Brian Flores – September 3, 2020
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Thursday, September 3, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I wanted to see if the odds were in our favor for you to let us know who your QB1 and QB2 were for next week?) – “Not in your favor. (laughter) I think you knew the answer to that, though.”
(I like that Miami Heat shirt. Tell me what did you think about the game and I guess what’s it like supporting other South Florida teams here?) – “I thought the game was fantastic last night. It came down to the wire. A lot of great situational basketball at the end and it came down to free throws, so it was good. Obviously I’m a fan of ‘Coach Spo’ (Miami Heat Head Coach Erik Spoelstra) and that team and the way they play. They’re tough. They’re physical. They grind things out. They play smart basketball. I’m a fan and hopefully we can kind of learn from a lot of things they do and emulate a lot of the success that they’ve had over there.”
(Obviously we’ve asked you a lot about QB Tua Tagovailoa since he’s got here since he’s the new hot figure, but I wanted to ask you about what the impact you think QB Ryan Fitzpatrick still has on this team?) – “From a leadership standpoint, from an experience standpoint, I think he brings a lot to the team. He’s smart. He’s tough. I would say from a toughness standpoint, he brings a lot to this team as well. It’s important to him. He’s competitive. And for Tua (Tagovailoa) specifically and Josh (Rosen), they kind of talk through end-of-game situations, end-of-half situations, third down, two-minute, red zone, Mike points in the run game, defensive structures. All of those things, they’ve been very helpful to the young players. It’s the same defensively; so a defensive guy can go to ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) and say, ‘hey, what’d you see on that? What made you make that throw versus another throw?’ And he’s more than willing to take on that role and answer questions. I think he brings a lot.”
(I have another QB Ryan Fitzpatrick question of my own. It’s well-known your affinity for him and the relationship that grew between you two throughout the course of the season; but did you really know him before you guys signed him and how did that relationship develop?) – “I don’t know if anyone’s used the word ‘affinity’ with me and any player. (laughter) ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) – obviously I’ve coached against him, watched him play in this league for a long, long time, hadn’t met him but knew of him from (when) I went to B.C. (Boston College), he was at Harvard. So I knew of him, but I think what you hear about him as a person, that was all true. We’re seeing that. He’s all the things that I’m looking for in a player. He’s tough, he’s smart, he’s competitive. He loves to play. He’s a great teammate. He’s coachable. I probably have a lot of similarities from that standpoint about the way we approach the game, and I think it’s been a good fit. ‘Affinity’ – I don’t know if I’d use those words, but I like the guy a lot.”
(Obviously you guys are 10 days away from New England. I wanted to ask, are you guys game-planning for them and I guess their uncertainty at quarterback at this point or are you still in camp mode?) – “It’s a little bit of both right now. We’ve obviously started some preparation on them, trying to get familiar with their personnel. They’ve got some new players – the quarterback situation obviously – but at the same time, we’re going to use today and work on some things that we may not have seen from our offense, our defense today, over the course of training camp – not necessarily New England, but just different looks that we haven’t seen offensively, defensively. Really in training camp you work against – whatever your defense does, that’s what you’re going to see offensively. Whatever your offense does, that’s what you’re going to see defensively. Whatever you do in the kicking game, that’s what you see. But some other teams are a little bit different and there are some other concepts that we need to see more of. So that’s what we’re working on today and then we’ll get into the game plan a little later in the week probably.”
(I know last season probably just seems so, so far away; but heading into Year 2 – Year 2 of your coaching career here as a head coach – what are some ways that you feel like you’ve improved and evolved as a coach and what are some things that you’re still working on?) – “I’m still working on everything. I try to improve on a daily basis in every area of my life – coaching, fatherhood, being a husband, friendships. I try to get better really at everything; but yeah, there’s experiences that I had last year that I think about as I’m trying to make decisions in this season, conversations that I’ve had, experiences, situations in practice and games. I certainly don’t have all the answers. I don’t think I ever will, so I lean on our coaching staff – (Special Teams Coordinator) Danny Crossman to (Offensive Coordinator) Chan (Gailey) to (Defensive Coordinator) Josh Boyer to (Running Backs Coach) Eric Studesville. I feel very comfortable with our group, so I’ll lean on those guys; but as far as relationships with the players, the guys who were here a year ago, they kind of know how I’m wired. They know what I expect, so that’s been good as far as comfortability from that standpoint; but at the same time, we also have a lot of new players who are still getting to know them as well and they’re getting to know me. And that’s kind of football in general. That’s how we try to build a team. There’s always some new guys and we’re just making everyone feel comfortable but at the same time coach them hard.”
(It’s been a minute since WR DeVante Parker and WR Jakeem Grant have practiced, at least that we’ve seen. I guess housekeeping-wise is there any uncertainty about their availability for Week 1?) – “Both guys are working hard on a daily basis to get back out there. They’ll be out there as soon as they can be. As far as their availability, we’ll get the injury report starting next week so hopefully they’re not on it, but we’ll see. They’re working to get back out there quickly, as soon as possible.”
(We are a little over two full days away from cut-down day. Given that you haven’t had preseason games to look at film, how comfortable are you that you’ll be able to make all the right decisions on Saturday?) – “We’re going to do our best to make – we’re going to try to make the best decisions that we can make based on the information, the practices, the walkthroughs, the meetings. We’re going to try to make the best decisions that we can. Look, no one’s ever perfect. We want to be perfect. We strive for perfection and we’re going to make the decisions we feel in this moment that are best for this team. And there’s a lot of factors that go into that. We’ve already had a lot of conversations on this as a staff. I’ve had these conversations with (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore). There’s – again – a lot of factors that go into getting down to 53. These are tough conversations for us as a staff and then obviously they’re tough conversations with the players who end up getting released, but that’s a part of the business. I think everybody understands that, so I think the focus right now is on today. That’s kind of what I try to – my message to these guys is there may be some anxiety and some of those things going on about, ‘hey where’s my standing,’ but the best thing to do is just go out here and have a good practice and let the chips fall where they fall.”
(I know last time I guess we asked you about CB Xavien Howard, he was just getting off of PUP and getting his legs under him. I wanted to see where you feel like he is at this point and if he’s making progress with those elements that you wanted to see from him?) – “Yeah, he’s made a lot of progress. He’s looked good out there. He’s fast, quick. He’s just got to work on the techniques, the fundamentals, which that’ll come; but he’s looked good conditioning. And those are things that we work on on a daily basis to get better. He’s trending in the right direction. I would say that. Again, a lot of competition at that position as well. We’ll see how it shakes out.”
