Brian Flores – September 18, 2020
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Friday, September 18, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I know teams of course have the option this year of using six of the practice squad spots with guys with unlimited experience. Have you or General Manager Chris Grier decided you still instead basically want to use it as a developmental tool for young guys instead? And I was sort of curious why you guys added a long snapper and are protecting him after drafting LS Blake Ferguson. Has Blake struggled at all?) – “The first part of that question was about six practice squad – veteran practice squad – players, correct?”
(Right. Using them on young players as opposed as opposed to using them on older guys who can be stashed in case you have COVID issues.) – “Chris (Grier) and I and the scouting staff and the coaching staff; we’ve had several conversations about the practice squad. I think like you said it’s definitely a place – we want to develop all players, whether they’re practice squad or on the active roster. The development of players is important to myself, Chris and everyone in this organization. So I would say that’s kind of the thought process first and foremost. You can develop veteran players also, so we’re not taking that pool of players out of – we’re not saying that they’re not developmental players, but for the most part, anyone who we feel like can help this team whether they’re developmental players, whether they’re a veteran, whether they’re – if they can help this team, we’ll take a look. Again, with the practice squad, you don’t get whoever you want. These guys have options to go to different teams, so while you may think that we’re – we may have had some other conversations with players and felt like they had better places, better options elsewhere. There’s a lot that goes into it. I know you see what you see on the practice squad. There’s always a lot of conversations, like always, that you guys aren’t privy to and things that are happening behind the scenes that you don’t know – try to get this guy, didn’t get him, he went there – there’s a lot of those conversations. But we like the guys who are on our practice squad also. There was another part to that question also. I forgot. Was there another piece to that question?”
(Yes, on having a second long snapper available. Just what the thinking was in adding one and protecting him. Has LS Blake Ferguson struggled at all?) – “It’s very similar to what you just mentioned. With COVID and there being a pandemic and the possibility of losing players; we just felt like that was a position where you don’t want to lose a guy on a Saturday morning and then we’ve got to call you up and you’ve got to come in and snap for us. (laughter) So we just felt like we wanted to keep a guy on the practice squad for that reason. If you can long snap, then we maybe we’ll bring you in for a tryout and maybe we’ll get you on the practice squad. What do you think about that? (laughter)”
(I wanted to ask you on LB Elandon Roberts, I know he practiced today. Is there an update and what’s the process? What’s the next step for him in the protocol?) – “(Elandon) Roberts – he’ll be out this weekend. He’s still in protocol. He practiced today. He’s in the protocol. He’ll go through the steps necessary and we’ll see about next week. Obviously it’s a short week next week also, so we’ll see where we’re at from that standpoint; but obviously his health and the health of all our players is priority number one and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure he’s ready to go before we put him back out there.”
(On Sunday after the game, you were pretty quick to tell us that stopping the run would be a priority in practice this week. How do you feel now towards the end of the week that you’ve done at attacking that phase of the game and just where your confidence is when it comes to stopping the run on Sunday.) – “We’ve talked about it. We’ve met about it. We’ve walked through it. We’ve practiced it. At the same time, you harp on one thing – this is a dangerous team from a running standpoint with their backs, running with the quarterback; but they’ve also got good tight ends, obviously very, very good receivers and a quarterback who can toss it all over the field. So while yes, we’ve spent a lot of time on the run game, but we’ve spent time on really a lot of areas to include the pass game, the play-action game, the screen game. This is a very, let’s call it high-power offense. They’re very multiple from a personnel standpoint, from a schematic standpoint. Conceptually they do a lot of things and we’ve got our hands full. Obviously it starts with stopping the run, but they pose a lot of issues.”
(Are you expecting to have WR DeVante Parker and having him at full go on Sunday?) – “That’s probably going to be a little bit of a game-time decision. Obviously he’s practiced on a limited basis all week. We’ll see on Sunday morning, really. But yeah, it’ll be a little bit of a game-time decision. But look, DeVante, this guy’s competitive. He wants to be out there, so he’s going to do everything possible to be out there. But yeah, game-time (decision).”
