Brian Flores – October 16, 2019
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Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(C Daniel Kilgore went out of the game. Do you have an update on him?) – “Yeah. Dan is one of the toughest guys we have. He’s dealing with something from an injury standpoint but he’s doing everything he can to work his way back. You probably won’t see him at practice today. I’ll kind of give that to you. He’s definitely trying to work his way back and hopefully we see him towards the end of the week.”
(Is it something where you feel like C Daniel Kilgore has a chance for Sunday?) – “Potentially. I mean it’ll be tough but he’s as tough as they come. He’s going to do everything possible to try to get out there so we’ll see.”
(What do you guys think of C/G Evan Boehm at center?) – “I think that’s his natural position. I think he’s started games there before. He’s smart, he’s tough, he’s pretty dependable. I like Evan a lot. We’ve got the next-man-up mentality so he’ll step in at practice today and throughout the course of the week, and he always gets reps in there as the backup center. He’ll be in there.”
(What comes to mind when you think about playing a guy like RB Frank Gore this week?) – “The first thing that comes to mind is I played against Frank in college. It’s actually a pretty interesting story. The game – so the University of Miami is playing at Boston College. Right at the end, they’re up five and BC is going in to score on the 10-yard line. The ball gets tipped up and Ed Reed takes it back and Miami wins and goes on to win the national championship. In that game, Clinton Portis was the back. We were doing a decent job defensively. Portis gets knocked out of the game and everybody is kind of excited, for lack of a better term, because their best player it out and we may have a chance here. It was a tight game. Then some young back named Frank Gore steps in there and breaks off a 20-yard run. He’s been a great player in college. He’s been a great player in the league. Really, as tough, as physical, as productive – he’s a really good back. I have a lot of respect for him as a player. I got to spend some time with him when he was here in the offseason. As a person, he’s an even better person. He’s got leadership, he’s got really everything that you’re looking for in a back. This will be a tough test for us. He’ll be ready to go. He’s always ready to go. He’s been that way since I last put on a helmet for sure. He’s a very, very good player.”
(Did you get a chance to go heads up with RB Frank Gore in that game?) – “No. You know I wasn’t very good. (laughter) I wasn’t in there very much. Not that year, at least.”
(Are CB Cordrea Tankersley or DT Robert Nkemdiche ready to practice or possibly play?) – “You’ll see both guys in practice. They’ll be out there today. It’ll be their first time on the field with the team in pads. These guys have a long way to go. I think a lot of players think they can just step out there and play. I just have a different feeling on that. I think you have to get out there, you have to practice, you have to go through individuals, you have to feel some contact and you’ve got to work your way into this. It will be good to get them out there and get them practicing and get them back into the flow of things. It’s supposed to be a hot day so we’ll see what kind of conditioning they’ve got right now. It will be interesting.”
(DT Robert Nkemdiche looks better right, than when he got here?) – “(laughter) Yeah, he looks better. He’s working really, really hard. He’s done a good job since he’s been here as far as getting his workouts in, rehabbing and trying to learn the system. But it’s still very, very early in the process for him. Today he’ll get out there and practice and we’ll see how it goes.”
(You don’t have to activate them off PUP right…) – “No. We have some time. We have a little time. It’s a good opportunity to take a look at these guys – both ‘Tank’ (Cordrea Tankersley) and Rob (Nkemdiche) – and really kind of get them into a practice setting, some individuals, some team drills, some group drills. It’s been a long time for both guys since they’ve stepped on a field in a competitive environment. I never want to rush things. We’ve got some time. Look, if they look like they’re ready to go, nobody wants to see those guys out there more than I do. But at the same time, this is a hard game to play so we’ll do what we feel is best for them individually and us as a team.”
(What are the challenges facing a running quarterback as big and as physical as QB Josh Allen is?) – “First, it’s tackling. We have to do a great job of tackling the quarterback and really tackling in general. They have good backs, receivers and tight ends. Tackling the quarterback in space, it’s a hard thing. This is a guy – Josh Allen is tough, he’s physical and he’s fast. He can break some long runs if you don’t do a good job tackling and keeping him in the pocket. There are a lot of challenges from that perspective and we’ve got to do a good job as a total team defense to have an understanding of what kind of player we’re going up against and at the same time, taking care of the other athletes on the field. We’ve got to take care of that, as well.”
(How is CB Xavien Howard coming along and how would you like to nurse his injury so you have him for the rest of the season?) – “He’s doing well. I expect to see him at practice today. Obviously he’s been working to get back out there on the field. He’s anxious to get out there. Again, (Xavien is) working through some things and hopefully we get him out there today, throughout the course of the week, and I think every player’s got a little bit of – we want every player out there practicing, but the guys who are nursing some injuries, we try to manage them to some degree. If they can go, we let them go, so it’s a little bit of a feel-out process as the practice goes.”
(Was CB Xavien Howard close to going at any point Sunday?) – “He did everything possible to go. This is a competitive guy. He wanted to be out there. It just didn’t work out; but we’re onto this week and Buffalo. He’s anxious to get out there.”
(Have you made a decision for your starting quarterback?) – “Yeah, we’re going to start ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) this week. (We) kind of came to that conclusion really over the last couple of days. (We) decided that we feel like that was the best thing for this team and give us an opportunity – the best opportunity – for this team to go up into a tough environment and try to pull out a win; and we do that on a weekly basis. What’s the best way, what’s the best grouping, set of players – offense, defense, kicking game – to help us try to win the game? We felt that that was the case this week.”
(Do the players respond better to QB Ryan Fitzpatrick?) – “To me, it’s we need to play well offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. We need to be more productive on offense. We really need to be more productive everywhere; but offensively, we need more production. We got that out of Ryan the other day for a quarter, and we just felt like as we – this game and this week – that was the best chance for us to be productive. We’ll see how it goes. This is a tough team. That’s an extremely tough defense. It’ll be a tough crowd. We know that. It’ll be a tough environment so it’ll be a major challenge, but we felt like given all those obstacles, that Ryan gave us the best chance to be productive offensively.”
(Players responding to a quarterback, though – is that a real thing? Is that something tangible?) – “I would say yes, to a degree. I think it’s a team game, so really players respond to each other and a group; but yeah, the quarterback, I think he’s got the ball in his hands on every snap so he’s got a relationship with the center, the receivers, the backs, the tight ends. So yeah, players – really I would say on every team – they have to respond to the quarterback.”
(What does this mean for QB Josh Rosen?) – “Josh, we have a lot of confidence in Josh or else we wouldn’t have played him. I think for him, it’s got to be a day-to-day improve, get better and continue his development, and that was the conversation I had with him. I think he’s still a young player – a young, talented player – and there’s still a lot of room for development with him. We’ll continue to develop him in practice; but at the end of the day, we’re looking for production at all positions and we felt like playing ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) would be in the best interest of this team.”
(We talked last week and a little bit this week about QB Josh Rosen’s development. That’s the reason why he was playing. What changed I guess in that spectrum?) – “I would say his production in the game, pretty much. I think the way we played at the end of the game, along with some other – there’s a myriad of reasons – but at the end of the day, I felt like we moved the ball better with Ryan (Fitzpatrick) in the game and I think we need to stay with that. That’s really what changed. It’s not a knock on Josh. I think he’s improving. I do, and he’ll continue to improve; but at the end of the day, we’ve got to do what’s best for this team or what we feel is best for this team.”
(Do you have an update on Assistant Head Coach/Quarterbacks Jim Caldwell? I know we haven’t talked a lot…) – “Yeah, I just talked to Jim (Caldwell). He’s doing well. I talk to Jim a lot. He’s somebody I bounce thoughts and ideas off of, questions about – I try to give him an idea of where the pulse of the team is, and we go back and forth just in different conversations. It goes from situations in a game to personnel to how my family is doing to how he’s doing; but yeah, he’s doing well.”
