Brian Flores – October 30, 2019
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Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Head Coach Brian Flores
(What’s been your reaction as you’ve seen General Manager Chris Grier and Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner Stephen Ross spend the money over the last few months basically to buy picks in the mid rounds? It’s an unusual thing, but you’ve seen this since you’ve been coach with three or four players. What does that say about the owner? What have you thought about it?) – “I think Chris, (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore), Steve, (Vice Chairman, President and CEO) Tom (Garfinkel) I think as executives in the organization, what I’ve seen is that’s we look at every situation and every avenue to help this team grow and improve. That’s one of the things I really admire about being here. It’s important to find any way to help this team improve and get better. We all see that as the vision moving forward.”
(With CB Aqib Talib as long as we’re on the topic, there was a report from the NFL’s website today that he’s not going to report to the team and since you have a relationship with him, he’s being permitted to stay home and rehab. Is that accurate?) – “Again, he’s on IR. He’s in a rehab program in L.A. We talked about that and just felt like there was – He’s not eligible to come back for a period of time. That conversation is between he and I. That report is – I can’t really speak to what that report said. Is it accurate? Is it not accurate? I would say it’s probably somewhere in the middle. He’s going to rehab in L.A. for a little bit and then we’ll take it from there. That’s kind of the conversation I had with him.”
(That exchange with the official was eye opening. What was your point of contention on that replay? What got you so fired up?) – “I’ve moved on. I’ve turned the page from the Pittsburgh game. I think it was obviously a big call in the game. There’s emotions, they run high in the game like that and really every game. But we’ve turned the page. We’re onto the Jets. That’s where our focus is. We talked about that this morning as a team. That was the message. I know it’s still fresh in a lot of people’s minds because it was just a couple of days ago, but we’ve got to turn our attention to the Jets. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
(You’ve faced the New York Jets Head Coach Adam Gase when he was the play caller here. What challenges does he pose as an offensive play-caller?) – “Gase does a very, very good job putting his players in position to make plays. He tries to attack defenses, defensive schemes, personnel if he feels like there’s a matchup he likes. He does a really good job. He’s a tough guy to draw up defenses against. This will be a tough test for us. “
(Have you had any interesting or numerous interactions or conversations with New York Jets Head Coach Adam Gase ever like even at the NFL owner’s meetings or anything at all?) – “Yeah, he and I have had conversations dating back to when he was at other places and when I was at other places as young coaches in the league, and they’ve been good conversations. We talk about scheme, we talk about life as a coach in this league. Those conversations, we’re not going to talk about them here. Those are between he and I.”
(You’ve played your final game of October already, moving on to November. Did you ever consider whenever you took this job that you’d be two months into the job and you’d still be winless?) – “Every situation is different. You go into any job, any situation and you never really know what’s going to happen. Good, bad, middle of the road, you never know. I think – you’ve just got to deal with every situation the way you feel best. In this situation right now, the goal for me is to help this team improve on a week-to-week basis. I think that is happening, and we’ll just keep going out there practicing. I think this team is getting closer to getting to the point to where we can pull out a ballgame. I think we’ve had opportunities. Unfortunately we haven’t taken advantage of them. I think if we just continue on the process we’re on and continue to improve in practice and start fast like we did last week, and string some things together, I think we’ll get to where we want to get.”
(What is missing?) – “Again, every game is different. If something is missing – Any time you lose, there is something that is missing in that particular game. Last week we turned the ball over, the week before it was the same thing – we turned it over in a critical situation. I’d say in this league, not just for us but for every team, turnovers are the difference between winning and losing a lot of games. We need to get that fixed. At the same time, I want this team to be aggressive, and be aggressive to go and win games as well. That’s what was missing last week and previous weeks. I think at the end of the day, we need two or three more plays that have to be made. I don’t know where they will come from. Maybe it’s – we missed a block on a punt return in Buffalo that we may spring one. Nobody knows that, but that’s a big play in the game. There are little small plays like that, I guess the masses don’t know or they don’t see those plays. If you make one of those, the outcome is different. I think the big ones is the turnovers; but there are other plays in the game (where) we could actually overcome some of the turnovers (and) we’re not making (them).”
(You mentioned when you came here that you want to be a tough, smart and disciplined team. Obviously the discipline is there from the low penalties. But, do you feel like you have a tough team?) – “Oh, yeah. This is a tough team. For sure.”
(You guys have been – Yardage-wise, you’ve given up 1,100 more yards than you’ve gained. Isn’t that some indicator that the toughness isn’t there? When teams want to stop you from running, they stop you from running.) – “I think this is a mentally and physically tough team. I think watching these guys practice on a daily basis, watching how they go about their business on a daily basis, I see it in games. This is a tough team. I think this has been an adverse season and I see the way they fight and come back. From that standpoint, no one isn’t going to tell me that this isn’t a tough team. That’s where I’m at on that. If there is a difference in opinion, that’s fine too. We can agree to disagree, but I do think this is a tough team – mentally and physically.”
(How important is league-wide respect to you? And do you think you’ve gained more of that the last few weeks?) – “What anyone else thinks doesn’t really matter to me. All I care about is what’s going on in this building. I care about us having the right process, I care about us trying to improve every day from the meetings, to walkthrough, to practice. That’s what I want to see on the field come Sunday, or Monday, or whatever day we’re playing. I think I’ve seen that and we’re going to try to continue to get better on a daily basis. The opinion of others have really never mattered to me. I have a lot of peace and freedom – I have a lot of peace. I do. I’m confident in my ability to coach, I’m confident in my coaching staff’s ability to coach, I’m confident in our players. That gives me peace of mind. I don’t really care what anyone else thinks, quite honestly.”
(QB Ryan Fitzpatrick start Sunday?) – “Yeah.”
(You’ve seen RB Le’Veon Bell quite a bit in your coaching career. What makes him so special?) – “He’s explosive, has very good vision, (is a) tough runner, breaks a lot of tackles, good in the passing game. He pretty much does everything well. He can lull you to sleep a little bit, sitting in the hole waiting for the blocks to develop and the next thing you know, it’s a 28-yard gain. He’s a good back and he’s done a good job for a long time. This will be a tough test.”
(Can you go into your thoughts about sticking with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick? Obviously neither quarterback has won a game as a starter this year. Why stick with Ryan?) – “I think he gives us the best chance to win.”
