Brian Flores – May 26, 2021
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Wednesday, May 26, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Are there any talks within your team about making minicamp optional or dispensing with it entirely?) – “No, we plan on doing minicamp the week of the 14th. I think that’s the right date. So no talks. We’re going to have minicamp and we’re excited to have minicamp. We’re excited to have the guys out on the field now in Phase III. It’s good to see we had fairly good turnout the other day and really I would say the last couple of weeks. It’s good to see the guys and really kind of get working on the fundamentals and techniques and communication. Like I’ve told them, you don’t just roll out of bed and jump back into it as if you’re in midseason form, so there’s a lot of working through some kinks, I would say, even just from a basic fundamentals, footwork, hand placement standpoint. It’s good to get them out here and work through some of those things. We’ll see them these next few weeks to include minicamp.”
(And on another subject, what is the level of vaccination participation with your players and is the team taking any steps to educate players about vaccination?) – “We’ve certainly educated the players on the different vaccines. We’ve given them a lot of education on it. I’m not going to get into the medical situations of the players on our team as far as who is, who isn’t. I just feel like that’s kind of personal, so I’ll stay away from that; but yeah, we’ve definitely given them education. Kyle Johnston, our head trainer, has done a very good job as far as presenting that to the players, the coaches, really everyone within the organization. They have the information and it’s each person’s individual choice.”
(Have you been vaccinated?) – “Yes, I’ve been vaccinated.”
(I wanted to ask you if you could just probably share the nature of the conversation you guys had with trying to get the players into the facility and maybe the workload or how much actual work is being done during this offseason with you guys?) – “Conversations between myself, players; they remain internal. I know you guys will be out there today so you’ll see what the workload is; but we’ll stretch, we’ll have some individual periods, we’ll have some team periods. I think we’ve gotten in these last, I would say, three instances where we’ve been on the field, I feel like we’ve gotten a lot out of it from a communication standpoint, from an alignment, assignment, communication standpoint. I think there’s a lot you can take from even just being out there and just getting to know your teammates, building team chemistry. I think we’ve gotten something out of it and hopefully we’ll continue to do so.”
(I wanted to ask you some of your players who have been on Zoom already – offensive players – they’ve said that they have noticed with QB Tua Tagovailoa that he’s more comfortable when he’s in the huddle, when he’s giving out his cadence. I know it’s early. What have you noticed right now coming into his second season?) – “I think he’s definitely more comfortable, but I think that’s normal for anyone in the second year doing anything that you’re doing. I’m sure the same thing is for you as a journalist. Year 1 is Year 1 and you learn a lot and then you get a little bit better in Year 2. You’re more comfortable. I think that’s the case if you’re a football coach, football player, journalist, plumber, firefighter. I think you’re just a little bit more comfortable. You know your surroundings. You know what’s expected of you. You’ve got a better rapport with your teammates, with the people you work with. So yeah, I would say I’ve seen him, as well as a lot of the second-year players, I think over the years this is kind of what you see. They have a better understanding of how we practice, the things that we expect from them as – the things that coaches expect from them; and then what they expect from themselves. ‘These are some things I need to be better at,’ whether it’s cadence, whether it’s communication, whether it’s getting aligned, whether it’s a certain specific fundamental, whether it’s double teams or pulling or defeating a crack block or your footwork on punt protection. Everyone’s got something that they want to work on and I would say in any job in your second year, you’re just a little bit more comfortable and we’ve seen that from him so far. Hopefully he continues to just grow and improve. That’s what we ask all our players and I’ve seen that. I’ve seen him being a little bit more comfortable, yes.”
(On a quick lighter note, you like the Florida Panthers’ chances tonight? I know you were at the playoff game the other night.) – “Yeah, they obviously played well the other night and I’m rooting hard for them. Same with the Heat. I know they play tomorrow night.”
(I know that you’ve had Melvin Ingram for a look. I’m curious what you’ve seen from him over the years that draws your interest to begin with? Do you see those talks continuing? Is he still a possibility?) – “Melvin as a player, over the years, I’ve seen a nice career. He’s had a very productive career as a run player, as a pass rusher, as a disruptive defensive player. I think everyone in the league has seen that from him. We do our due diligence on any player that’s available and that’s the case with Melvin. We brought him in, had some conversations. Again, I’m not going to get into what those specific conversations were with Melvin were or what our conversations have been internally about the possibility of adding him or not adding him. I’m not really going to get into it; but we do our due diligence and in this instance, we wanted to take a look and see where that is. We’ll see where it goes from here. I’m not at liberty to go into what may or may not happen.”
(I wanted to ask you about the hybrid defense. I don’t know if that’s what you call it. We always go back and forward with names. Where did that multiplicity get birthed? Where did it evolve? I mean in the early stages when you guys were winning championships in New England, you were pretty much your basic 3-4 defense with Vince Wilfork as a nose tackle and worked from there. When did you guys get to the point where you wanted to become multiple or hybrid?) – ”I think I’ve always wanted to be multiple. That’s something that for me – the one year on offense where I was a coach under Bill O’Brien and spent some time with them offensively, I would say I learned a lot from that year about how offensive minds think. If you view the same thing or run the same coverage or run the same front or run the same of really anything, there is something or some scheme or something that’s going to beat it. They’ll find it and they will try to take advantage of it. I don’t think this is just what we do, but I think every team tries to have enough variety that no one can pinpoint, ‘hey, they are doing this,’ so we can attack exactly what they are doing. I guess that’s kind of, to answer your question – and in order to do that and to do that – it’s not easy to do that, I should say. In order to do that, you have to have guys that are versatile and smart enough to basically change from one defense to another – one front to another front, one coverage to another coverage. It takes a certain type of player just from a versatility standpoint physically and then mentally to be able to do that. It’s not easy to do and as a coach, you may want to be multiple and I think we all do, but you just may not be able to do that based on the guys you have. We’ll see if we have those guys. I’m not saying we do. I think it’s something that you learn over time. We’ll practice it and we’ll try to see how much they can handle. If they can handle a lot, then we’ll do a lot. If they can’t, then we’ll do what we feel like we can get accomplished.”
(I’m writing an article about the new 17-game schedule and I wanted to know with the extra game, extra practices and all of that, how much emphasis do you expect to be placed on the recovery process? And can you talk about how you expect the strategy to play into the league overall with the extra reps and everything for the players?) – “I think we’ve always spent a lot of time on load management and recovery and loads and things of that nature. I have a meeting with Dave Puloka, our strength and conditioning coach, and Kyle Johnston, our head trainer, every day. The second we start training camp, we meet every day and talk about where guys are from an exertion and load management standpoint. The 17-game season, obviously with us playing 13 in a row, we’ll keep a keen eye on that. We’ve had a lot of conversations about it. I’ll tell you that. We’ve had a lot of conversations. I think we have a plan in place right now, but we know we have to be able to adjust, be flexible. We can have a plan right now but as you know in an NFL season, a lot of things change, a lot of things happen and we’ll be ready to adjust and be flexible and that may be practice, that may be – I think the thing for us as coaches and as a staff is getting enough practice in, managing the players and giving ourselves an opportunity to practice so that we can prepare ourselves to play at a good clip.”
(As you guys are getting on the practice field, I have a question for you in regards to players are going through portions of practice that might seem innocuous to outsiders – whether it’s stretching, warmups, walkthrough – what is it, if anything, that you guys are looking for in those periods from players?) – “Do you mean individual periods? I’m assuming you’re saying individual periods, so footwork, hand placement, in some cases when we’re talking about watching the footwork, we’re talking about an assignment that that footwork will be kind of tied to. Stretch is stretch and we get on them about stretching and hydrating and making sure that they are ready and prepped for practice. But specific to individual drills, footwork, hand placement, their strike on pads, timing – obviously we’re seeing with quarterbacks. Timing from a ball handling standpoint with quarterbacks and running backs. All of those things that may seem mundane – I’m not sure what innocuous means but I feel like it’s probably in that realm. It may seem mundane to some other people; but I’ll tell you what, if we screw up a hand off, it’s not going to seem mundane to anyone then. They are very important to us as coaching staff. If the timing is not right in the passing game and we can’t complete a pass, they are not mundane and innocuous. Those are the things that for me, I pay a great amount of attention to.”
(I enjoyed meeting Cornerbacks Coach Charles Burks yesterday for the first time and I know he’s been around you guys for a couple of years. I’m just curious, how did a guy with five Division II stops, how did you find him?) – “Yeah, Chuck (Charles Burks) was a good find. I think my relationship with John Wooten and the Fritz Pollard Alliance is kind of how I got to meet Chuck. We interviewed him and he did well on the interview. We hired him. He’s done a great job the last few years and he’s climbing the ranks. He’s a very good coach. He’s a good teacher, a good communicator. I love him. He’s got great relationships with the players, great rapport with the players and I think he’s a very good coach.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa’s conditioning and physical strength, how does that seem to you with him returning now for his second year?) – “Good. He’s clearly been working hard this offseason. Not only that, but he’s done a good job as far as when we weren’t here at the facility, grabbing guys. He had a group of receivers that were meeting at I don’t know what field somewhere, but twice a week. (They were) throwing routes. Again, building that timing that we just talked about, building that timing, building that rapport, building that chemistry, I think he’s done a good job from a leadership standpoint in that respect, away from the facility or when we were away from the facility. Physically, he’s in a good place.”
(I wanted to ask, going back to that 17th game and the 13 weeks in a row, you’re going to London. I was wondering if you had a chance to maybe elect a bye after that game or you didn’t have a choice. And if you did have a choice, why did you choose not to take it?) – “I guess my first thought is the schedule is what the schedule is. To go back and say whether we did or we didn’t, I don’t know but it’s not really something I’m worried about. I think the schedule is what it is. We’re going to London and then we’re playing the next week. We’re excited about playing football in the fall but honestly, that’s kind of far out for me. I’m really kind of thinking about today and today’s interaction with the players, helping them improve and get better today. There was a second part there that I didn’t catch.”
(It was all about having to play those 13 games in a row and what challenge that presents.) – “It will be a challenge. It will certainly be a challenge, but we’ll take it one game at a time, like anything else. I don’t think we’re really thinking about the 13 (games) straight. We’re really kind of focused on today, quite honestly. When we get to the season and we get to training camp, we’ll focus on the days in training camp and the preseason games. We’ll focus on that and just try to take it one day at a time and improve on a daily basis. Look, there’s challenges in every schedule. There’s challenges in anything we do, whether it’s football or personal lives or the schedule or training camp. We meet them head on and we do the best we can with them. I think we’ll put our energy on that and not on could-have, would-have, should-haves.”
(If I could ask a brief non-football question. We didn’t get a chance to talk to you yesterday but it was a year since George Floyd’s passing. I know that’s been a passionate issue for you in the past. Have you had a chance to reflect about that and kind of where we are a year later?) – “Yes. Obviously yesterday was the one year (anniversary) of the George Floyd murder. It just brought back a lot of memories of that time. The pandemic, that situation, the protests that followed, the vision throughout the country and really the world. I think this country has grown a lot since then. I think empathy has increased and that’s a good thing. Hopefully we continue to do that. It’s not perfect. I’m not saying that by any stretch of the imagination. But I think some hearts and minds were changed and hopefully we just continue to educate people and continue to improve and get better from that standpoint.”
(You mentioned earlier about QB Tua Tagovailoa getting guys together in the offseason. I’m curious, obviously that position being a leadership position, how much do you talk to him about leadership versus just kind of getting better on his own and maybe the balance between those?) – “I think it’s a combination of both. I think we talked to him about his fundamentals, his technique, his accuracy, his command in the huddle. I talk to him about a lot of things, with that obviously being a big part of what we’re talking about. I think all of that kind of goes together. So just his – we talk about his presence and his presence in the huddle, his presence in the building. But we also talk about everything football-specific as well, because he’s got to lead that way too. If his fundamentals are good and his techniques and communication are good, then that kind of leads the way for the entire offense and gives us an opportunity – it’s not just Tua. It’s Jacoby (Brissett), it’s Reid (Sinnett) and really the entire team. But my conversations with him are no different than they are with the signal-callers. I think that’s something that I talk to really the team about. If you’re a signal-caller here – which is obviously quarterback, the center position, linebackers, safeties – we ask those guys to do a really good job with communication and kind of lead the way from that standpoint. Those are part of the responsibilities.”
