Brian Flores – October 8, 2020
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Thursday, October 8, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to ask you about TE Durham Smythe and WR Isaiah Ford. With Isaiah, we know how smart he is, how well he knows the offense, how prepared he is. What skill would you say – what physical skill – has allowed him to get a more prominent role this year and allowed him to develop as well as he has from a guy who’s bouncing back and forth to now a guy who gets a lot of snaps? And with Durham, just curious how the knee injury happened and if you think he’s going to miss extended time.) – “Isaiah – like you said – he’s smart. He knows multiple positions. He’s where he’s supposed to be really a majority of the time. He’s dependable, he’s accountable, and he’s gotten open and made some plays in some critical situations, so I think he’s earned playing time for sure. I think that would be the kind of key term. He’s earned the playing time. We’re not giving it to anybody. As far as Durham, again, you saw him on the injury report yesterday. He’s working hard to get back. He’s already made a significant amount of improvement over these last three or four days, so we’ll just take it day by day. I don’t want to put a time table on it, but he’s definitely working to get back. This could be – hopefully as soon as possible.”
(How optimistic are you that the NFL is going to be able to get through its season?) – “I think if we continue to follow the protocols and everyone is responsible obviously inside the building, but outside the building as well. It’s really a lot of the same things we’ve been saying and really everyone across the league has been saying since we started training camp. We’ve got to make smart decisions; and if we do that collectively as a league, then yeah, I’m very optimistic. It’s going to be a challenge, though. This isn’t – like I’ve said multiple times – you can do everything right and still contract the virus. It’s airborne. So again, you put your mask down for a split second to drink some water – which you kind of need to do, especially in this environment – and you kind of expose yourself. Look, you could do everything. You can’t not drink water. You can’t not eat. You can’t cover your face at all times; but you’ve got to try to be as responsible as you can be. I think our players have done that. I know we’ve tried to create an environment that’s as safe as possible where we’re on top of these guys about masks and wearing them and trying to be smart outside of the building as well as inside the building. So I think if we do those things collectively as a league – I know I’ve talked to many coaches and we’re all pretty much saying the same thing. But again, this virus is – you can do everything right and still get coronavirus.”
(Question for you and I’ve asked you this question multiple times and you’ve never ever clarified it for me. What exactly do you call the position that S Eric Rowe plays that basically the tight end coverage guy? Does it have a name? Is it a rover? And what makes Eric suited for that role?) – “I think I have clarified this for you. I think it depends on the call where if I call this, the linebacker’s got him. If I call this, the strong safety’s got him. If I call this, maybe a corner’s got him. So as far as clarifying what Eric Rowe – he plays multiple positions. He’s very versatile. So on one snap he can play linebacker and on another snap, he can play strong safety and on another snap, he can play corner. So I hope that answers your question.”
(So it doesn’t have a name? You don’t call it a rover?) – “No, I don’t call it a rover; but maybe in someone else’s defense they do call it a rover. But I don’t. I think on one snap, you’re the strong safety, on another snap you’re a backer, on another snap – I mean you can call it a rover. Feel free. (laughter) You’re not going to force me to call it a rover.”
(Okay. So you don’t call it anything?) – “I call it a linebacker, I call it a safety and I call it a corner. And the calls dictate who has who.”
(We ask you a lot about the rookie offensive linemen and there’s been some big strides made from this point last year as far as sacks allowed in pass protection. I wanted to ask you because back in training camp we would see G Ereck Flowers come out with his bands and his harnesses and work the young guys after practice. Just want to ask you in your estimation, what has Ereck Flowers meant both from a production standpoint and a leadership standpoint getting those young guys brought along?) – “I think he’s played well through the first four games of the season. He’s brought leadership since really he’s been here. He loves to play. I notice his energy on the field really every week. You guys probably don’t see that, but if there’s a big catch or there’s a big run, he’s really the first guy down there celebrating with his teammates and I think that energy is infectious and it’s something I’ve highlighted in team meetings already. I expect him to continue playing the way he’s playing and giving us the leadership that he’s giving us and helping those young offensive linemen get acclimated to playing in the National Football League. Just kind of bringing overall leadership and good play to our team.”
(Just kind of going back on the corona question. When you see what kind of happens in Tennessee with all those tests – I think they just came back with two positives again this morning – what kind of emotions does that elicit in you guys and maybe the locker room?) – “To me, it’s more about their safety – the safety of those guys who are popping positive for COVID. You just hope that they’re safe, that they’re healthy, that they’re – I know they’re getting great treatment and all the services they need, but as far as just their overall health. that’s kind of where I go first. As far as football and whether games will be played or postponed, I mean whatever happens, happens. We really don’t have any control over that. The only things we can control are how we prepare, how we practice, how we go about adhering to the protocols. Do you start to think about, ‘okay, if we start canceling more games or postponing more games, what’s that going to look like for the rest of the season?’ Yeah, but I try not to look that far down the road. I think the league will handle those things, and if we end up being affected, then so be it. We’ll just try to keep doing what we’re doing, prepare and try to create as many opportunities to go out there and play as possible. That’s what I’m hoping for. I love coaching. The players love playing, so we’re going to try to do everything we can to create a situation where we can play an entire season.”
(I wanted to ask you about update on T Austin Jackson and DE Shaq Lawson. How is Lawson’s illness and if Jackson might do anything today?) – “Well Shaq, just so everybody is clear on this, it wasn’t COVID related. Just a bug. He’s feeling a lot better. He should be out there today. Austin, I don’t expect to see him today; but he’s definitely made some progress this week. We’ll see where that goes here. Maybe tomorrow. We’re getting other guys ready. We’re getting other guys ready.”
(I wanted to ask you about the run defense. The yards per carry allowed I think has come down the last few weeks. We’ve seen improvement but it probably still isn’t where you want it to be. How would you assess the status of your run defense? If there is one thing that’s improved, what is it?) – “It could always be better, but I think there is better communication. I think there is better overall technique. It’s been better, but I think it can be better than it has been. The improvement is because the players are putting more time into it and worked at it. There has been some improvement. We’ve got a great challenge in the run game this week again Kyle (Shanahan)’s run offense. (They have) good backs, a good offensive line, tight ends who block and then just schematically, these guys do a good job creating angles and putting themselves in good position to rattle off big runs. This will be a big, big challenge for us.”
(CB Nik Needham’s defensive snap count has been very unusual in that he’s gone from 0 to 40 to 0 to like 40 again. Is this strictly game plan related or does it speak to some issues with consistency in his practice work?) – “I’d say it probably game plan related. Again, it’s week to week, like we’ve talked about here several times before. Nik is a second-year player. He’s made a lot of strides. I think as we move forward, he’s improving and I would expect to see him out there a little bit more consistently, to be honest with you. I think he’s kind of earned that. But at the same time, he has to be productive when he gets out on the field. I know it’s kind of been up and down, but I think it’s game plan related. It will continue to be that way. I think he’s definitely making some improvement.”
(I know we’ve talked to you a lot about RB Myles Gaskin and how he got his role. We’ve talked about his hard work and what he did to get here. It seems rare to me for a guy to go from his role and what he was doing last year, at least early on, to being this guy now. I wanted to see if you could paint a picture of how he’s develop in that Year 1 to Year 2 jump to make him as prevalent in your offense as he is now?) – “I think you saw a lot of improvement a year ago. From training camp, to being inactive let’s call it the first half of last season. You could see even when he was inactive, he was in here on his off days training. He and Patrick Laird were training on their own. I’d walk into the bubble and they’d be off in the corner with bands and just trying to get better. He’s spent a lot of time with (Running Backs Coach) Eric (Studesville). I think Eric has done a good job with him as far as getting the mental side of the game down. He took this past offseason and really trained and got his body fit for an NFL season after having been through one. He felt like he needed to make some changes and he made them. Then he comes to training camp and he was very consistent throughout training camp. I’d say that’s the history behind it. All of those things happened. I think that’s happened with a lot of different players. Ultimately, if you get in the game and you’re productive, you get more opportunities, which has been the case for him.”
(For Head Coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense, are you dusting off old notes that you may have in the past of preparing for him? And how do you prepare for the steady diet of gadget plays and formations and movement before the snap and things like that?) – “You always go back into time and look at some things that you’ve done in the past. Kyle is very innovative. He’s always looking for something new to gain an edge offensively. Because every year is a new team, you’ve got different players, so you can’t just grab what you did a few years ago and recreate that. You have different players, so what worked or didn’t work in years past, you may want to do something totally different because the skillset is different. Kyle is the exact same way. He’s got different players so he’s going to play to the strengths of his players. Defensively, we’ve got to do the exact same thing. I think overall, there are some things that are – I don’t want to call them standard – but there are some things that are the core of his offense that he’s probably going to run some form or fashion. How he gets to it, your guess is as good as mine, because there are a lot of shifts, there are a lot of motions, there is a lot of missiles, let’s call it gadgetry to get to a formation. You really don’t know he’s getting to the old formation until you really look at it, hopefully on the tablet within the game. This is going to be a tough challenge from that standpoint. He’s a very good coordinator and we’re going to have to do a good job defensively with our technique, with our fundamentals and our communication.”
