Brian Flores – October 1, 2021
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Friday, October 1, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Will C/G Michael Deiter and WR William Fuller V be available to you Sunday?) – “Deiter was injured in practice on Wednesday. He’s going to be out and likely to go on IR. Fuller, he was at practice yesterday. We expect him to practice today and go on Sunday.”
(Is OL Greg Mancz next up at center?) – “Yeah, Greg will start at Center.”
(I know you talked about him after the acquisition and sorry to ask you again, but what are some of the qualities in which you like about OL Greg Mancz?) – “Smart, tough, competes. He’s picked up the offense quickly. Vocal. He’s done a nice job so he’ll be in there this weekend.”
(How big of an impact do you see the C/G Michael Deiter injury having on the team?) – “Yeah, I mean Deiter is the starting center. He’s done a nice job really the entire spring, training camp and the start of this season. It’s unfortunate but we’ve got to move on with the next player and the next man up mentality like we’ve talked about. But yeah, it’s a tough loss. It’s a tough loss for the offensive line, us as an offense and us as a team. Deiter will be the first guy to say for us to go out there and prepare and practice the right way and hopefully play well on Sunday.”
(Is this a situation where C/G Michael Deiter going on the IR and will return or is this a situation where his season is done?) – “I think we’ll take this like every player, it’s day-to-day. Every injury is a little bit different. The rehabs are always different. In this case, it will be a minimum of three weeks and we will see how the rehab process goes in those early weeks and have a better idea of where we’re at after those initial three weeks.”
(Where does that leave you as far as a backup center? I’m going to guess G/T Jesse Davis just because he does everything else.) – “Jesse can snap. He’s snapped before. We’ve got a couple different ways we can go there. Again, there’s a good amount of versatility throughout the offensive line. We’ll have a plan. We have a backup center.”
(How difficult is it for the offensive line to mesh and take steps forward now that it’s going to be the fourth different starting offensive line?) – “It’s the way it goes in the National Football League. A lot of teams are dealing with injuries and COVID and that’s just kind of how it is. We’ve talked about that here, being able to shift guys around and move guys into different spots. We do that really early in the season in training camp because it’s more likely than not that will be the case during the season. We’re dealing with it. A lot of teams are dealing with it and the next guy has got to go in and execute. That’s why we practice and prepare and move guys around.”
(When you put C/G Michael Deiter on IR, is bringing up C Cameron Tom a consideration from the practice squad to the 53?) – “Potentially. That is potentially something we might do. There’s a few different ways we could approach this. Cam has done a nice job. He did a nice job in training camp for us. We brought him back to the practice squad so there is potential for that.”
(With the high number of quality wide receivers that you have, what factors go into what decides who is going to be up and who is going to be down in a particular game? How much of it is how they practice? How much of it is matchups?) – “I think it’s gameplan-specific. Who we think will have success in a given grouping, a series of plays, their value in the kicking game, what they bring to the table in the kicking game, blocking in the run game. It’s just all the things we talk about at the wide receiver position. There’s a few different things we talk about as a staff. ‘Hey, we think this guy will be good in these sets of plays. This guy will be good on this on third down or this on early down or this in the run game.’ That’s a lot of the conversations we have as a staff early in the week and that kind of plays into our projection of who would play best in those roles. We’ve always got to have backups and then we let guys get those reps during the week and make that determination at the end of the week.”
(You a do a good job of communicating with players. I’m always curious in a case where established NFL guys are on the inactive list as opposed to young players like WR Albert Wilson and WR Preston Williams, who has had some success in two years, do you make a point to explain to them during the week? Do you have Wide Receivers Coach Josh Grizzard do it in the case of the receivers, when it’s more experienced guys as opposed to a young guy?) – “I’ve always said I keep my conversations with players private. But yes, I have conversations with – I try to have as many conversations throughout the week as possible. It’s hard. It’s hard to talk to everybody on the tea, but in those specific situations like inactives and play time and up, down things like that, yeah, I try to have those conversations. Like you said, honesty is always the best way to go. We feel this way, this is why you’re up, this is what we feel like you can do and this is where for this particular week, a guy may not be up. I think that’s the best way to handle it really for any player, coach or anyone in the organization, just to be honest. I think our guys respond the right way.”
(What have you seen out of TE Mike Gesicki this week especially after having a good game with 10 receptions last game?) – “The way Mike prepares is really the same every week. He is someone who it’s very important to him. He practices the right way, prepares the right way and he’s anxious to get out there and practice. Like a lot of our guys, he believes that if you do it right in practice, you give yourself an opportunity to do it right in the game. His preparation has really been the same, it’s not like it just spikes up because he played well. I think he’s pretty consistent with his approach to the game every week.”
(I want to ask you about the possible challenges that DT Grover Stewart and DT DeForest Buckner present for the Colts up front?) – “Two very good players up front. Hard to move both guys. DeForest, it’s hard to move him. He’s very quick. He’s obviously very talented. A tough guy to block. Then next to Grover, it’s hard to move Grover. Then they’ve got Tyquan Lewis that goes in there and does a good job. They’ve got some good players really across the board. They do a nice job defensively. They really do a nice job across the board – offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. Specifically the defense, it’s a tough front to play against. They do a lot of things to create confusion schematically. They’re well coached. I think Coach (Matt) Eberflus has done a very nice job since he’s been there. We’ll have our hands full, that’s for sure.”
(With G/T Rob Hunt, just thoughts on how he’s done at right guard. Do you and Offensive Line Coach Lemuel Jeanpierre have a conviction yet whether he’s better at guard or tackle? Or might that take a full season to get a handle on?) – “I think Rob has done a nice job in there at guard. I think he’s learning that position. I think it’s early as far as getting game reps at that spot. He’s still developing. I think he has all the right make up to develop. I think for him and a lot of our younger players, it’s just about playing with some consistency.”
(You’ve mentioned that every team deals with injuries in this league obviously. Looking at the Colts practice report yesterday, there are a lot of guys were on that list. I know you’ll scout and prepare for all 53 guys, but when you have that many injuries you’re looking at, do you have to build in contingencies on how you’ll do types of plan for what they may or may not have available to them?) – “I think first and foremost, we try to prepare for really everyone and assume that they all will be out there. Until we get the word, which a lot of guys don’t practice or are limited on Wednesday and Thursday and then practice on Friday. We probably won’t have a – we don’t get a game status until today. We prepare for everyone but in a situation like this, there are more guys you are preparing for. More guys, more of their offensive linemen, more of the – it looks like some injuries in other places. You’re just preparing for more guys. Our guys know that whoever is in there will be well coached, have good fundamentals, good techniques, are going to know what they are doing, are going to play fast. This team plays fast really in all three phases. This is the National Football League, so everybody is good. Our team knows that. Our team understands that. We know this will be a tough 60-minute ball game.”
(Speaking with CB Nik Needham and DT John Jenkins yesterday, we asked if they had picked QB Jacoby Brissett’s brain at all about the Colts. Both of them said no. John specifically said it’s a new regime, it’s a new year. Jacoby isn’t in that building and neither am I. That kind of mentality, how does that help you guys throughout the week as you prep for this game?) – “I think those guys watch a lot of film on their own. We sit in meetings, we kind of go through it. But yeah, every year is different and everyone has their own way to prepare. I think those guys – Nik and ‘Jenk’ – they prepare well each week. I think that’s the mentality. I think they watch film with their coaches on their own. I think everyone has their own routine as far as how they go throughout the week. I’m confident in those two guys that they’ll be ready to go.”
(I was going to ask you about WR Will Fuller. When you have a player that’s battled injuries like he has and who has missed this much time, how do you get gauge of whether he’s game ready, especially when he’s fighting something else?) – “I think Will is game ready. I think we saw that last week. I thought he did some nice things. I thought he made a couple of good catches. When he’s been at practices, which he was yesterday, you see some of those things. You use practice, you use the game and you make that determination. We wouldn’t play someone we didn’t feel confident was ready to play. I think Will will be ready to go.”
