Brian Flores – December 24, 2019 (Conference Call)
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Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores Conference Call
(As a New England guy being down in South Florida now, what do you miss most about something up here in New England?) – “Well, it’s 80 degrees here, so… (laughter) I had a lot of winters growing up. It’s fun to have a different – well, one season – so it’s nice to have 80-degree weather during the Christmas season; but more than anything, I built a lot of great relationships in New England from players to coaches to you guys in the media to Stacey James and Anne Noland, equipment guys, IT – (Dan) Famosi. There’s a lot of people that I came to know and really built some good relationships with. Those people I miss, and I enjoyed my time with them; but things change and I’m really excited about what’s going on here in Miami. There’s a lot of great people here as well. I’m really enjoying myself and trying to help this organization grow and get better.”
(Just a follow-up on that. We caught you in Week 2 and now we get you at the end of the season. How would you describe what your first year in Miami has been like?) – “It’s been fun. I’ve really enjoyed working with this team. I think we’ve grown a lot. Obviously we’ve had a lot of players as you know – as everyone knows – but we’ve tried to coach them up as best we can, get them ready to go whether it’s new guys, whether it’s guys in different positions, obviously trying to build relationships with the players as coaches, as the head coach, as the coordinators and then obviously building that trust and camaraderie – trying to build it within the locker room and with the players on the field. That’s really what’s most important. It’s been fun. It’s been a great experience. I think I’ve learned a lot about myself and this team. Like anything, there’s things I wish I could have done better, and I try to always to improve and get better in my role and try to help guys do the same.”
(Do you like coming into Foxborough and being a possible spoiler in terms of the Patriots getting a second seed?) – “I don’t really think of it that way. I love to compete. I love to go in – I know that’s going to be a great environment. It’s going to be a huge challenge for us and a great test for us to go into an environment like that against a really good football team and try to compete and try to come out with a win. That’s what competition’s all about. I don’t really get into all the other seeding and all of that. I just like to compete and our team likes to compete, so that’s really what it’s all about for me.”
(The last couple of weeks, you guys have claimed DB Nate Brooks and LB Calvin Munson off the Patriots practice squad, and both of them pretty much slotted right into the lineup for you guys. What attracted you to those players, and how do you think they can help you moving forward?) – “We watched a lot of tape on both guys from preseason and obviously knew a little bit about – I knew a little bit about Calvin having spent some time with him. From a toughness – speaking about Calvin – from a toughness standpoint, from an intelligence standpoint, I knew he had a lot of the things that we covet, which is why he was down there. We learned those things about him down – up there. I’m used to saying ‘down there.’ (laughter) I thought he played well last week. I think he’s been a really good addition. He’ll have another opportunity to play again this week; but we’ve got to prepare, go through our process. It’s not easy to stop that offense or move the ball against that defense or protect from the punting game against the kicking game unit. It’ll be a big challenge – our biggest challenge of the year, I’d say.”
(Understanding – your offense is its own system and obviously you’ve got your own personnel down there, but where do you still see the greatest overlap between the system Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea is running and the offense that you saw for so many years on the practice fields up here?) – “That’s a tough question because of what you said at the beginning. It’s totally different personnel. To me, at the end of the day, that’s what it boils down to, is it is different personnel. Again, I know the guys there. They know us and I think on every coaching staff, the objective is to put your players in the best positions to do the things they do well. That’s really dependent on the skillset of each individual players – your offensive line, your tight end, your receiver, your running backs. Is he a receiving back? Is he more of a runner? Is he a receiving tight end? Is he more of a blocker? Et cetera, you go on and on. What groupings are you going to put out there? Heck, they’ve got ‘E. Rob’ (Elandon Roberts) in there at fullback. He’s a damn good fullback, too. I’ll tell you that right now. He’s a good fullback. I’ll leave it at that.”
(Knowing CB Stephon Gilmore pretty well, what can you say about the challenge of going up against him and what did you get to see just with his practice habits and how he is in that environment that makes him the player that he is?) – “We could talk about ‘Steph’ (Stephon Gilmore), but there’s again, there’s a lot of other players there. You need 11 guys out there. They do a great job with communication from ‘Steph’ to Jon Jones – I know he’s a little bit banged up, but Jon Jones to J.C. (Jackson) to the McCourty brothers to (Duron) Harmon, (Patrick) Chung; how that works with the linebacker corps and the d-line. I think they work in unison. They play together as a team, but specific to ‘Steph,’ I think he’s really grown over the last few years. This is one of the best corners in the league, one of the best defensive players in the league. I think from a coverage standpoint – big receiver, small receiver, quick receiver – he can really do it all. He can move inside if you need him. He can do a lot of different things. It’s going to be definitely a challenge. It’s a challenge for every team to get open against him in man coverage, and that’s why a lot of teams just stay away from him, to be honest. He’s a great player, but they’ve got a lot of great players on the defense, on the offense, in the kicking game. It’s a great coaching staff, so it’s going to be a challenge.”
(I know when you’re in the division, that can create a different dynamic with relations with Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. How has that been for you in terms of your relations with him just because you guys are competing in the same division? I ask you in the context of Bill talking in the past about how strange – not how strange but how tough it was for him when Nick Saban was coaching down in Miami and they’re such close friends, but when the competition’s that close, what’s that been like for you guys?) – “You know what, I think – look, I was with Bill for 15 years. I know him very well. He knows me very well. At the end of the day, I have a lot of respect for him. I learned a lot from him. I’m fortunate to have worked with that organization for a long time; but I know this about him: he’s going to try to beat the heck out of us, and he knows this about me, that we’re going to do the same. That’s why I was in the building, because I’m competitive by nature. I think that’s something I try to impart on the players I was around. I know they’re competitive. I love those guys and they love me, and I know that. From McCourty to (Patrick) Chung to (Kyle) Van Noy to (Elandon) Roberts to (Dont’a) Hightower, I built relationships with these guys that go far beyond football. I know that; but on Sunday we’re going to be competing against each other and nobody’s going to care about any of that stuff. I think that’s the same with Bill and that coaching staff and all the guys there – Josh (McDaniels), Joe Judge. The friendships go far beyond football, so I know that and I think Bill knows that; but once 1 o’clock on Sunday (comes), they’re going to be on the other side and we’re competing and we’ll be friends after that, after those three or four hours. That’s kind of my take. I don’t know if that answers your question, but that’s kind of how I look at it.”
