Brian Flores – October 5, 2020
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Monday, October 5, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(Who’s going to be your quarterback on Sunday?) – “We’re still going through corrections of the game from yesterday. As a staff, we normally start talking about this this evening. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) – I thought we moved the ball pretty efficiently yesterday. Look, I understand where everybody’s coming from with Tua (Tagovailoa). I get all that. At the same time, he’s a young player, he’s coming off the injury. So we’ll make the decision on the starter, but I would presume it’s going to be Fitzpatrick.”
(I know T Austin Jackson and S Bobby McCain both returned to the game, but how did they come out of it – Austin with the foot injury and then Bobby after being tested for the concussion?) – “They’re still both getting treatment. I think Bobby went back in and played well. Austin went back in and had to come back out. Both – with our medical staff, it’s the day after the game so we’ve got nicks and bruises really in a few different places, so we’ll see how it goes throughout the week and we’ll take it from there. But it’s the day after the game, so guys are bruised up. We’ll see where we’re at on Wednesday.”
(Teams react to losing differently. Your players yesterday seemed particularly angry. Do you find encouragement in that reaction?) – “Yeah, I think our guys, they work hard. They prepare well. We didn’t get the things done we talked about getting done. I think they understand that and they’re all competitive. That’s how I felt after the game, so they felt the same way. I think it just speaks to how competitive they are. I think we’ll just come back, get back to it once we start for preparing for another good team in the 49ers and try to turn things around.”
(I know that you mentioned QB Tua Tagovailoa and his injuries and stuff before, but I know there’s two rookie quarterbacks that have played so far in Bengals QB Joe Burrow and Chargers QB Justin Herbert. Does their early success have any influence on maybe how well you think Tua will play once he gets that opportunity?) – “No, I think every player is different. Every situation is different. So no. I really don’t look at other players and I play the comparison game with players or really anyone. We’re going to do what we feel is best for the Dolphins and for the individual players – Tua or ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) or Austin Jackson or Robert Hunt or whoever it happens to be. It’s all case-by-case, so we don’t look at other situations and make decisions off of what other people are doing. We’ll try to do what’s best for us and we’ll make decisions with that in mind.”
(In weeks and months past, you’ve been more definitive about QB Ryan Fitzpatrick absolutely being your starter, no question about it. Was there something either in the game or when you reviewed the film that gave you pause that made you wonder if he’s the right guy at this moment?) – “The pause was – we haven’t even gone through the corrections from the game. We’re actually in the middle of that right now, so it wasn’t based off of anything in the game. I hope you guys don’t take that the wrong way; but every week we come in on Monday evening after we make all the corrections. We’re a quarter of the way through the season now, so we’re going to obviously do an evaluation of our team from that standpoint. We try to play the guys we feel are going to help us turn this thing around and play better in situations that like red zone and two-minute and the fourth quarter; and that’ll be at all positions. So that was kind of a conversation we just had as a staff, so I guess that’s what gave me some pause. Not something from the game. We just talked about reevaluating everything – every position, every grouping and we always do that after every quarter, let’s say, and try to, moving forward, do the things that we’ve been doing well and try to continue to build on those and obviously improve anything where we haven’t had as much success.”
(I know 1-3 is not ideal, especially in regards to the division and playoffs and things like that. It’s going to be a long season. How do you take your start and your approach into the rest of the season? Do you still feel like you have a chance to do something special here?) – “We take this one game at a time. Like you said, it’s a long season. We take it one game at a time. We’ve got a big test on the road in San Francisco. I think you start thinking about the end of the season and what that’s going to look like. We need to put our energy on this week and our preparation for this week. Leave it right there and let the results take care of themselves. But if we start thinking about down the road, it’s probably not going to help us all that much.”
(I only ask as a follow up to your first response regarding QB Tua Tagovailoa. Since you did bring the injury into the answer, in terms of his health, has he checked all the boxes that you guys have looked for in camp and in practice? Or are there still any hesitations or lingering questions in regard to either his hip or mobility?) – “No. He’s checked all the boxes from a medical standpoint. He has. Look, the honest thing from me is if he was my kid and he had a serious injury like that, I wouldn’t want his coach to be in a rush to throw him in there because of media pressure or anything like that. That’s kind of how I approach this situation and really all situations, the players. Essentially they are my kids. No one is going to pressure me into doing anything. When we feel like he’s ready to go, we’ll put him in.”
(We saw that DE Shaq Lawson got hurt yesterday with the shoulder, how is he doing, and was there any other injuries that you guys came out of from the game?) – “Guys are banged up. A few different guys are banged up. You mentioned Shaq. He had a shoulder (injury). He went out, went back in. He’s sore today, I think he’ll be ok. Honestly, he’s a tough guy and wants to be out there. We had a couple of other guys who were banged up and I’m hopeful we’ll get most of everybody back Wednesday.”
(I was going to ask you about CB Byron Jones. He was pretty hopeful when he spoke at the end of the week, then ended up being listed as doubtful. How hopeful are you that he has a good chance of getting back this week?) – “He had a good week last week, like he mentioned to you guys. We just felt like he wasn’t all the way ready to go last week. But we’re hopeful that this week we’ll see him a little bit more at practice and if he does well in practice, he’ll play next week.”
