Brian Flores – October 29, 2020
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Thursday, October 29, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I’m going to start off with a couple of injuries, if I could. We haven’t heard in a few weeks about T Austin Jackson. One, I wanted to see how far along he is in his progression and if he’s getting close. Two, you had a handful of guys banged up going into the bye that we saw were limited out there on Wednesday. Is there anybody that’s further away than the others in terms of potentially playing Sunday?) – “Really, to include Austin, everybody is working to get back as quickly as they can. Obviously we can’t – Austin is on injured reserve, but he’s doing a good job in rehab and treatment, and doing everything he can to get back. We did have some guys who were banged up last week. Some practiced more than others yesterday as you saw on the injury report. But everyone has a shot to play, I would say, of that group. We’ll just see how the rest of the week goes – today’s practice, tomorrow’s practice, all the way up until Sunday.”
(I see you’ve been wearing the VOTE hat the last couple of days here when you’ve been meeting with us. Have you encouraged your players to vote early? I know Tuesday is an off day for everybody. I guess, where has the team kind of gone in the stance of making sure that the players get out and go to vote? And also, I wanted to ask are all of the players on the team, are all of them kind of registered? Have you guys kind of worked to help them do that?) – “I don’t – (Director of Player Engagement) Kaleb Thornhill handles a lot of that from that standpoint. I mean I’ve had conversations with some of the players about things of that nature. Those conversations will obviously stay private. I think there’s, just from the conversations I’ve had, there’s a lot of guys who either will or have voted, and I think that’s important. I think that’s something we should all do. I’m supportive of that. But those conversations, they’ve been had. I know Kaleb does a great job as far as – or has done a great job as far as helping guys get registered and giving them information on the different people in the election. I think a lot of people think it’s just the presidential election; there’s a lot of other people that we’re voting for. So just giving them that information and hopefully helping them make educated decisions.”
(You were asked about the injuries. Is LB Andrew Van Ginkel out of the protocol or is he still in it?) – “Yeah, he’s out of the protocol.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick was really good at getting the ball out of his hands quickly. I think he was 2.41 seconds time to throw. Are you able to gauge in practice where QB Tua Tagovailoa is in his processing speed and helping the o-line out with getting the ball out quickly?) – “I think there’s a lot that goes into whether or not you want the ball out quickly. It’s really case by case, team by team, week by week. One week, you may want to hold it a little bit longer so you can get the ball downfield more. Some other weeks you may want to get it out quickly. I think in general, you want a mix of all of those things. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) did a good job of that. I think in practice, Tua’s done a good job of that; but we’ll see how it shows up in the game.”
(QB Tua Tagovailoa mentioned yesterday that one of the reasons he’s able to just concentrate on football and not get too caught up in all of the narratives about his first start is because of the guys in the locker room and the coaching staff. How have you as a coach, and the guys in the locker room, been able to allow him to focus on that and not get too caught up in the local and national storylines of his first start?) – “I think a lot of that has to do with Tua. I think his focus is on this week and really not much else. I think he understands that it’s not Tua against the Rams. It’s the Dolphins against the Rams. He’s a team guy and I think his teammates are supportive of him. That’s kind of the approach we’ve all taken. I think he’s taken that approach also.”
(NFL NextGen Stats has the Rams as the most condensed split offense in the NFL and you guys as the widest split pre-snap offense. I’m curious, what are some advantages of having that widespread offense pre-snap and what are some challenges of facing an offense that’s so condensed in their formations?) – “There’s challenges to facing a team that’s just defensively that lines up both wide and condensed. I think a lot of it is based on the personnel, so each team is different. You’ve got different players, different skillsets; I think in some cases, lining up condensed with the guys you have is – they have some more advantages than lining up wide. I think having a mix of both is always good, just so your opponent is not locked in on one or the other, and the Rams do a good job of that. It’s not all condensed. They definitely spread it out. I’m not sure if the NextGen Stats has the ability to line up quickly on the ball. I think a lot of that – they line up quickly – that’s why they’re condensed because they get the ball and snap it quickly. If you’ve got to go out wide, it takes a little bit more time. I’m not sure if the NextGen Stats use all that; but yeah, there’s advantages to lining up tight. I would say that one of them is that they can get to the ball quickly and snap it quickly. And there’s some advantages to lining up wide. So they do a good job of both.”
(Baseball has its share of left-handed pitchers. Why does the NFL have left-handed quarterbacks outside of yours?) – “I don’t know. I really don’t. I don’t have an answer for the left-handed folks of the world and why they do or don’t play quarterback. I’m sorry. I don’t have an answer for that one.”
(I had another question about the election. It’s obviously a pretty divisive time in our country. You are one that likes having open dialogue within your team, but also it can lead to some hard feelings on one side or the other. What’s that mix there of being open and honest and also respecting each other’s beliefs?) – “I think you just said. I think you’ve got to be respectful, have those open dialogues; but I think personally, those dialogues are easier in a team setting where guys know that they care for one another. That’s different than two people who don’t know each other having a discussion about some of those topics. I think when you care about somebody, you’re willing to listen – to hear their side of it and the background in which they came up with their feelings on this topic or that topic, their family situation, how they grew up. I think that’s a big part of the discussion that I’m not sure is had a lot of the time. So I think in a team setting like this – all those conversations are had. It’s not just let’s call it Democrats and Republicans. It goes a little bit deeper than that which is, I think good – very good.”
(I wanted to ask you about Rams DT Aaron Donald. Obviously so much attention has to be paid to a guy who’s a two-time Defensive Player of the Year. How much pressure does that put on the other guys who aren’t doubling, winning their one-on-ones or holding their own?) – “They have good players outside of Aaron Donald – a lot of good players – so I think it’s going to be a team effort. I think yeah, Aaron Donald is a great player. He’s very productive, high energy, high intensity, high effort; but you see that from a lot of their guys. So obviously we’ll pay close attention to him – Aaron Donald, I’m speaking of – but like I’ve said all week, I think Leonard Floyd is playing real good football right now. So is (Michael) Brockers, so is Jalen Ramsey. You’ve got (John) Johnson – a BC guy back there playing good ball as well, so it’s a tough test really across the board. They’ve got a good team.”
(You had to slide in the BC reference there.) – “(laughter) There’s only a few. There’s only a few.”
(I know over the last five years I guess we’ve heard more about the RPOs and obviously QB Tua Tagovailoa was really good at those in college. From a defensive perspective can you maybe explain what pressure – the RPO – does, puts on a defense?) – “It puts you in conflict. A run player – they’re reading basically the run player and if the run player plays run, they throw a pass. So if the run player plays a pass, they run it. So it puts you in immediate conflict, so I think defensively you have to just do a good job of recognizing those sets and adjusting the defense in order to play those schemes. We really haven’t done much of that this season, so I think it’s – a couple days of practice, it’s hard to put something in like that. If we see them, I know they’ve got a couple of them over there – not too many – but we have to be ready to defend them on a weekly basis. I think they show up every week in this league in some form or fashion.”
