Brian Flores – July 27, 2019
Download PDF version
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I believe you said yesterday that pads are on today?) – “Yes.”
(How hard is full mode for you guys? What limitations do you have and what do you want to see out of your guys today?) – “I think first and foremost, it’s about getting into a practice tempo. You have one without pads where you’re trying to get a lot of good work in but obviously staying off the ground, and when it’s not a full-contact situation, that’s one practice mode. This is a little bit different practice mode where we have pads on. We’re working our fundamentals, our technique. There is contact at the line of scrimmage, on the offensive and defensive line. There’s contact a little bit more at the wide receiver, DB, safety, tight end positions. We’ll work on tackling, but at the same time, to be in a good football position, it’s about body position. It’s about things you heard in Pop Warner – shoulders over knees, knees over toes, having good body position, staying off the ground. Basically, we don’t want anybody on the ground. We’re not coaching that. It’s not something we want our players doing. We want them in good football positions and the ability to make a block, make a tackle, and that practice tempo is something that players need to get used it. You don’t just snap, put pads on and you have high execution from that standpoint.”
(What’s the fine line? Because obviously tackling is hugely important. You said from Day 1 that reinforcing how to tackle, getting to that edge, but not putting your guys at risk?) – “I think that’s something we talk about a lot as a staff – tackling, defeating blockers, breaking tackles. That’s football 101. We have to practice it, but at the same time, we want to stay up. We don’t want any big collisions. We don’t want to get anybody hurt or injured. Obviously we tell everybody to keep their heads up, use good tackling form, good blocking form. That’s what the last two days have been about. Really the entire offseason is about those fundamentals, those techniques, body positions, hand placement, head position – things that we really need to put an emphasis on. If we see poor form, poor tackling – really, it’s for the players’ safety. It’s players’ safety first and foremost. If we see somebody ducking their head in practice, we’re going to take him out of the drill or take him out of the practice or take him out of the game if we have to. That’s for the safety of the player. I reiterated that to the coaching staff and to the players as well. At the end of the day, nothing’s more important than the health of this team, and part of that is us as a coaching staff to practice and drill the fundamentals the correct way.”
(So when the pads go on, does that begin to separate who the physical guys are and who needs to be more physical?) – “Absolutely. I think at the end of the day in football, you can never forget about the physicality of the game. It’s something that from the early days – from the beginning of the game, that’s really what it’s about. It’s a physical sport. It’s about being tough, being gritty, but at the same time, being smart, being disciplined and not letting the toughness and the aggression of the game get the best of you, which happens really on a week-in, week-out basis. That’s something that we have to practice as well. It’ll get chippy out there. That’s a good thing; but at the same time. we’ve got to keep our poise. But yeah, we find out the guys who are willing to put in that effort from a blocking standpoint, from a defeating-block standpoint, from a tackling standpoint when it’s hot, when you’ve got a big guy blocking you, when you’re tired. That’s what the game’s about. I enjoy that part of the game, and I’ll see if we can do that.”
(So other than the scrimmage, your philosophy for camp is going to be thud and not going to the ground? Is that accurate or will there might be some live periods?) – “We’ll have points in practice where we go live, points of practice where we’re thuds, points of practice where we’re tagging off. We’ve gone through that with the team. They know when and when they’re not supposed to. We’ll let them know when it’s live tackling. Again, we have to practice that, but for the most part, the tackling portion of it is really one phase of it, but it’s the interior blocking, on the interior defeating blocks, it’s receivers blocking, it’s DBs defeating blocks. All of that is critical to the success of this team, and that’s something that we’ll practice in the individuals because you can’t make the tackle until you defeat the block. It’s a step-by-step process, and I think it’s one of those things that I never want to put one before the other. You can tackle, tackle, tackle, but if you can’t defeat a block, then we’ll never get to make it there and make the tackle.”
(Other than proper technique and physical strength, from your NFL experience, what are the factors that end up making a player the things you want – physical and tough and a good tackler or blocker on Sundays?) – “I think being smart and knowing where your help is, where you need to be and where you can put yourself in the most advantageous position to defeat a block and then make a tackle. So I think there’s places in the defense for setting the edge – a firm edge here, and you know that he’s going to set a firm edge, then you know you’re not going outside of that edge. You’re going to go inside-out on that edge, and you’re going to defeat that block in that progression. Then when you get to that point, it’s about your fundamentals, your technique; but look, the talented players do a good job normally with their fundamentals, technique, and even sometimes it’s not the perfect fundamentals, perfect technique, but they find a way to get guys down, and at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about.”
(What criteria do you and Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea and Assistant Quarterbacks Coach Jerry Schuplinski use to determine first-team snaps at quarterback in terms of who’s playing with the first-team offensive line with T Laremy Tunsil, etc.? Obviously, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has gotten the vast majority of those through two days.) – “I think that is a day-by-day conversation. Criteria, it’s day-by-day quite honestly. It depends on who we’re trying to work together, what center we’re trying to work with the quarterback, what quarterback we’re trying to work with receivers, what backs we’re trying to work with quarterbacks, etc. You’ll see some moving pieces really on a daily basis, and it’s really a day-to-day thing that we talk about when we meet at night and then when we meet early in the morning – who’s going with what group and what’s the best way to evaluate the entire group and also those individual positions.”
(Everybody in here is aware you’re going to be here five minutes early. Does the team, by now, after how many months, aware of time schedules and all that?) – “They understand that time’s important to me and that I think it’s precious, and it’s something that I don’t like to waste. I think there’s a lot that we’re trying to accomplish here, and if we can get an extra minute here, an extra minute there, that could be the difference in getting fourth-and-1 and not getting fourth-and-1 – that minute. That’s how important it is to me. I think the players understand that. I think hopefully anyone who’s around me understands that. That’s kind of the approach I take. Maybe it’s a little out-there, as some might say, but that’s my approach and I’ve been that way my entire life. I don’t know what the difference is. Sometimes you miss a play by this much, you make a play by that much. I don’t know – maybe it’s that minute, so I want to take advantage of that.”
(What other – for lack of a better word – culture ideas have you brought here? When you talk about putting your imprint on the team, you’ve done…?) – “I wouldn’t say it’s mine. To me, it’s a football culture. It’s being on-time. It’s working hard. It’s putting the team first. It’s being tough, being smart. I think every coach, really around the league – in my opinion, if you’re in this game and you’ve been brought up in this game, and you’ve learned this game – in my opinion, that’s what every team’s hearing, so I wouldn’t call it my imprint. I know there’s a lot of high school coaches who are saying this exact same thing – Pee-wee coaches, NFL coaches, college coaches. So I wouldn’t call it my imprint. I would just call it an overall football culture.”
(Where did you first hear “tough, smart, disciplined?”) – “Where did I first that? In high school – Dino Mangiero. I’ve talked about my high school coach multiple times here. It’s the first time I heard it, and then I kept hearing it over and over and over again. Then I heard it from Tom O’Brien at Boston College. I heard it from my position coach – Bill McGovern – at Boston College, and then I’ve heard it for the last 15 years over and over and over again, so it’s been beat into my head for a long time. But when I really think back, I even heard it from my parents. We’re going to be tough, we’re going to be smart – we’re definitely going to be tough – I know that, but it was harped on to be smart, it was harped on to have respect and then be disciplined. Quite honestly, I’ve heard it my entire life, and it’s authentic, to be honest. So when I say it, I mean it. Hopefully, the people around me take heed and listen, and I think that’s the best way to create consistency and get better and improve.”
(What is a disciplined football team by your definition?) – “(A disciplined football team) doesn’t beat themselves, doesn’t have the silly penalties, plays with poise when it gets chippy, (is) smart, disciplined enough to play smart football, to understand the game situations, to understand the down-and-distance situation, the field position situation. I think those all take discipline to really look deeper into the game situation. That takes discipline. Mentally, that’s a tough thing to do, too, so smart, tough, disciplined – there’s a few different facets there. We talk about that not just with the players but with the coaches and really everyone within the organization. Again, these are things that I don’t think are groundbreaking; it’s just the way I’ve always been brought up.”
(Having worked more closely with CB Xavien Howard in the spring and early summer, how good can he be?) – “He’s a talented, talented player, and he is tough and competitive and aggressive. We’ll see how aggressive he is today, but there’s a lot of things I like about him. The one thing why I’m excited about him is he’s on a quest to get better and improve and fulfill all the potential that he knows he has and we know he has. At the end of the day, potential doesn’t really mean anything unless you take advantage of it, and I think he’s trying to do that. That’s a day-after-day-after-day-after-day process. A lot of guys have potential. They work at it one day, they work at it two days, but Days 6, 7 and 8, eh – they get a little tired. That’s the goal. That’s the goal for really everyone on this team. In order to maximize your potential, you’ve got to find the discipline, the grit, the toughness to stack good days together, and then when you get tired, that’s when you’ve really got to stack a good day. You’ve got to put a good day together. Then we’ll give you a day off, you get recharged, then we go again.”
(A question about the coaching staff’s decision of pairing guys – who works with whom – and changing that up; regardless of position, is there a chance that a guy who practices better than another guy the day before could be behind that guy the next day?) – “Yeah, there’s a chance that could happen. I guess the thought process behind that is, maybe we want to keep that guy hungry. Maybe we want to make sure that guy knows that you could have a great day, and we’re always competing. There’s a lot of levels here, a lot of things that go into it. Maybe we’re sharing a couple tidbits for you here – you can have that one, no problem (laughter) – but maybe that’s part of the process. To me, that’s a good thing. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe some people think they’re better than they are, and we don’t. It could be a few different things. Only a few people know that, though. Only a few people know what’s really going on, and then you find out on Sundays.”
(Looking at the tight ends, what does TE Mike Gesicki need to show you that he’s ready to take his game to the next level?) – “I think Mike’s done a really nice job throughout the spring and then really into the first couple days of training camp. I think – like everyone on this team – it’s again, it’s one thing to put a couple of days together. We’ve just got to string them together, and now with pads on, this just adds a whole other emphasis from a blocking standpoint, from getting releases with more contact and breaking tackles and ball security. There’s a lot of levels to it. You really can’t get a full evaluation until we get to this point, and we’re here now. This will just be the first step to the next round of evaluation.”
