Brian Flores – November 18, 2020
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Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I was hoping I could get an update on a couple of guys that have been out. We saw DT Christian Wilkins wasn’t brought off the COVID-19 list. Do you expect him to be out a little bit longer now? And also with RB Matt Breida and LB Kyle Van Noy, where do they stand?) – “Again, we’re just following the protocols on all players from a COVID standpoint. I’m not going to go into anyone’s medical situation. Breida and Van Noy, both – obviously Breida has been out the last couple of weeks but he’s been working to get back. He’s been practicing and hopefully he can continue to improve. I know he’s working hard and wants to be out there. Van Noy got dinged up in the game. He’s received treatment and just taking it one day at a time, trying to rehab and get back as quickly as he can.”
(I wanted to ask you, is there an early instance in your life, maybe with a former coach or family member or things like that where you first realized that one day at a time is the best approach to life and football, etc.?) – “Yeah, I would say that’s definitely the approach for a lot of people. That was my approach going up. I mean I’m not going to get into the specifics of that, but I learned early on that that’s the best way to approach things – not to look too far ahead, not to get too high, not to get too low, to stay even-keeled and just take things one minute at a time, one day at a time and focus on right now. But yeah, I’ve had experiences really throughout my life that have brought me to the conclusion that that’s probably the right way to go about things. I found some results doing it that way and that’s the message that I try to send to the players.”
(You were talking Monday about CB Xavien Howard and the interceptions. Regarding DE Emmanuel Ogbah, I’m wondering if it’s kind of the same thing. The sacks are obviously the thing that sticks out to people but he’s obviously bringing a lot more to the table than just that. What’s the thing about his great leap forward this year that has you most pleased?) – “We talked about it on Monday. I went back and did the math. Over the course of the season, most guys have let’s call it 1,000 plays. A 20-sack season is an all-time season. It’s literally two percent of the plays. I think we can all do the math. Everyone can do the math. But those are the plays that we’re focused on and I’m focused on the other – those plays are fantastic. We love them. Everybody loves them. Those are the flash plays. But it’s the other plays that we as a staff try to focus on, try to get all of those things right. Those plays that nobody is really watching that really help the team and help your teammates. I think Ogbah does a great job from that standpoint of taking on blockers, taking on double teams, setting the edge, getting in the gap on a game or a stunt, getting his hands up on quick throws, communication. Those things have been very good also. Again, the statistics – you can look at them a lot of different ways. I think when we spend a lot of time on the flash plays, the big ones, we forget about the other ones. Hopefully our players don’t.”
(There are collectively bargained reasons why you can’t put your players in a bubble, but those don’t exist for the coaching staff. You’ve had multiple coaches miss multiple games the last two weeks. Have you considered putting the coaching staff into a bubble and what would be the pros and cons of that?) – “I’m just going to – I understand the question – the bubble. But if I wasn’t able to see my family, my wife, my kids, I’m not going to be as good a coach. Period. So you can talk bubble and everybody wants to talk bubble and you don’t have to go in the bubble; you just want to stick other people in the bubble and not really care about their personal situation, so I’ll leave it there.”
(I’ve got a question from Houston if you’ll oblige me. I want to see, can you describe what Jack Easterby did in New England to help build a strong culture around that organization?) – “I’m going to talk about people here with the Dolphins. Jack – my experience with him and the time I spent with him was – I’m going to talk about people here at the Dolphins. I’m not going to get into what’s going in Houston or Jack. I’ve got a great relationship with him, but I’m not going to expand on that.”
(I wanted to ask you with the Broncos QB Drew Lock situation how much film do you have to do or study and where do you go when you want to study QB Brett Rypien and maybe QB Jeff Driskel, and how closely do you monitor that because of the quarterback uncertainty?) – “You watch them all. They’ve both played, so there’s plenty of film on both quarterbacks, really all three; so we watch it and we evaluate those guys, their strengths and weaknesses in conjunction with our game plan, and see if the game is called differently with those guys in there. If it is, then we’ll have to adjust, but I think they do a good job. They’ve done a good job working with the strengths of each different quarterback, so it’s going to be a tough test either way and they’ve got a lot of really good young skill players – (Jerry) Jeudy, (KJ) Hamler, Noah Fant, good backs. I think this will be a tough test for us.”
(I wanted to ask your thinking about WR Antonio Callaway. You activated him off the practice squad and put him on the 46 or 47 whatever it is this year, but didn’t play. What was the thinking behind that and also I think he’s reverted back to the practice squad but is not protected. I just wanted to get the thinking that the franchise is thinking about in Antonio Callaway?) – “We activated him and he was up for the game, so we were ready to put him in. How the game went, he ended up not playing, so the thinking is he’s a good young player. He’s getting better on a weekly basis and hopefully he can improve in practice, in meetings and get a better feel for what we’re doing offensively and in the kicking game and give himself an opportunity to play.”
(I think one thing we’ve certainly all come to know and learn about you is the focused mindset of your football team and the day-by-day improvement, but I was curious if you find it important to strike a balance with kind of the serious time and maybe when it kind of can be a little bit lighter, and what does DE Shaq Lawson do in your defensive meetings or your defensive line room to help kind of strike that balance?) – “What we do, it’s not easy. Playing football – yeah, you have to be demanding. It’s a physical game. It’s a violent game, so any way you can make it fun as a coach, you need to try to do that. I think each coach has their own different personality. Mine is different than a lot of other guys and a lot of other guys are different than mine, and each player is the same way. But I think as a coach, the best approach is to let players be themselves and coaches have to be themselves also. I think if you’re genuine and authentic, then you have peace with the things you say and how you interact with people. If you’re making it up on the fly, then I think people see through that, too. They’re young guys. They want to have fun, they want to laugh and they joke around with each other and they joke around with the coaches and we joke back. And Shaq is full of life. Shaq’s got a great laugh apparently and he’s a lot of fun to be around, and you don’t want to temper that as a coach. You want to let him be himself and bring his energy to the rest of the group and they feed off of it and I think it makes us a better team.”
