Brian Flores – October 7, 2020
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Wednesday, October 7, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I was wondering your thinking on staying with QB Ryan Fitzpatrick as your starter in Week 5.) – “We feel like he gives us the best chance to win. I think he’s had some rough moments like some other players, but we feel like he gives us the best chance to win.”
(I just wanted to get your thinking on the difference between QB Tua Tagovailoa as a backup with his health and Tua as a starter, because you mentioned you obviously don’t want to rush him back, don’t want to feel pressured to put him into a position where he has to play – where he must play. In your mind, what’s the threshold for him? It’s okay for him to be a backup but may not quite be a starter yet?) – “I guess I’m struggling with the question. What’s the threshold? He’s the backup. He could go in right now any snap, so obviously we’re confident he can play just like any backup player. We’re confident in any player who has a backup role to play in the game. So I guess we’re confident from the standpoint that on any snap, he could go in there. As far as him being a starter, we just don’t feel like he’s ready there just yet. That’s kind of where we’re at with him and other players. There are some other rookies who just aren’t ready to kind of take that step just yet, but he’s doing all the right things. Right now, we feel like ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) gives us the best chance to win. I would say overall ‘Fitz’ has played pretty well. He’s had some rough patches like I just said earlier, like some other players, but we do feel like he gives us the best chance to win.”
(Just a logistics question – are you guys going to fly out Friday or Saturday? And I did want to ask about the San Fran QB situation. Not sure if 49ers QB Jimmy Garoppolo is going to return to practice but 49ers QB Nick Mullens and 49ers QB C.J. Beathard are probably two other guys you’re going to have to prepare for. What’s it going to be like preparing for maybe three quarterbacks instead of one or two?) – “We’re going to fly out Friday. As far as the quarterbacks, all three of them are good players. There’s film on all of them. We’re pretty much going to have to watch them all. I think we’ve done that as a staff already. We’re going through that with the players already this morning. All three are good players, but I wouldn’t say it’s just the quarterback. It’s really, it’s everyone on offense – obviously the o-line, the tight ends, they’ve got good backs, they’ve got good receivers. They’ve got a good scheme, so the quarterback is just one part of that; but we’re really preparing for the entire group. It’s a good group.”
(Two-part question, but they’re completely related. They’re not separate. The first one is how long was the discussion regarding a potential change at quarterback on Monday night and then in a related question, how long is QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s rope at this point in the season?) – “Any discussion we have a staff, they’re just going to remain internal. As far as – I don’t even want to use the term; but look, we expect ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) to play well. We expect everyone offensively, defensively and in the kicking game to play well. We’re not putting negative energy into the atmosphere, so we’ve just got to prepare well this week, practice well this week, fly out to California and try to win a football game against a good group – a very good group, actually.”
(I know one thing you suggested Monday was maybe at the quarter mark of the season, how you’d take a look at playing time allocation. Did you emerge from that conversation with your assistants thinking that there would be some changes at some positions? And also, I wanted to ask you about now that the NFL has made basically a six-day turnaround to get a player in the building for a tryout and sign him; does that make you and General Manager Chris Grier less likely to bring in outside guys for looks?) – “Less likely, yeah. I mean it’s hard to bring someone in with the six days. You threw like four or five (questions) at me right at once, so let me try to – I’m trying to backtrack here. (laughter) So yeah, it’s hard to get somebody in, obviously. We’ve already kind of gone through the thought and planning if we’re going to do something really for next week, and I think every team is kind of going through that same process. As far as the meetings with the coaches from a playing time standpoint, like every team, we want to play our best players, our most dependable players. We talked about situations where we want to play different guys and maybe we want to play some guys more, play some guys less; and we’re going to try to probably practice that way today and this week, and then see how things shake throughout the course of the week. But we always want to get our best guys out there, our best group of guys, our most dependable players. I think that’s everything.”
(I have only one question for you. It’s regarding WR Preston Williams. Obviously he looked so good last year, was on pace to set team records for rookie receivers. How does that compare to how he looks this year? I think he’s at roughly 20 yards per game in receiving. How close is he to the Preston Williams we saw last year?) – “I think coming off an injury, you never know how things are going to shake out. I think he’s doing well from a physical standpoint. Preston is a hard-working kid. He’s obviously talented. I think he’s there physically. We’ve just got to find different ways to get him the ball and he’s got to come through for us when we do throw him the ball. So again, we’re four weeks into the season. That’s something that was discussed – part of the discussion with the coaching staff – how to get him more involved and hopefully we do that in the coming weeks.”
(I wanted to get clarification on T Austin Jackson’s status and his practice participation. Also, can you assess how T Julién Davenport played in his role last week, and if your stance is to still start the best five guys, figuring out the combination, however it works?) – “I thought Julién played well last week when he went in there for Austin. I thought he played well. I thought he did a really good job. Austin, as far as practice, he won’t be out there today. Hopefully – he’s still kind of working through some things but hopefully tomorrow, we’ll see. So just from that standpoint, you won’t see him today. But Julién played well. Yes, we’ll always try to play the five best guys. Obviously Julién will be part of that – Rob Hunt will be part of that – conversation. Again, we’ll see how this goes throughout the practice week and we’ll take it from there.”
(You mentioned earlier about QB Tua Tagovailoa not being ready yet to be the starter. I wanted to ask, how do you think he can get there with mental reps? Is that something he can do there or do you have to see him on the field before you know he’s truly ready?) – “I think he has to keep doing what he’s doing. He’s in here every day, he’s working, he’s practicing well. I think he just continues to do what he’s been doing. He’s learning every day. He’s getting better and improving every day. If he just continues to do what he’s doing, he’s on the right path, on the right trajectory. Again, we’re not going to get an opportunity – we didn’t have any preseason games. That’s not going to happen as far as getting a different way or a different look at this. So for him, the only thing he can do is come in, do a good job in meetings, do a good job in the walkthroughs, do a good job in practice and then when his opportunity presents itself, which as the backup could be at any point in the game – I think the 49ers are a great example of that, having played three guys already – that he’s just got to be ready. That’s really it.”
(I wanted to ask about RB Matt Breida. He made a couple of plays in the passing game last week. I was wondering what stood out to you about Breida and how you think he’s coming along.) – “Yeah, he made some good plays the other day. Look, he’s an explosive kid. Fast. He’s practiced well (and is) getting a few more touches. I think he is playing well and hopefully he continues to play well. He’s a hardworking guy and it’s important to him. I think he’s doing a good job.”
(I wanted to get back to QB Tua Tagovailoa. Could him getting any kind of limited snaps in a game kind of help towards his progression to becoming the starter?) – “Potentially that could help. But there’s a lot of other things to that – how the game is going, rhythm of the offense. There are so many things pertaining to the team that you don’t want to do something for one specific person. I guess I’m not – I wouldn’t be in favor of something like that; but I understand the question.”
(Clarify something for me: would you be comfortable playing G/T Jesse Davis at left tackle to get G/T Robert Hunt snaps at right tackle? Or can Hunt play left tackle?) – “Robert can play left tackle. I would feel comfortable playing Jesse at left tackle. I’m also comfortable playing Julién (Davenport) at left tackle. We’ll just see how the week goes. Thankfully we have some guys we feel good about going in and playing left/right (tackle). All of those guys have played both positions. But at the same time, we’re going up against a very aggressive defensive line and a very, very good defense. This will be a tough, tough challenge. But we’ll see how this goes over the course of the week. I’m not saying Austin (Jackson) is out of the question either. Let’s just take it one day at a time. But yeah, I’m comfortable with all of those guys playing really left or right. I think (Offensive Line Coach) Steve (Marshall) will do a good job of getting them ready. We’re going to need to play well from an o-line and really a team standpoint against this team. They’re very good.”
