Brian Flores – December 2, 2020
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Wednesday, December 2, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(This isn’t a QB Tua Tagovailoa question, this is a RB/WR Malcolm Perry question and also a follow up on something you said last week regarding the slot position, and how you don’t necessarily – I don’t know if I’m expounding on what you said – kind of believe in the slot. You believe in having other players or kind of having other guys fill in for that role. Considering you come from the Patriots, who kind of revolutionized how the slot was used, where does that belief come from?) – “I’m not necessarily sure I said I don’t believe in the slot position. I think you can play with different guys in that position. I think it’s literally a spot on the field, not necessarily a position. I think we are talking about between the numbers – that place on the field between the numbers and the hash, which people call the alley in the kicking game, they call it the slot in the passing game, some people call it the seam defensively. I just see it as a spot on the field. Obviously you see it as a position – an actual position. Maybe we just need to come to an understanding on how we see that. I don’t necessarily see it as a position, I see it as space on the field. I think that space can be filled by a number of different positions. You can put a running back there, you can put a tight end there, like I’ve said. You can put a receiver there. For us, you’ve seen DeVante (Parker) in there, you’ve seen Jakeem (Grant) in there, you’ve seen Malcolm Perry in there, you’ve seen a number of different players there – (Mike) Gesicki, running backs. So to say I don’t believe in that part of the field, I think is – I believe in all parts of the field. Maybe one day we can sit down and talk about the field dimensions and that will be one conversation, and then particular players and their skillsets will be another conversation.”
(I know you like to be straightforward about things, but yesterday when we were talking to Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer, I asked him about how you broke the news to him about how you would like for him to be defensive coordinator. He described a conversation that sounded incredibly brief, actually. My two-part question is, was it really as brief as what he described? And two, what was it that you saw in Josh that made you believe that he was the right man for the job?) – “I don’t know what your guys’ conversation was, but I’ve worked with Josh for a long time. He’s a very good teacher of the game, he’s got a lot of good knowledge. We’ve had years worth of conversations about defense and coverage and structures and fronts and protections and pressures. I don’t know how long it’s been – 14 or 15 years – of these same conversations. I think he’s very knowledgeable, I think he’s a very good teacher. I think he relates and tries to build relationships. I think he’s done a very good job for us this year. I think all of that – I’m not even talking about the fact that we’ve coached in games together. He and I communicate well together. He communicates with the other coaches very well. He’s a good coach. I would say from that standpoint, it was brief. I thought he would do a great job and I think he is doing that.”
(I want to get your view or philosophy on receiver separation and maybe how significant you feel like that is to an offense.) – “I think it’s – receiver separation, I know they’ve got the Next Gen Stats and he had half a millimeter of separation or something like that. They’ve got all of those statistics; but a lot of times, a guy like DeVante (Parker), who is a big body, he is long. There might be a guy right on him, but if you throw it inside – if the guy is on his back and you throw it inside – his arm length is the separation. While it might be a millimeter or centimeter based on the Next Gen Stats, you can get that ball in there. Again, it’s case by case. As a defender, you want to have tight coverage. As a quarterback, I think you just need to know the frames or the builds of your receivers. If you’ve got a smaller guy, that separation or the coverage being tighter, you might have to fit that one into a tighter window versus just getting the ball out in front of a taller, longer receiver. To me, it’s all case by case. I think if you look at a lot of statistics, they talk a lot about separation or flight of the ball in the air and you’ve got all of these statistics; but the practical application of some of those things are different when you are on the field, I would say. But yes, as much as you can separate from a defender, it always helps. I think when you start getting into the ‘what is enough separation?’ That’s when it gets subjective in a lot of ways.”
(A lot of things happened around the league – the Ravens game is now on a Wednesday and Denver is without quarterbacks, San Francisco is moving. You guys were not at the facility like everybody the last two days. What’s been the biggest hurdle for you riding – the big picture hurdle of what’s going on this year?) – “I don’t call it a hurdle. I would just say these are the cards we’ve been dealt and we’ve got to play this hand. Everyone’s dealing with the pandemic. Everyone is doing things differently than they did a year ago. People weren’t wearing masks and distancing and not spending the holidays together, and I think those are the hurdles. It’s very different than it was a year ago and I think as a league, we’re trying to do everything we can to keep the players safe first and foremost, to keep the coaches safe, keep the people within our organizations safe, and try to do what we all love to do which is play and coach football. I guess I don’t see them as hurdles. There’s just maybe a little bit of adversity; but again, that’s never hurt anyone and we just try to find different ways to move forward and teach the players and coach the players, and players getting better and improving and just play the hand we’re dealt.”
(I was hoping I could get some kind of an update on QB Tua Tagovailoa. How did his treatment go the last few days and do you anticipate him practicing fully today?) – “Tua’s been rehabbing. He’s been getting treatment. He’s working hard to get back in there. We’ll see about today when we get out there. Again, I wish I had a crystal ball to tell you he’s going to practice fully; but we’ve got to get out there and do that before we can say that. He’s doing everything he can and we’ll evaluate it as we go.”
(Another practice question – in terms of the two rookies who weren’t able to go last week, do you expect RB Salvon Ahmed and G Solomon Kindley to be out there today?) – “Again, both guys doing – really working to get out there as soon as they can. We hope to get them both out there and we’ll see. We’ll see in a couple hours. I meet with the trainers after I do media for this specific reason, (laughter) so I don’t have the information for you guys right now. That’s a 9:15 meeting. (laughter)”
(I was asked this question this week and I honestly don’t know the answer. How much do you involve yourself in play-calling offensively, defensively and is it just you involved in the preparation or do you call for specific things on situations like third-and-6 or do you say “blitz now?” What’s your hand in play-calling?) – “So somebody asked you this question about what I do and you didn’t have the answer?”
(I did not have the answer.) – “That’s interesting. (laughter)”
(But I generally don’t, which is why I ask the questions.) – “So – I’m sorry, I was just kind of taken aback. (laughter) So the question is how much input…?”
(Yes.) – “I think on a week-to-week basis, it’s different. Again, we do a lot of work over the course of the week, so I’m involved on the offense, I’m involved defensively, I’m involved in the kicking game, situations, game management. So there’s a lot of things that are already talked about, and I think no different than anyone else on the offensive staff or the defensive staff or in the kicking game or from a game management standpoint, I offer suggestions. No different than (Running Backs Coach) Eric Studesville offers suggestions and (Linebackers Coach) Anthony Campanile offers suggestions and says, ‘hey, maybe we should do this or this’ depending on game. It’s case-by-case. I would say I let my coaches coach and I’m not sitting there going, ‘hey, call this, call that.’ Because at the end of the day – because I’m working all three sides of the ball and game management – (Offensive Coordinator) Chan’s (Gailey) spent more time on offense and seen more of it. (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) has spent more time on defense, he’s seen more of it. (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny (Crossman) has spent more time on the kicking game. So for me to sit there and say, ‘hey, I know better on any of those,’ I think is – it doesn’t really – we all have the same amount of hours. Let’s say they spend those hours all on one side of the ball, I trust that they’re going to have the answers we’re looking for in their respective side of the ball. I’ll make suggestions, but at the end of the day, I try to let those guys coach and then obviously occasionally I’ll make my thoughts known. But I think it’s worked out for the most part.”
(With the running back situation, I know you guys are getting a little healthier. I don’t know if RB Myles Gaskin is going to come back, but if he does, do you anticipate him resuming his lead back, starting – I don’t know what you want to call it – role that he had for much of the season before he got hurt?) – “I think it would depend on what he shows in practice. He practiced some last week. When you’re out a few weeks, there’s a conditioning element, there’s a getting back to it element, there’s a physical element; so the idea that a guy could just walk back in and is the same player he was before the injury, normally it takes a little – a week or two weeks to get back to hopefully back to where he was. But we take that into consideration. I hope a guy like Myles does, or could, get right back to form quickly; but I don’t think there’s any assumptions that it’ll be that way. We’ve got some other backs. We normally rotate them, so we’ll see. But it all starts in practice. If he goes out there and practices well and we feel like he can take the majority of the carries like he was prior to injury, then that could be the case, but we’ll see.”
