Brian Flores – October 12, 2020
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Monday, October 12, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(This would have been a better question for me to ask you at the owners’ breakfast in March in Palm Beach, should we have had it, or maybe even General Manager Chris Grier, so forgive me. It’s sort of a big picture thing. It became clear that even though this was a rebuilding project, you guys wanted to win in Year 2, just based on personnel decisions you made this offseason – bringing in CB Byron Jones, LB Kyle Van Noy, etc. How important was it for you all to at least be a playoff contender this year, even though it’s still fairly early in your program?) – “I guess part of that question may lead someone to believe that we didn’t want to win in Year 1, which wasn’t the case obviously. Look, every time we step on the field, we’re looking to win. That’s how we prepare. That’s how we try to compete, every time we step out there. I don’t get into looking into the future about what we want to do or what we want this to look like. We take it really day to day, one game at a time, with the idea that every week we’re looking to win a football game. I just don’t want to get that confused with the wording of that question. That’s myself, that’s Chris (Grier), that’s ownership, that’s everybody. We’re always looking to make moves with the idea of winning.”
(When a team has a big lead and there’s a lot of time left, it can be a challenge striking a balance between staying aggressive and playing conservatively, which leads me to ask you what was the thought process on the fake punt yesterday?) – “I think in all games, you want to be aggressive. You’re right; there’s kind of a balance you’re looking for. But I don’t think you just want to sit on the ball early in the third quarter. You want to be aggressive. We got the look we wanted and we ran it, and we were successful. It’s not often you get the look you want offensively, defensively or in the kicking game. If you get it and you practice it and you’re ready to go on it, you run the play. I think Danny did a great job – Danny Crossman, our special teams coordinator, did a great job of drawing up a fake for that specific situation. It came up in the game. We ran it, we got it and we were successful. I think it was a big play in the game for us. We went down and scored. I think it was a big play in the game.”
(Earlier today, we were talking about DT Christian Wilkins handing you the football. CB Byron Jones mentioned that he’s pretty sure he saw you smile even through your mask. I wanted to give you equal time to either confirm or rebut that.) – “Any time we get a turnover, I’m excited. We were able to turn the ball over yesterday, so if you can see the smile through my mask then good for those guys. Any time we score, any time we make a big play, a big stop defensively – which we had some yesterday; any time we kick a field goal – which Jason (Sanders) did a great job of yesterday; or make a play in the kicking game – we had a nice kickoff where we stopped them inside the 15-yard line; you can pretty much assume I’m smiling through my mask. So yeah, Byron or Christian’s assessment of that is probably right. I don’t know if they saw that, but if they think they did, it’s probably a good assumption, I would say, in those situations.”
(I guess a couple of personnel questions if I could. One, what went into the decision to not having RB Jordan Howard active on Sunday? And then the second one, we saw CB Noah Igbinoghene have a decrease in snaps this week when CB Byron Jones returned. Is he strictly a boundary corner at this point or do you see him still in the nickel conversation?) – “As for as Jordan, this is a decision we make throughout the course of the week based on game plan, based on kicking game, based on just overall numbers. We felt like that was the best – look, we’ve got to make people inactive. Jordan is competitive. He’s done a good job. Those aren’t easy decision, but we just felt like that was the best move for us in this particular game with this particular game plan. As far as Noah, obviously we got Byron back. Noah’s play time decreased a little bit; but I would say we still have a lot of confidence in Noah. He’s the first guy in on the perimeter. We talk about nickel and things of that nature, he’s not really a nickel per se. He’s really a perimeter corner, which makes him the next guy in for either ‘X’ (Xavien Howard) or Byron (Jones), with Nik in there – Nik and Jamal Perry really in there – as the actual nickel position. I think oftentimes, people may misinterpret that as Nik is playing over Noah, but they’re really two different positions. I just wanted to make that clear to everyone. We have a lot of confidence in Noah. Obviously we wouldn’t have put him out there if we didn’t. Look, he’s a young player and he’s still ascending. Based on game plan, he may play more next week. We’ll just see how this goes.”
(I wanted to ask about the offensive line. I saw that you started G/T Robert Hunt and moved G/T Jesse Davis over to left tackle. What went into that decision and how did you think the offensive line performed as a whole?) – “I thought as a whole, they played well. I thought the pass protection against a good front was good. I thought the run game, we really got it going in the second half. I thought they played well overall. Robert Hunt, this being his first significant playing time, I thought he showed himself well. The moment wasn’t too big for him. He and Solomon (Kindley) they did a good job over on the right side. It just felt like that was the best five we could put out there, with Jesse and Ereck (Flowers) on the left, Ted (Karras) obviously at center, and the two young guys on the right side. I thought they played well. It’s always good to see a young player get in there and get his first few snaps in the National Football League. I would say Robert was out there against a very, very good player in Arik Armstead for much of the day, and I thought it wasn’t too big for him. Look, we’ve just got to continue to improve. I think (Offensive Line Coach) Steve Marshall has done a really good job with that group, guys playing different positions, but continuing to play with some consistency, some toughness. They all bring leadership and energy, I’d say that. There’s a lot of energy from that group.”
(Two other guys I wanted to ask you about, two young players: DE Tyshun Render, what the thinking was in not only elevating him but giving him playing time yesterday on defense. And also, what’s the thinking with you and Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey on WR Lynn Bowden Jr.? Do you just want to slowly incorporate him more as it seems?) – “Well Render, I think he’s performed well in training camp and done a good job in practice. With Shaq (Lawson) being down, we needed another end; but we also needed someone with Durham (Smythe) being down, a bigger body from a kicking game standpoint. There’s a lot of things that go into our decisions that you would think normally it’s just defense and just one side of the ball, but an injury to somebody on the complete other side of the ball could affect the kicking game. We kind of needed some bigger bodies to fill in some backup roles from that standpoint, and that’s why we went with Render. As far Lynn, I really let Chan handle the offensive side of the ball. Obviously I have a little bit of input, but he’s got a great offensive mind. As far as how he’s going to incorporate Lynn, I know you guys saw the Wildcat. He’s still working as a receiver. He’s still fairly new here. I don’t know if we’re six weeks into this with him being here? He’s still learning the offense. He’s still learning the nuances of the techniques of the receiver position. He was playing a lot of running back over there in Vegas. This is a work in progress. We’ll just take it one day at a time with him. But Chan has done a good job as far as developing players in the past and even now with the young group we’ve got on the o-line, at the receiver position, at the running back position. He’s done a good job and we’ve just got to continue to improve and get better.”
(I wanted to ask you about two other players. One, if you have over the past few days, gotten anymore clarity on Austin Jackson’s injury and how long it might take, and secondly, if there was any thoughts given in those last couple of minutes when you had that big lead to possibly getting a few snaps for QB Tua Tagovailoa?) – “Austin, he’s on IR and the minimal amount of games there is three. Again, he’s working hard. He’s doing everything he can to get better and get out there as quickly as possible. You guys know I don’t like to put timetables on anything; but when you put somebody on the IR, you know it’s at least three games, so it’s somewhat significant. Without putting a timetable on Austin, all I can say is he’s working hard to get back out there and we won’t have him out at practice for at least another couple of weeks. That will be the earliest. If it takes longer, than it takes longer. In regards to the question about putting Tua in for a series at the end of the game, it’s not something that I’m really thinking about, I don’t know what we really get out of that, in my opinion. If he gets a couple of snaps in a game, I’m not sure – we’re running the ball the whole time. If we want to give it to him and let him hand the ball off, I guess maybe that will make some people happy but I just don’t see any real point in that. That’s just my opinion. Looks he’s the backup. I think every week we see quarterbacks go down in this league. It’s unfortunate. You never want to see it. I feel terrible for Dak Prescott, seeing that injury, so thoughts and prayers to him. I believe he had surgery today. Thoughts and prayers to him. He’s a great player. A lot of respect for him. You saw some guys go down. The Washington quarterback – Kyle Allen – got hit in the head, and then Alex Smith went in. So you see this go on throughout the league. Tua is our No. 2. He can go in at any moment in the game and he’ll be ready to go when it’s time. He’ll be ready to go when his number is called, I should say.”
(You guys invested a lot of money in that cornerback position with CB Xavien Howard last year, and then CB Byron Jones this year. It seemed like them two together, they played their first game together more than half the game. They played really well. Is that the potential you guys see as what they can do for your defense?) – “I think the entire defense played well. It’s never just one guy, it’s never just two guys. I think it’s a team game. I think (Defensive Coordinator) Josh (Boyer) called a good game. I think the d-line played well. I thought we had a good rush. We mixed the coverages – the man, the zone, the blitzes. They covered well. It was a total team effort. They are a big part of it; but guys like (Andrew) Van Ginkel and (Zach) Sieler and (Jerome) Baker, they played well also – Elandon Roberts. Again, it was a team effort. We’re going to need team efforts really the rest of the way, especially this week. Let’s call it – not a new opponent, but an opponent we didn’t know we were going to get until yesterday afternoon or yesterday morning. We’ve got to do a great job form a preparation standpoint. As coaches, get that information to the players as soon as we can, and then try to play a total team game against the New York Jets next Sunday – offense, defense and special teams.”
