your only motivation is what everyone else says, then you’re probably not going to be here that long. I think you’ve got to have an internal motivation – an internal drive, a constant chip on your shoulder – so that you can go out there to prepare and go through each week with the intent to play well and obviously be the best version of yourself that you can be. I think our guys take that approach. I know I try to take that approach, and I think if we do that, we’ll continue to improve.”
