Brian Flores – December 20, 2021
Monday, December 20, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(So RB Duke Johnson’s camp announced that he’s been signed to the 53-man roster. Do you have any corresponding roster moves or any COVID list updates for us?) – “Jaylen Waddle, he’ll come off COVID today, as well as Phillip Lindsay.”
(I wanted to ask you about G Robert Jones and the decision to use him yesterday. Had he been practicing well? Did you see opportunities with a sixth offensive lineman package yesterday to do some damage in the run game?) – “Yeah, I mean every week it’s gameplan-specific. We felt like putting Rob in there in some heavy packages at tight end would help us or potentially help us in the run game. We decided to do that and we thought he did a nice job in there.”
(We ask you every week. Is this the week finally that WR Will Fuller could come back and begin practicing?) – “Will’s had some setbacks in his rehab. I don’t expect him this week and I don’t expected him back this season.”
(Also, RB Malcolm Brown. Could he come back? And one other question about the special teams play where the direct snap went to S Clayton Fejedelem. Was that by design and was there a miscommunication?) – “Malcolm Brown will practice this week and we’ll see how that goes. The special teams play, I’ll take full responsibility for that. My call. We didn’t execute it. Thankfully the defense kind of bailed us out there. We need to do a better job of execution.”
(After now watching film and seeing DT Christian Wilkins’ touchdown celebration, how would you rate your big man’s boogie? It seems like he got really into it out on the field.) – “Yeah, it’s good to see his teammates huddled around him and excited for him, and their support for him and his excitement to help the team with the score It’s always nice to see that. I can give you my opinion on defenses, offenses or special teams but dance, that’s somebody else’s wheelhouse and not necessarily mine. (laughter)”
(I wanted to ask you about some comments from some of the Jets offensive players mentioned about spacing your defense. They said that they expected going into the game to see a lot of that Cover 0 pressure that you guys were showing on film, but then post-snap it was more zone. I was just curious about the psychology of showing blitz or showing Cover 0 pre-snap and then going into more zone or maybe a man look that’s not Cover 0. What effect can that have on the offense and how they maybe approach things?) – “I thought they had a good plan. I thought they did a nice job of executing some of their protections and kind of blitz beaters. I thought they did a nice job. That’s football. You make it look like one thing and it’s another and you try to disguise things. We’re doing that really in all phases – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game.”
(I wanted to ask you about RB Salvon Ahmed who was up and didn’t play. Was that health-related or more kind of the way the flow of the game was going?) – “He just came off of COVID. We only had three backs so we were going to take three backs regardless. That combined with Duke was running it well, Myles (Gaskin) was running it well. That’s kind of how it goes. But initially, the plan was to get those guys more snaps. I thought they did a nice job with their snaps. Salvon was ready to go. He battled back from having a different week dealing with COVID and getting back and getting back into form. He and Myles both, I thought, did a good job from that standpoint.”
(Obviously DT Christian Wilkins had his moment in the sun yesterday and it seemed like a lot of guys kind of rallied around that and had fun celebrating that play with him. I just kind of wanted to gauge your take as far as how you view celebrating making big plays after all of the work you guys put in throughout the course of the week. What is your philosophy or take on celebrating when you do make a big play?) – “I think the guys work hard. I think they should celebrate. I think they should celebrate, I think they should support one another. I think it’s hard to score in this league. I think it’s hard to make those types of plays. You should be excited about it. I encourage that and at the same time, we’ve got 40 seconds to get ready for the next play. That’s about the amount of time that you have to celebrate. We were right on it, I would say, after Christian’s score. We ended up kicking with two seconds left. We’ll certainly have a conversation about the time limit on the celebrations.”
(How did CB Nik Needham play at safety? Have you and Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer and Defensive Backs Coach Gerald Alexander been working him there the past couple of years in case you needed him on a day like yesterday with S Jevon Holland out?) – “Nik is a smart player. He understands the defense just kind of conceptually, who is supposed to be in what spots. He hasn’t had a lot of reps there obviously throughout the course of the year but was able to step in last week, take some practice reps and then really step up for us. I thought we had a lot of guys who stepped up, Nik being one of them. But just being down a few guys. Duke, obviously. Nik. Isaiah Ford. I think that’s what we need. We need contributions from guys and really everyone. I think Nik, like I said, he’s smart, it’s important to him, he just wants to help the team. So safety, corner, nickel, we can really kind of plug him in in a variety of spots and feel confident that he’s going to get the job done.”
(I was looking at the AFC standings, which I know you probably don’t spend a lot of time doing. But there are 10 teams with six or seven losses. So they’re all sort of bunched up and clustered together. What do you think will determine which of those teams actually make it through over the course of the end of the season here?) – “Execution. I think that’s always something that we talk about. Mental toughness. Mental toughness and physical toughness. I think those are the things that it takes to finish strong in the season. There are a lot of good teams, obviously, throughout the league. There will definitely be some competitive games. We know that. We’ve got a big one coming up against a very good team. We’re just kind of putting initial eyes on the Saints and this is – we’ve got our hands full. We’ll certainly have our hands full.”
(I just wanted to get clarity on S Jevon Holland because he was taken off the COVID list and then couldn’t play. Like RB Phillip Lindsay and WR Jaylen Waddle, is he now able to return to the team and practice even though he didn’t play yesterday? And you just keep him off the COVID list?) – “Activated. We have to activate him the Saturday before the game in order to potentially get him back. So he’s still on the COVID list. I hope that kind of clears it up. He has not cleared COVID protocol yet.”
(So not on the COVID list but hasn’t cleared COVID protocols as of right now?) – “Yes.”
(I would assume you saw some of the Saints on Sunday night. I wanted to get your thoughts on if anything jumped out that you may not have already known about them.) – “That’s a tough, physical team across the board – offense, defense, special teams. They’ve got a lot of great players. Obviously they’re well-coached, really across the board. Sean Payton, (Pete) Carmichael, Dennis Allen, ‘Riz’ (Darren Rizzi). I think they do a great job. They’ve got a lot of really good players. They played well last night. They’ve been playing well. Like I said, we’ll have our hands full.”
