Brian Flores – September 5, 2020
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Saturday, September 5, 2020
Head Coach Brian Flores
(I was wondering your thoughts on the decision to move on from QB Josh Rosen.) – “This time of year, every decision is tough to let go of a player. At the end of the day, Josh – he worked hard, he competed, he did everything we asked; but at the end of the day, we just felt like moving on was the best thing for the Miami Dolphins.”
(What do you think I guess went wrong with QB Josh Rosen’s tenure in Miami where it didn’t work out?) – “Like I just mentioned, he’s a hard-working kid. He competed. I think he fought through – last year was a difficult year for him. Being up, coming down. He fought through it. He came back. He competed this training camp. I don’t have any bad things to say about him. It just didn’t work out and we felt like it was best for us to move on. I wish him the best. He’s immensely talented; but we just felt like this was the best move for the Dolphins. Again, like I’ve said before, there are a lot of factors that go into every decision we make. They’re long conversations. They involve a lot of different circumstances and we just feel like we try to make the best decision for the team right now. That’s how we felt about the situation.”
(Obviously this is a unique year with the COVID-19 situation. Some folks might say “well why not keep around a talented third quarterback considering there’s always a risk of injury or this year virus?” What about that?) – “Again, we talked about a myriad of circumstances, situations – that being one of them. A lot of factors go into the decision-making, but we felt like even with that, this was the best move for the Miami Dolphins. We don’t take any of this lightly. We put a lot of thought into every decision we make. Josh (Rosen) competed. I wish him all the best; but that was the decision we wanted to make.”
(The move with QB Josh Rosen would seem to make a statement about your feelings toward QB Tua Tagovailoa and his preparedness to get into a game if need be right away. I’m wondering if you could address that, just how confident you are if Tua had to play almost immediately really.) – “Again, Tua (Tagovailoa) had a good camp. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) had a good camp. Josh (Rosen) had a good camp. All of these guys were competitive. There’s a lot of things that go into making a decision. Obviously from a health standpoint, we feel good about where Tua is. At the same time, we’re not saying that Tua is No. 2; we’re not saying that he’s No. 1. We’re going through it. We’re still making evaluations. We’re still looking at every possible scenario. We’ve got a bunch of guys who are going to be released this evening; but yes, at the end of the day, we feel good about where Tua is and same as ‘Fitz,’ and we’re going to move forward with those two guys and we could potentially add another quarterback or someone at another position as well.”
(I just wanted to ask how important is it for you to have a quarterback on the practice squad and maybe is bringing back QB Jake Rudock a possibility for you guys because of his familiarity?) – “Again, those are conversations that (General Manager) Chris (Grier) and (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore) and myself, we have – and (Assistant General Manager) Marvin Allen. You can never have enough quarterbacks, so I could see us having one on the practice squad, but I think it’s too early to say, ‘hey, we’re going to do this, that or something else.’ There’s going to be a lot more players on the wire tonight. We’ll take a look at all of them and we’ll see where we are from there.”
(I know obviously last year you guys spent a second-round draft pick on QB Josh Rosen. I guess when you look back at that trade, is there any regret? Is there any looking back and figuring why it didn’t work – the trade?) – “I think the most important thing is to kind of move forward and not look back and worry about today and worry about this season and not worry about what happened last year or – look, you don’t hit on every play, on every trade, on every draft pick. Show me a team that’s hit on every one and I’ll applaud that team. So I’m not saying that there’s any regrets. I feel like in the moment, we felt like that was the best move for the Dolphins. It didn’t work out and we moved on from Josh (Rosen) and we’ll leave it at that.”
(The dynamic in the quarterback room primarily now is going to be QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and QB Tua Tagovailoa, and we’ve talked almost every day about how wonderful that combination is. The dynamic of ‘Fitz’ and Tua, is there an advantage from your perspective to that on and off the field practice reps included as opposed to having three quarterbacks in the room and sharing practice reps?) – “I think the dynamic, whether it’s two or three, I don’t really see much of a difference. I don’t think there would be much of a difference as far as what that dynamic would look like. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) is ‘Fitz.’ Tua is Tua. And whoever the third guy is – whatever kind of personality that person brings, I think it would fit in with those two specifically – to include Josh; I think there was a good dynamic when Josh was in the room as well. What we do next from a quarterback standpoint is yet to be determined. We’ve made no decisions. We brought Jake (Rudock) in for a visit, seen him work out and look, there’s still going to be a lot of transactions. There are a lot of transactions left to be made throughout the league. We’ll take a look and do our due diligence on players at all positions. I know we’re focusing – locked in – on the quarterback right now, but there’s 52 other or I should say 51 other players on the roster and that makes a team, not just one position. But I understand it’s a very vital position and I understand all the questions on it, but at the same time, it’s a team game. We need 53 guys who can help the team win and that’s kind of the type of team we’re trying to build.”
(To that point, I guess are you guys prepared to play QB Tua Tagovailoa a little earlier than you anticipated or than you may perhaps want to?) – “He’s had a good camp. He’s been competitive. He’s improved. I think if he had to go in, I think he’d prepare himself and do the best he could. Obviously he’s shown improvement and right now I would say he’s – he’s shown a lot of improvement. If he had to go in and play, that’s how it’d be. Now a rookie playing early on, we may have that at some other positions and if that were the case, then that’s what it would be. But I don’t like to speak in hypotheticals. I know everybody else does, but that’s where we’re at.”
(Last year you guys were aggressive on the waiver wire with five claims along with the number of trades that you did. Do you anticipate yourself being that aggressive and what are you looking for on the waiver wire – not necessarily positions but young players, moldable players, things like that?) – “That’s yet to be determined as well. We’ve got to see what’s out there. If there’s a player or players that we feel help us or improve our roster, we’ll have conversations about it and potentially put a claim in. But tonight’s going to be a long night from that standpoint across the league. I think every team’s going to be checking the wire, watching film and I think each team, to include us, is going to try to improve their team as much as they can tonight and obviously there’s probably going to be transactions over the next few weeks with teams making moves and trying to improve their team and we’re no different from that standpoint.”
