Brian Flores – December 30, 2020 (Conference Call)
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Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores Conference Call with Buffalo Media
(You’re No. 1 in the NFL on third-down defense. Just give us a few thoughts on what has gone so well.) – “I think the players have – again, it starts with the players – they’ve done a good job executing on third down. Obviously it’s an important down in the game to allow ourselves to get off the field and put the offense back on the field. Our defensive coordinator, Josh Boyer, has done a very good job – and the defensive staff – of putting the players in good positions and they’ve been able to execute.”
(Do you have – like a lot of teams have an assistant who is a third-down – like does your defensive backs/safeties assistant specialize in third down or is it a team effort?) – “(Assistant Defensive Backs Coach) Curt Kuntz, he’s one of our assistants and he handles the third down and kind of leads that meeting when we go through it. Again as a staff, we put together some ideas and talk through what we think is the best way to handle or try to get our opponent off the field. Those can be long conversations, which they’ve been already this week with the challenges that (Brian) Daboll and the Bills offense with (Josh) Allen and (Stefon) Diggs and with John Brown coming back and Cole Beasley, the backs and (Devin) Singletary. These guys do a good job and there’s a lot of weapons there, not to mention (Josh) Allen’s ability to even if they play – if you have him covered, he scrambles and picks it up like he did last week and he’s done all year. They pose a lot of problems, so that third-down meeting is ongoing still and hopefully we can execute on Sunday.”
(How do you prepare for a team not knowing if the Bills are going to be resting some of their starters? It looks like WR Cole Beasley is week-to-week, but how do you deal with that in trying to prepare your team mentally in knowing they could be playing some backups and that could backfire, too?) – “We’re preparing as if they’re all playing. That’s been my message to the team. Everyone is playing – the quarterback, the coaches are definitely coaching – I’ll tell you that right now. I know these guys and they’re competitive as all get out, so we can’t control any of that. We have to prepare for their best players as if like any other week, and hopefully that’s been put out of their mind because it’s something I would say I’ve been on a little bit of a crusade about. I expect them to play. It’s a big game for us and we’ve got to go out there and execute against a good football team. It’s never ever either way.”
(In showing the improvement the Dolphins have showed this year, how have you been able to walk the fine line between looking at the long-term future and development of players versus the objective to win now? How have you managed to walk that fine line?) – “I think the objective is always to win and to win every game. I think as far as looking into the future, I really leave that to (General Manager) Chris Grier and the personnel staff. With the players we have, we just try to develop the young ones, develop the veterans, try to improve and get better on a daily basis, and we try to play our best players; so if that happens to be a rookie, then it’s a rookie. If it’s not, then it’s not; but we’re trying to develop everybody. So I guess from that standpoint, I guess I have a long-term view from that standpoint; but to me, that’s just coaching and whoever’s on the roster, you try to help them get better. Honestly, I think Sean (McDermott) and (Brandon) Beane and the Bills have done a great job from that standpoint and we’ve seen guys develop there as well from Josh Allen to (Micah) Hyde to (Jordan) Poyer. If you watch these guys for the last four or five years, they do a great job back there, I would say. You guys know I’m a safeties coach by trade, so it’s good to see a group like that and watch them play and see how well they play together. You can do so much defensively when you’ve got guys like that. But that’s just a couple. There’s 10 other guys like that on that team, so they’ve done a great job.”
(With DE Shaq Lawson, just could you tell us how he’s doing? He’s got four sacks. People I think maybe look at that first, but how he’s setting the edge? Overall, how is Shaq Lawson doing this year?) – “I think he’s playing well. He’s a little bit banged up right now. We’ll see if he can get out there today, but he’s doing everything he can to get out there. I think he’s playing well. I think he’s been able to pressure the quarterback and set the edge and do some good things in the run game. He’s been a big part of our defense this year and he brings great energy, and just as a teammate, he’s been great and as a student who’s someone that we’ve been able to coach, he’s been great.”
(I’m sure you’ve talked about it a lot, but you look at the talent Buffalo has at wide receiver or any team every week, really, but could you just talk about you and General Manager Chris Grier and the priority you put in roster building on investing at cornerback? What do you think about how important that is? Is it hard to fake it at cornerback in this league?) – “I think every position is important, but with the talent at receiver in this league, the talent at tight end in this league; I think Chris (Grier), myself and I think every coach, GM, football mind – I think they all believe that having talented guys in the back end is important as well. We’re no different than I would say anybody else in the league. We’re fortunate to have a number of guys back there who are very good players and have made some plays for us this year and hopefully they continue to do so.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick is a subject Bills fans never get tired of given who he is. You’ve gone to the relief route, gone to the bullpen a couple times here with Ryan. Can you talk about maybe his personality and what allows him – maybe some other guy if you went and used him in this way, it might not go quite so smoothly just from a chemistry standpoint. But with Ryan, it’s so clear to everyone he knows his role. What do you think about that, how Ryan’s personality in this role has helped it go smoothly?) – “First and foremost, ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) is as competitive as anyone in this league, as we all know; but he’s also selfless and humble and he’s been a great mentor to Tua and a lot of our young players. This is a very young team. We’re fortunate to have him. I can’t speak to what it would be in another situation. I know in this one, everyone on this team wants to just do what they can to help us win ball games and when asked, ‘Fitz’ stepped in last week and has done so also in the Denver game. We just ask them to do their best and try to help this team win and he’s done that and he’s been selfless and he’s team-first, and those are the types of guys we’re trying to bring in here. Honestly it’s very similar to the types of guys the Bills bring in or brought up there. I think in order to, in this league, where there’s so much even attrition, you need guys who are ready to step in and we have that.”
(Speaking of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey, they were in a similar situation while with the Jets in 2015, needing to win and get in. Chan yesterday spoke about how much that still sticks in his craw – that memory – and Fitzpatrick of course has never made the playoffs. I know everybody wants to make the playoffs, but do you get a sense from Chan or Fitzpatrick how important to them this game is in some ways?) – “I think it’s important to everyone. I think we as a team, we’ve put a lot into this season, but I think that’s the case for every team in this league. Everyone works hard, everyone puts a lot into it. We find ourselves in a situation where we’re fighting to stay together one more week, honestly. More than just winning, I think this group likes to be around each other, so it’s important to everyone; but at the same time, we’ve got to just kind of follow our routine, follow our process and not have our eyes squarely on the result. We’ve got to just follow the process and prepare the right way and let the result take care of itself. All we can do is our best as far as from a preparation standpoint and try to execute on Sunday. And then we’ll let the results take care of themselves.”
