Brian Flores – June 4, 2021
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Friday, June 4, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to ask you, the Patriots players you brought in over the years, how has bringing those guys in helped you with what you want to do here – whether it’s instilling the culture or already knowing some of the defensive principals that you want you want to run?) – “First and foremost, it’s about us feeling like they fit as people, just from a character standpoint. Then as players, obviously understanding the system is part of it. Leadership is part of it; but overall, at the end of the day, it’s about talent and what we think is their ability to help our team and this organization.”
(In regards to guys that you’ve known and kind of came up with over there, to give them an opportunity to reunite with them again, what has that meant to you?) – “For the guys that we brought in from there, obviously there is familiarity and relationships there and understanding of what I try to represent, what we try to represent, which are guys who are tough and smart and love to play, compete and are team first. There is familiarity from that standpoint and an understanding of that, and hopefully they can put those things into action.”
(It’s been pretty widely reported that you’ve been pretty flexible with how the offseason would go to help try to assuage some of the concerns of the NFLPA. I was curious, have you gotten out of this what you normally would? Has there been any difference in this? And how encouraged have you been by the turnout?) – “I think we’ve gotten a lot out of it. This time is about communication and fundamentals and techniques and learning the playbook, understanding the playbook, having an understanding of concepts offensively, defense and in the kicking game, building rapport with teammates. We’ve been able to work on some individual techniques and fundamentals; and then communication, cadence, shifts, motions, adjusting to shifts and motions. I think we’ve gotten quite a bit out of it and we still have today, next week, and then minicamp. Hopefully we get a lot more out of it.”
(We’ve talked in the past about that free safety spot being a communication spot. Obviously there are no starters yet, but with a rookie maybe competing for that role in S Jevon Holland, how much do you put on him as far as communication, as far as leading the back end of the defense early in his career?) – “I think all of the rookies have a lot on their plate right now – a new environment, new playbook, you’ve got to learn the names of your teammates and the people in the building. They’ve got a lot on their plate, along with Jevon and Jaylen (Waddle), Jaelan Phillips and really all of the rookies. This is what I would call a step-by-step process, more than this thought that we’re going to put everything on them, and say hey ‘learn it all.’ It’s more of, ‘Hey, here is a coverage, here is some terminology,’ and then we get a feel for how quickly they learn it. This is all positions. This is not specific to Jevon. How quickly do they learn it? How well do they understand it conceptually? Can they communicate it? And then you give them more and then you give them more, and then at the end of the day, their role is going to be what they make it and how much they can retain and then communicate out in let’s call them those signal-caller positions. How much they can retain and then communicate to the rest of the group. It’s really up to them, to answer your question. There is no ‘hey, it’s going to be this timetable,’ or ‘hey, we’re going to give them all of this information.’ It’s really about how much they can retain and how much they can handle. As rookies, that’s something – we’re getting to know them and we’ll try to figure that out through time. But he’s done a good job thus far, I would say.”
(We spoke to QB Tua Tagovailoa recently. He said a lot of things and one of the things that got a lot of attention was when he said this: he said, “I didn’t actually know the playbook necessarily really, really good.” What are your thoughts on that and him having been a rookie?) – “My thoughts on that are – they kind of go back to what we talked about last week with him being more comfortable, him just having better command in the huddle right now. Honestly, I just think he’s comparing last year to where he is right now, and I get it. I understand that. I remember being a first-year position coach and coming out of that year, going into the spring, going into the next season and saying, ‘I could’ve been better last year. I should have been better. I’m better now.’ So I think contextually, I think we all understand where he’s coming from given just the conversation I had with you guys last week, if that makes sense. I think he’s thinking about where he is right now versus that time a year ago, just reflecting. And that’s good. This time is about reflection and where you are now versus where you were six months ago. I think he’s worked hard to improve in a lot of areas, and I think he has and I think he’s kind of communicated that out.”
(This kind of goes back to an earlier question, but specifically with DB Jason McCourty being here, almost everyone when you talk about the McCourtys talks about them outside of football and how good of human beings they are and obviously you have a lot of experience working with Devin and also Jason together. Just bringing him here has to be exciting for you, just because of how great he is to have around.) – “Yeah, I mean Jason, from a leadership standpoint, from an experience standpoint – he’s a good player as well. I think he brings a lot to this team; but again, I would say it’s not about Pats players or former Patriot players. It’s about guys who we feel like fit this team, and those are the types of guys that we bring in. It’s not just former Patriots players but it’s guys from various other teams as well. So the guys who we feel like fit, we obviously do our due diligence trying to find out about the person as well as the player, and obviously Jason fits the bill as well as a lot of the other guys we brought in.”
(We know everything is obviously voluntary now and when guys aren’t out there, often it’s because of personal commitment or maybe they’re just training in their hometown or something like that. I was going to ask you without naming any names, do you believe any of your absences are related to guys who have contractual issues? Maybe they want an extension, maybe they want more money or based on your conversations with everyone, do you feel like that’s not a factor in any of the absences?) – “You mentioned it. It’s voluntary. I think after last year where there was no offseason, I think guys around the league and our team’s no different; they found a different way to train and they feel comfortable doing that. We have a few on our team and I respect that. I have no issue with that. I think my conversation with every player on this team is they’re doing what they need to do to be ready to contribute to this team and practice and play at a level that’s going to help us. I have no issue as long as they’re ready to go. I’m comfortable with that and I support it.”
(I just wanted to go back on the QB Tua Tagovailoa comments. It seemed like he was kind of trying to tip-toe not throwing maybe his relationship or work relationship with Chan Gailey under the bus. Were there times where you felt like he wasn’t able to check plays or alert plays or didn’t have a full grasp of what you guys wanted to execute offensively?) – “Honestly, last year is last year. I’m more of a forward-thinker. I’m really kind of focused on practice right now or walkthrough, which we’ve got in a couple hours. I understand the question, but I think Tua – we’ve talked about his growth a lot from the last six months and how he’s reflected on that. I think my focus is on helping him improve on a daily basis. Obviously you use the past to kind of point you in the right direction of where to make those improvements and we’ll just continue to focus on this one day at a time and help Tua and really every – I know a lot of the focus gets put on one player, but it’s really every player on the roster. We as coaches, that’s what we’re trying to do, is help them all get better, improve, reach their potential. If we can do that with the individual players and then pull it all together in different units, in groups; then hopefully we have a team that supports one another and can be productive on the field.”
(In what ways did you see improvement out of DT Raekwon Davis during the course of last season?) – “I think like every rookie, every time you practice or get a rep, it’s a good experience. Whether it’s a good play or a bad play, you learn something from it. I think that’s – I think you see improvement through the course of his fundamentals, his techniques in practice; and you see that translate into the team portion of practice or whatever run period or play-action pass period or whatever we’re doing in practice. You see those improvements. You see them in the game. You see just an understanding of what we’re doing conceptually, what we’re doing, why we’re doing certain things. And it’s not just Raekwon. It’s not just Tua (Tagovailoa). It’s really all of the players. This game is about forming good habits. I talk to the players about that really on a daily basis. We’ve got to practice good habits from a ball security standpoint, from a footwork standpoint, from a hand placement standpoint, from attacking the ball. You’ll hear ‘Chuck’ (Cornerbacks Coach Charles Burks) tell the DBs to attack the football. You’ll hear (Defensive Backs Coach) Gerald Alexander talk to the safeties about bad breaks lead to missed tackles and we can’t have missed tackles so we can’t have bad breaks. Those are the – we have to practice good habits and we see guys improve on those habits on a daily basis. That’s the improvement that we want to see. Every coach is tasked with helping the players at their position improve and we all try to work together to make sure that happens. The players obviously put a lot of work into it as well. Whether it’s Raekwon, whether it’s Tua, whether it’s Brandon Jones, whether it’s Jesse Davis, we’re trying to improve all of these guys. We hope all of these guys improve.”
(With Defensive Backs Coach Gerald Alexander and Cornerbacks Coach Charles Burks, I’m curious because obviously you were a defensive assistant coming up. Do you see any of yourself in any of your younger defensive assistants and kind of share your experiences with them as they go about their career?) – “It’s not just the defensive assistants. I know I mentioned those guys, but it’s really all of the coaches. We’ve got a fairly young staff. All of these guys work hard. They’re all hungry to learn and get better and improve and find different ways to help the guys in their groups get better. That’s why they’re here. But specific to ‘Chuck (Charles Burks) and ‘GA’ (Gerald Alexander) and (Linebackers Coach Anthony) Campanile and (Defensive Line Coach) Austin Clark, ‘Grizz’ (Wide Receivers Coach Josh Grizzard), obviously (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends) George (Godsey) and (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Running Backs) Eric (Studesville), I think we’ve got guys who are passionate about the game – ‘Lem’ (Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre) – passionate about the game, passionate about coaching, passionate about helping their guys improve, passionate about learning the game. There’s so many things about the game that we’re – the game evolves and it changes every year. Different schemes, different concepts, different modes of play, different rules, different situations. All of these guys are eager to learn it all and try to pass that information to the players in hopes that the smallest thing is the difference between making a play and not making a play. And oftentimes in this league, as good of players there are, the difference between making plays is (small). I think we’re all trying to find different ways to make up that difference. I think ‘Chuck,’ ‘GA’, Josh and really everyone on the entire staff, I think they’re all passionate about this and I can hear it on the field. I know they’ll continue to do that. ‘Lem’ is the same way, (Quality Control) Kolby (Smith) is the same way. We’re all just trying to get better, myself included.”
(We talk to you a lot about QB Tua Tagovailoa obviously because he’s the quarterback, but is there maybe a way that you can contextualize or give us an example of maybe his practice methods or routines that you’ve seen, in your eyes, from last year to this year, and maybe how he’s grown?) – “Are you talking about…”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa. I know we talk about the comfort. Maybe an example that you’ve seen like, “this kind of stood out to me,” and how he’s maybe grown. Or “I noticed this was improved from last year,” or something because obviously we weren’t there a lot last year so we can’t compare, and this year is a little different because it’s walkthrough.) – “Similar to what you’re saying, it’s walkthrough. So just from a meeting standpoint, I can talk to it; but from a – I would say he wants a process. He’s trying to put together a process for how he studies, how he eats, how he trains, really kind of everything. I would say I’ve seen that. So from a scheduling and process and routine and system standpoint, he’s got a system in place or he’s putting together systems that he thinks will help him do X, Y or Z – whether it’s training, whether it’s meetings, whether it’s fundamentals, throwing mechanics. I’ve seen that, for sure.”
(I’m wondering whether there have been internal discussions or with other teams about possibly holding joint practices this summer.) – “Yeah, there have been some discussions. Nothing truly, truly finalized just yet; but some discussions. We’ll see how this goes. Honestly, we don’t even have – we’re kind of still waiting on some of the final protocols and what we can and can’t do. But yeah, there have been some discussions. I’m always in favor of doing joint practices. I think they bring a lot from a camaraderie standpoint, from a competitive standpoint. I think you can get a lot out of those. I know we did with Tampa a couple of years ago and my experience is you get a lot out of those and it kind of breaks up training camp in a good way, in a positive way.”
