Brian Flores – October 20, 2021
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Wednesday, October 20, 2021
Head Coach Brian Flores
(The decision to bring back LB Vince Biegel, what went into that and is he ready to play immediately?) – “We’ll see how he looks in practice these next couple days. Obviously we have history with Vince. He’s been here the last couple years, was hurt last year. We had him in training camp. There’s a lot of things we like about him as a player, as a person, and we are excited to have him back.”
(I wanted to go through a list of guys that you gave us slight updates on Monday – CB Xavien Howard, CB Byron Jones, WR DeVante Parker, WR Preston Williams and TE Adam Shaheen. Do you expect them to be at the walkthrough?) – “Yeah, I expect them all to be at the walkthrough. Again, it’s obviously a scaled-down pace so they’ll all be available for that. We’ll just take it one day at a time. They’re all getting better, they’re all treating and they’re all doing everything they can. I think tomorrow is going to tell us a lot more about their potential status for the game. But yeah, they’ll be available for the walkthrough.”
(Long flight home, just kind of an exhausting last couple of days. Do you feel like guys are refreshed, energized and ready for this week?) – “Yeah, it was good juice in the meetings this morning. Guys are ready to go from a preparation standpoint and getting ready for Atlanta. Obviously, we have some familiarity with them from seeing them in training camp. They’re a good team. They do a lot of good things really in all three phases. We know that obviously this is going to be a big challenge. We talked about the adjustments, the improvements, the small margin for error there is in this league. I think they just want to get out there, try to improve, get better and try to do the things we need to do to have the outcome we are looking for.”
(How has QB Tua Tagovailoa responded since getting action and preparing for another practice week?) – “He’s responded well. He’s really into the preparation for this week. He was in yesterday working out and getting started on his prep. The same thing this morning. He was in early going through some of the early down stuff – the run game, the play action game and the drop-back game. Understanding how they want to play defensively. He was asking a lot of questions like he always does and going through his preparation. Just ready to get out there and practice, really walkthrough today. But it’s an opportunity to get in the huddle, go through the play calls, go through our alignments, our assignments and our responsibilities. His conversations with the receivers, the backs, the tight ends and the o-line. ‘Hey, we’re expecting this, we need to do this. This is a good player, make sure we got this guy taken care of.’ Matchups, things like that.”
(On the pain tolerance standpoint, did QB Tua Tagovailoa come out of it okay?) – “Obviously there was some discomfort but he’s a tough kid. I thought he got through it well. I think this is one of those things where every week you get a little bit better, a little bit better each day, each week hopefully. He’s a tough kid, I’m sure there is some discomfort but in his mind, he’s good to go. He’s not going to complain about anything.”
(It’s pretty rare for a team to come back from London and not have a bye. In a weird way, could it almost be beneficial to you guys right now, just to get right back out there and try to find something that works?) – “Yeah, I think we want to get back out there. We want to get back out there and play and perform better. That’s really what we’re looking to do. To wait a couple weeks, I wouldn’t want – I’m happy we’re playing. I think the players are happy we’re playing and we’re excited to get started with our prep today.”
(Was it difficult for you? It’s a nine-hour flight home for everybody. There aren’t really a lot of days off in your line of work, I get that, but was it tough for you to bounce back physically, mentally and all those things?) – “I like to think of myself as a resilient person. I’ve dealt with plenty of adversity in my life. Disappointment. But you watch the film, you make the corrections. You see the things that we need to do better, the things that I need to do better, the points of emphasis that we have talked about. But we have to find a different way to talk about them and to teach them. Yeah, (it’s a) long flight, lots to think about, a lot of film to watch, lots to think about. But yeah, pick yourself up and move on.”
(When you watch the Falcons on film, how much of it is stuff that you recognize from them being here a few days this summer and how much of it are you realizing that them being here in the preseason doesn’t benefit your preparation that much?) – “I think a lot of the players are the same so there is familiarity from that standpoint. Schematically, there are some things that are core fundamentals, core principles of that offense, that defense and that kicking game. Those foundational pieces are there. Arthur (Smith), Dean (Pees), those guys do a good job of dressing things up a little bit differently and doing their core things, but they don’t look like their core stuff. We got to do a good job with our communication. We got to do a good job following our rules and while we do have familiarity with them from a personnel standpoint – I said this on Monday, they didn’t show us everything, we didn’t show them everything. They have good coaches, they do a good job, they have good scheme, good players, so we are going to have to do a good job with our technique, our fundamentals, our communication and take care of all those little things. Which if you just take care of all the little things, then normally the big things work out in your favor.”
(Among things you said a minute ago, did you say that the staff will consider different ways of teaching? Can you tell me more about that?) – “I think this is just teaching in general. Everyone is a little bit different. I’ve got one son who learns this way and another son who learns this way. I think we talk about things like – whatever it might be, route depths. We talk about run defense, run fits, tackling. We may show it on video, we may show a PowerPoint, we might get up and demonstrate ourselves. I think there’s a few different ways to teach things. As a teacher, if we’re not getting it, then you have to find a different way. I guess that’s really what I’m saying.”
(Hence the value of today’s walkthrough, right?) – “Well, I think that’s more along the lines of – the idea behind a walkthrough is it was a long trip. We’re trying to take a little bit off of them. That’s really more behind the walkthrough. But yeah, definitely an opportunity to get a little more teaching done. I don’t want to make too much of this, but I think in any situation for anybody who’s teaching anyone, it may not be resonating the way you want it to and you have to change.”
(How would you assess the progress of the current starting offensive line and are you continuing to move forward with this group?) – “I think they are doing – I think any time you get a group that can play together for multiple weeks, hopefully months, then you’ve got an opportunity for that group, as a group, to get better. We’ll stay with that line. They’ve done some good things but with more repetition, with more time together, hopefully they can continue to grow as a unit. That’s just one part of the offense. Obviously a big part, but one part of the offense. We need to grow as an offense, as a defense, as a special teams and as a team.”
(When a team is 1-5, when things aren’t going well for a team, do you find it’s difficult to get players to just focus on their job? Like just do your assignment? Nobody has to be a hero right now. Nobody has to do more than you’re being asked to do. There is probably that tendency “I got to do more, I got to do more, I got to do more.” Is it tough to try to rein players in a little bit when they want to win so badly and there’s that compelling feeling that I’ve got to do more when they really just have to do what the assignment is?) – “That’s a great question. I think we have a group of guys who all want to do more. They’re all competitive. They all want to help the team, but you’re right. The thing that they can do to help the team is take care of their alignment, their assignment, their responsibility. And if each guy does that and we do it play after play after play, we’ll get the results we want. But I think everybody wants to do a little bit more, so ‘I’m in my gap, I’m in my gap, I’m in my gap. I try to make a play and I’m out of my gap.’ And that happens and I understand the wanting to do that for the team and it’s with the right thought process. Their heart is in the right place. That’s the balance we’re trying to get to. But I think the ‘want to,’ the competitiveness, the desire to help our team – that’s there. These guys, they’re pulling for each other, supporting each other and I think when you have enough of that, then we continue to just prepare and work things out in all three phases, then I think we’ll be okay.”
(The past couple years, this team has started slow and then trended upward as the season goes on and I know this is a different year, different team and everything. But are there things you can take from those experiences and apply them to this year to get players to believe or to get things just turned around in general?) – “I think probably what comes to mind is I always want to feel like we’re getting better. I think if you feel that way, then regardless of the circumstances, the results, then there’s something that you can kind of pull from that and you can kind of build on that. In some areas we are, and in a lot of areas we aren’t. So that’s a lot of the things that we’ve been talking about is our continued improvement, our trying to build, trying to improve and really there’s a myriad of areas offensively, defensively and in the kicking game. I think once we start to improve in those areas more consistently and as a team, then we’ll get some of the improvement that we desire.”
(I know you talk about balance a lot, but I had kind of a specific question. How much of a role do you think running RPOs has played a factor in not running at the volume that maybe you’d like. And if it hasn’t played a role at all, what do you think is the reason for not rushing as much?) – “I think it’s more about probably being behind. I think that’s probably the No. 1 reason why we’re getting less rushes. The RPOs may play a factor in that as well. If it’s run-pass, if they give us the pass, we pass it. But I think every team is dealing with that. But we’ve got to do more. We’ve got to run it more. We’ve got to run it more efficiently and it’s something we’ve talked about and hopefully we have an opportunity to do that and obviously try to do that. Yeah, it’s something we need to do a better job of.”
(The guys who are recovering in injury that will be participating in today’s walkthrough – which ones of them would go if it was a full practice and how far along are they?) – “That’s hard to say. I think they’d all be – I don’t really want to get into hypotheticals about what today would look like. We’ll see them tomorrow, but I think they’re all trending in the right direction. They’re all working hard. They’re all rehabbing. I think they’ll all have an opportunity potentially to – they would have an opportunity to practice today. I think they’re going to have an opportunity to practice tomorrow, but there’s a lot that goes into that. It’s how do they feel that morning. It’s hard to say today given that we knew it was going to be a walkthrough.”
(I know we spoke to you earlier during the joint practices about your relationship with Falcons QB Matt Ryan dating back to Boston College, but is there any maybe one memory or one trait that sticks out from that one season that you’ve kind of still seen in his play to this day?) – “As a player?”
(Yeah.) – “I was going to say I remember him singing as a freshman in front of the whole team. That’s the one thing that sticks out, but I forgot what song it was. We just made all the freshmen – I remember him being up there. (laughter) But he was always a smart player. He was always cerebral even when he was 18 years old. And he always had a good idea of what he was looking at as far as what he saw defensively and where to attack. That’s been the case for a long time.”
(We asked you this about Buccaneers QB Tom Brady, too – but Tom, Falcons QB Matt Ryan, Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger – they don’t age, these guys. They really don’t. What is it about – is it just the cerebral nature of the nature? Like what is it about that these guys have been able to not just get on top but stay there for as long as they have?) – “They’re obsessed with being good. They’re obsessed with being great. So practice, nutrition, hydration. There’s no magic. They all work at it, but they’re able to sustain that type of work ethic because they’re obsessed with being great players. That’s really it. There really is no magic. The magic is not a lot of people have that type of obsession to be great. They don’t have that. So those guys do and you see why they’ve played so long and why they’re able to perform at a high level for so long.”
