Brian Flores – November 25, 2020
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Wednesday, November 25, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Opening Statement) – “I want to send our thoughts and prayers to Markus Paul. He’s the strength coach for the Dallas Cowboys. I’ve known him for a long, long time. This is a great man of faith, a great coach. He was a former great player. I just want to send my thoughts and prayers to him and his family, to the Cowboys, their entire organization, their coaches, their players. When you’re dealing with health, a lot of things seem trivial and that’s certainly the case here, so I just wanted to make sure they know that they have our full support, and our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
(If G/T Jesse Davis and G Solomon Kindley are unable to play on Sunday, who would be the next man up in your mind? Has C/G Michael Deiter, even though he’s worked some at center in practice, has he still gotten many guard reps this year?) – “We’ll have to see how this goes in practice. We’ve got a few guys who haven’t played much, but have practiced well in training camp and throughout the course of the year. You mentioned Deiter. (Adam) Pankey, (Julién) Davenport, we’ve got some guys who’ve played in games, have some experience and we’ll see how it goes in practice. I think they’re all looking for an opportunity. If that opportunity presents itself – we’ll have to see how it goes at practice and get the best five out there and the best combination of players.”
(How has QB Tua Tagovailoa responded to having been benched?) – “He’s been fine. I think it’s – a little bit of adversity has never hurt anyone. He’s fine. We did our normal Tuesday meeting yesterday and went through the Jets. No issues.”
(Where are we with RB Myles Gaskin? Is he someone you could potentially get back this week and how would that change what you guys do in the run game, if so?) – “Myles is doing everything he can to get back. He’s eligible to come off (injured reserve) and we’ll make a decision on that here, whether or not he’ll come back to practice. He’s definitely made some gains over the last few weeks and we’ll see how it goes.”
(I wanted to ask you about DT Davon Godchaux. I know he’s on IR. I know he’s eligible to come back. Is that a possibility for this season or is the bicep injury too much and he’s done?) – “He’s as tough a guy as there is on our team and as I’ve been around. It’s a tough injury, but he’s doing everything from a rehab and treatment standpoint. I wouldn’t rule anything out. He’s eligible to return. Obviously that’s the rule this year, that anyone can return after three games; but he’s still treating and rehabbing. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t like to put a timetable on things like that. I do know he’s been in here, he’s been treated, he looks good. We’ll just take it one day at a time.”
(I wanted to ask you about the COVID situation. You put G/T Jesse Davis on the list on Monday and you haven’t put anyone on it since, which to us is a sign that maybe this thing has been contained a little bit. How have you managed to play a game and travel home together with presumably Jesse on the plane, and not have anybody who pops a contact tracer? How have you avoided that?) – “We take the tracing and the spacing and the distance and the mask wearing, we take it very seriously whether that’s on the bus, on the plane or in the building. I think the intensive protocol helps in that we only see them during practice and then everything is virtual. We work with the league and talk about exactly who is in, who is out and things of that nature. But from a contact tracing standpoint, we all wear the tracers and everything we do, we try to keep distance. I would say that’s the main reason – whether it’s the plane, the bus or definitely in the building. We do our best from that standpoint. I think (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston) and our medical staff, we’ve tried to educate the players on how important it is to keep their distance. From a tracing standpoint, if you’re within six feet of somebody, you beep so you get away from them. I don’t know how much more we can do.”
(With Thanksgiving coming up tomorrow and the NFL’s more stringent policy toward players gathering, what are you telling the players regarding tomorrow, especially your single guys who may not have a family around here to gather with?) – “Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I try to be honest with them about that and I understand that families are going to come in, but we also try to educate them and tell them that limiting the amount of people you come in contact with just helps the situation. I understand that. I think they understand that. At the same time, family is important, too, and we just try to educate them and tell them how important it is to mask and try to keep your distance as much as you can. For our single guys, I can’t definitively tell you what those guys are doing. Again, these are all adults. They’ve got to make decisions and hopefully they’re making good decisions. We’ve been preaching that really the entire year. I think this is a year of sacrifices. I don’t think we’re any different than a lot of other families and people around the country. There aren’t going to be the big gatherings that you normally have. I’m used to having 30-40 people in the house for Thanksgiving. That’s not the case – not going to be the case this year. That’s how I grew up – big family, everybody gets together. Those are great holidays and I have great memories from those times. That’s a sacrifice that we’re making as well as a lot of other people around the country are making. I think our players are no different and I’m sure you guys are doing things differently on Thanksgiving as well, so we’ve all got to make sacrifices, especially if we want to continue playing this year.”
(I’ll stick on the theme of Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for this year? I think this is a year where this holiday hits a little different just with everything that we’ve been through.) – “I’m thankful for health. I think that’s the first thing that came to mind. I’m thankful for my wife, who puts up with my nonsense on a daily basis and who handles our household and is a great mother to our kids and a great wife and a great everything. She’s the first person that comes to mind. But (I’m thankful for) my family. I’m thankful to be the head coach of this team. I’m very blessed. My life could’ve gone a few different ways and to be sitting in this position, I’m thankful for it.”
(I’ll just continue on that Thanksgiving theme. You said it’s your favorite holiday. Do you have a favorite meal? Does Jennifer cook a specialty meal? Is there turkey versus ham? How do you feel about the whole Thanksgiving food?) – “We’re a turkey and ham family, so you’ll see both on the table. My mom, this was her holiday, so she actually – I think Jenny stole a few of her recipes, so I still get a little taste of Mom’s cooking for Thanksgiving. But yeah, we’re a turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, greens; there’s a lot on the table. There’s always too much.”
(I’m going to be the spoiler and get back to football. How do you guys improve? It’s been an issue all season – the run game and the struggles that you guys have been having sustaining the run and then helping it build the pass game.) – “I think it’s the same answer. You’re probably sick of hearing it, but we’ve just got to continue to practice and then it’s about execution. I think we’ve got to try to find different ways to put the players in better positions to have some success in the run game on both sides, offensively and defensively. I think there’s a lot of different ways to do things in this league – different personnel, different schemes – so we haven’t tried every avenue. I don’t think any team has; but we have to keep looking for those different ways to create some opportunities for ourselves and if it’s something that we’re unfamiliar with, then maybe we do that. But at the same time, the things that – there are always ‘hey, if we got one block, we would’ve sprung that one’ or ‘if we handled that movement, we would’ve sprung this one.’ So there’s a little bit of back and forth on the best ways to try to make those improvements, but they’re constant conversations and we’ve been having them. We have them every day and not necessarily just on the things that we struggle with, but even the things that we haven’t struggled with. That’s coaching. There’s a lot of different conversations and communication and we’re all just trying to get better. I think (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey), (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer), (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny (Crossman); they’re just constantly trying to do everything they can to help put these guys in position to be successful and we’ll continue to do that.”
