Brian Flores – November 29, 2021
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Monday, November 29, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I was going to ask you how you thought C/G Michael Deiter played in his three starts at center before the injury, and is he ready to resume his role as your starting center against the Giants?) – “I thought he played well early in the season. It’s a while back now. But yeah, it was unfortunate that he got injured but he’s worked his way back. Obviously he practiced last week, as you know. We’ll just kind of see how – I thought he did some good things last week in practice. Obviously he wasn’t ready for us to call him up but we’ll take this one day at a time and see how he practices this week. But he’s working his butt off to get back out there and he’ll try to get out there as soon as he can.”
(WR Will Fuller and WR DeVante Parker, do you expect either to be able to practice fully this week?) – “Again, with both of those guys, it’s no different than where we were at this time last week. We’ll see on Wednesday. Both are obviously getting better and getting closer. They’ll work out today and tomorrow, which will tell us a little bit more, and kind of if we’re there yet. We’ll make the best decision for each one of those guys individually and for our team.”
(This rookie class has really come along and yesterday was a great example with WR Jaylen Waddle, LB Jaelan Phillips and S Jevon Holland all making plays. Is there a common thread in something about them? Their work ethic or anything like that? Or anything that you can say about what’s led to this?) – “I think all of the guys in the rookie class and I would say all of the guys on our team, they work hard. Football is important to them. They’re team-first. Those guys are tough. They are competitive. They enjoy playing with one another and support each other. They work at it every day. Study film. And they’ve gotten better. I’m confident that they’ll continue to get better because they’ll continue to put the work in. They’re all sponges. They want to get better. They want to learn. They want to improve. They want to help our team.”
(Along the rookie lines, they’ve had a minicamp, they’ve had training camp, they’ve had 12 games, meetings, film, all that stuff. Is there a point where rookies aren’t really rookies anymore? Is there a point where you kind of – you’re a rookie for your whole first year and I get that, but is there a point where you shed the tag inside the building?) – “No. They’re rookies. (laughter) They’ve still got a long way to go and a lot to learn. I think you learn – this is kind of the point in the season where it gets really different for them. College seasons are really over right now. So it’s 12 games and I think we can all kind of reasonably understand that. There’s 12 games in college and now you’ve got a lot of season left here. This is where the season is longer, it’s a more physical game, it’s more taxing in a lot of ways – mentally, physically, emotionally. So yeah, they’re certainly still rookies now. And this is – while they’ve played football this long, in college I think next week is the conference championships and this is kind of where the length of the NFL season differs from anything that they’ve ever dealt with. They’re certainly still rookies.”
(Along those lines though, if you stack the two side-by-side, yeah their seasons would be done if they’re still in school. The numbers are one thing but it looked like they just played their best games too. How are they finding ways to get the most – if they’ve never gone through a season this hard or this long, what does it say about them that they’re able to put up their best numbers this time of year?) – “We try to take things one game at a time. It says that they’re working hard. It says that they’re taking advantage of their opportunities. But specific to your question about them being rookies, I would say that they still are because they’ve never experienced this next part of the season.”
(Earlier today, LB Jaelan Phillips said something that I found kind of interesting and profound. I want to know if you can help me with the origin. He said ‘We say cut your own grass. Don’t worry about your neighbor’s yard.’ Obviously that means do your job, do your assignment. I’m assuming that’s what it means, if you can elaborate. Is that a you saying? Is that a Josh Boyer saying? Where did you guys get it from?) – “I think it means handle your responsibility, your assignment, your communication. Basically, do your job. Don’t worry about what the other guy is doing because the other guy is going to do his and if we get enough guys handling their business and handling their responsibility, and everyone trusts that the guy next to him is going to do what he’s supposed to do, then that will make it as hard as possible for our opponent. And even then, sometimes everyone does do their job and the opponent makes a play. But we don’t want to give them anything because I didn’t take care of my individual business.”
(You guys were adamant about doing that defensively earlier in the season. I guess it wasn’t happening. People weren’t just doing their job. At what point do you think that message sort of hit home this season? I know it wasn’t an issue too much last season but wen did it hit home with this team?) – “I think it’s always something we put an emphasis on. Look, each game is different. I think it’s something our guys are always trying to do. They’re always trying to handle their responsibility and do whatever is asked of them on a specific assignment. Just doing it more consistently now. When it hit home, I can’t say a time. I’m kind of just focused on right now and where we’re at and trying to play good solid football across the board offensively, defensively and in the kicking game.”
(I was wondering if you could take me back. It seems kind of unusual – I know you guys are all friends – but it seems kind of unusual for a head coach to let his coordinator under contract interview with another team. So I was wondering if you could take me back to why you let Patrick Graham do that and what you’ve seen from him now that he’s running the Giants defense.) – “Pat and I are good friends. I would say – we shared an office together. We’ve had our spats. Our wives are best friends. Our kids hang out. Pat is a great friend of mine. From a football coaching standpoint, we’re more brothers than anything. So I have a lot of respect for him. I would never stand in the way of somebody doing something that they wanted to do. That was something that Pat wanted to do. I have a lot of respect for him and his family and that’s something that – I support him. I support him in that situation. I’m always going to support him. But Pat and – that’s my man 50 Graham as many will say. A lot of respect for him and Joe (Judge) and Jerry (Schuplinski).”
(I wanted to ask you about RB Phillip Lindsay obviously arriving on Wednesday and he’s heavily involved in the run game, pass game and had some great moments in pass-pro as well. What does it say about your offensive staff to be able to turn him around and get him ready for a game just three days after he got here, to have that big of a workload?) – “I think Eric (Studesville) did a great job of getting him ready. We had a small package for him, let’s call it eight-to-10 plays. Phillip (Lindsay) was on top of it. We probably could have given him another eight-to-10 plays and he would have got it all down. We spent a lot of time going through it, walkthrough, they met, did walkthrough some more and they met some more. They worked ball handling with the quarterbacks, went through the protections. Walked through it, went through it some more. They spent a lot of time on it and it’s just a credit to Phillip and his commitment to getting it right and Eric getting him coached up and ready to go. We put him in the game and I thought he did some good things and hopefully we can build on last week.”
(I was wondering if you could talk about your relationship with Joe Judge and any memories that stand out from your time together in New England?) – “Joe (Judge) is another good friend. Spent time in New England obviously as you all know. Again, our wives are friends, my son and his daughter were in the same pre-k class so we’re talking about people that I have great relationships with. But on Sunday, we are going to compete. That’s what I know we are going to get from them and they know that’s what they are going to get from us. A lot of great memories. I’m not going to divulge those right now, but definitely someone I have a lot of respect for.”
(Maybe not this week but outside of this week, you guys are both first-time head coaches and are at similar points of your career. Do you guys compare notes and stay in touch a lot?) – “Yeah, we stay in touch. But I think those conversations are about our wives, our families. Occasionally there’s something football-related that we can get into, a situation or something like that. But most of the time it’s not really football at the forefront. I would say we are friends first. Same thing with Pat (Graham) and same thing with Jerry (Schuplinski).
(I wanted to ask yesterday’s win was your 10th win as a coach in the month of November, I know back in New England, those teams had a lot of success in the second half of the season. As a coach, how do you get your players ready for that stretch run and obviously with you guys starting the way you did, how are you as a coach able to turn the tide and get them to play their best when it really counts later in the season?) – “I just try to take it one day at a time and try to improve and get better. I know you guys probably get tired of hearing that but I think the only way to get that improvement is to talk about it every day. I think if we just continue to come in and prepare the right way, work the right way in meetings, walkthrough and practice, you will make those improvements and over time, hopefully you play better. There’s a lot that goes into it, whether it’s playing disciplined or being able to change gameplans or shift a gameplan, there’s a lot that goes into that. There’s a lot of kind of things you have to, from a foundational standpoint, that you have to have in place in order to make certain adjustments later in the season that you need to make. Every team deals with that, but in order to make those you just have to, on a day-to-day basis, try to get better.”
(In talking to S Jevon Holland and LB Jaelan Phillips, they really stress how much of a team bond that there is. As a coach, do you see that whether it’s on the practice field or in the meeting rooms? And how does that translate to the field and how you guys were able to turn things around?) – “I think that’s important. I’m happy to hear those guys say that. It’s important to me, that camaraderie, those bonds. That means something in-game that you trust the guys that are next to you. I think that’s something you can definitely build on. It’s nice to hear them say that. That’s the kind of culture that we want to have here and I hope when people watch us, they see a group that supports each other, that enjoys playing together. We’ve just got to keep preparing and try to keep preparing and give ourselves an opportunity to play well.”
(I’m wondering if there is anything more you can tell us about where you plan to go from here with RB Phillip Lindsay? What will be the focus for him this week as he incorporates himself into the offense and can you see a point where this becomes an open competition?) – “We’ll just kind of take it day-to-day. I think there’s so much for him to learn from a playbook standpoint, from a just getting to know his teammates standpoint. He’ll certainly have an opportunity. What he shows us in practice, what he shows us in walkthroughs, what he shows us in meetings, we feel like he can help us and we will try to put him in positions to do that. I think Myles (Gaskin), Salvon (Ahmed) and Patrick (Laird) have helped us as well. We’ll just add him to the mix and try to put him, and really all of our players, in the best positions to play well.”
