Chris Grier and Brian Flores – January 5, 2021
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Tuesday, January 5, 2021
General Manager Chris Grier and Head Coach Brian Flores
Chris Grier:
(Question for General Manager Chris Grier: how confident are you that QB Tua Tagovailoa is your long-term franchise quarterback and can you rule out taking a quarterback in the first round this year?) – “Tua, we’re very happy with. He’s our starting quarterback. He did a nice job this year coming in as a rookie with no offseason and the challenges of dealing with all that. Very happy with him and looking forward to watching him progress here over the next – with an offseason here – going into next year. And for us, we’re not really talking about draft strategy or anything right now. The season just ended and we’re just going through our process like we do all the time and we’ll deal with that here in the future.”
(After drafting QB Tua Tagovailoa, the convo turned to his recovery, getting him to a year after the injury and getting some experience this season. How do you think that process worked out with him and how important do you think it is that he came out of this season healthy as well?) – “I think Tua (Tagovailoa) and our training staff – both groups that work very hard in terms of getting themselves ready and prepared – as you talked about the challenges of last offseason. So I thought Tua did a great job with getting himself working through the whole process and then (Head Athletic Trainer) Kyle (Johnston), the training staff, (Head Strength & Conditioning) Dave Puloka, and even Brian (Flores) dealing with the laying out a plan for bringing him along and when he was ready, he was ready to go and he did a nice job of working himself throughout the season.”
(Do you feel a need to add a dynamic playmaking receiver?) – “We always talk about – Brian (Flores) and I, (Vice President of Football Administration) Brandon (Shore) and the scouts and coaches – competition makes everyone better, and we always talk about upgrading the roster in all areas. There’s places that we want to upgrade at all parts of the roster and obviously having playmakers on offense and defense is what the great teams have and we’ll keep doing that here in trying to address issues on both sides of the ball.”
(Piggybacking on that question, if your desire is to add competition and upgrade at all positions, is quarterback part of that calculus?) – “Yeah, it’s every position. Like I said, it makes everyone great. History has shown it doesn’t matter who it is; you’re always looking to bring in guys that fit your system and that will push people and make them better, and so competition at every position. We talked about that last year when we were going through it. It’s competition at every position, so yeah. But I also want to be clear that Tua is our starter and we’re very happy with his development so far.”
Brian Flores:
(This is for Head Coach Brian Flores, and maybe for General Manager Chris Grier as well. Do you guys plan on having all of your assistants returning in 2021 and your coordinator positions?) – “Yeah, we expect everyone back. Hopefully you’re not jinxing me now. Last time I said that, we lost Karl Dorrell, we lost Pat Graham, so thanks. (laughter) Hopefully not, though. We expect everyone back.”
Chris Grier:
(I wanted to ask about DE Emmanuel Ogbah specifically and how satisfied you were with his production. Also a two-parter, if you will: how does his emergence and a guy like LB Andrew Van Ginkel on the edges, how does that development approach how you might with a guy like LB Vince Biegel, who’s in a contract year who ended up missing? How do you fit those pieces together heading into the offseason?) – “First of all, Emmanuel (Ogbah) did a good job for us this year. He’s the right kind of person as well. He came in right away, worked hard. I think Brian and the coaching staff did a great job once they got to be around him, not having the offseason with him to figure out what he does well and the strengths in the scheme, and he just kind of took off from there once everyone got a feel for what he did best. So I was very happy and pleased with him. In terms of Van Ginkel and guys – I would say Brian and the coaching staff deserve a tremendous amount of credit for what we did this year in terms of the roster and having so many new players and young players with only one player over 30 on the roster, and their development plan and how they brought along a lot of these young players, I don’t think gets enough credit. In terms of Vince Biegel and stuff, again, the season just ended. We’re going through our process – our own self-scout evaluation of the team and stuff and then we’ll work our way through that here over the next couple weeks.”
Brian Flores:
(I wanted to get the assessment of the offensive line. A lot was made in terms of resources used, and free agent money used to improve the unit that struggled last year. Did you feel you got the desired outcome?) – “I think that group made a lot of improvement. Obviously we played a lot of young guys there, along with the two guys that we signed as free agents. I thought we made some improvements; but these next four, five, six weeks for us as a staff, to include Chris (Grier), we’re going to evaluate everything. We’re going to evaluate the o-line, the d-line, the offense, the defense, the special teams, first down, second down, third down, red zone, two-minute, schedules, anything that we can do to try to figure out what we can do to try to improve this team. We’ll take a look at the roster. Honestly this process coupled with the draft, coupled with free agency, we just try to create a vision of what we would like the 2021 team to look like. That’s what this process is. I think I’ll probably have a better answer of that a couple weeks from now, to be honest with you, after looking at it again; but my snapshot postseason is that it was an improved group. I thought that they improved over the course of the season. I saw development from the young players. That’s always what we’re looking for. I saw development from the veteran players. I thought the group came together. It wasn’t perfect but I thought they were solid. But at the end of the day, we’re not satisfied with where it ended up and we need to get better.”
(What is the likelihood that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick will be back? What has he indicated to you about what he’s thinking and do the Dolphins want him back?) – “Again, we’ve got to go through a full process, a full evaluation. Like I just said, we’ll evaluate offense, defense, special teams and then we’ll create a vision of what we want our team to look like in 2021. You don’t do that one day or two days after the season. Chris and I both, we talk about this extensively, we don’t think that’s the best way to make decisions. We’re not going to rush anything. We’re going to take our time with it. Obviously, ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick), along with all of the free agents, are going to be a part of the conversation because we know them. Those decisions or even – we’re not going to sit here and say ‘hey, we might want to do this, that or the other.’ We’ve got to go through it and be as thorough as possible and try to make the best decisions for this organization.”
(Offensively, when you look at how QB Tua Tagovailoa progressed in Offense Coordinator Chan Gailey’s offense, where are the areas you think – they’ve both been very complimentary working with each other – where are the areas that you look at and say communication-wise, progress-wise, do you want things to improve with Tua and his comfort in this offense?) – “I think the communication improves just through – over time. I think that’s the case at any position – offense, defense, special teams. I think people are more comfortable as they gain experience. It’s like any relationship, it improves with time. That’s the vision right now.”
Chris Grier:
(Last year, I asked you about the value of possessing the [fifth] pick. Can you talk about the options that are presented to you with having both the third and the 18th picks?) – “We’re not really going to sit here and talk draft strategy or anything right now. The season just ended and right now we’re focused the next few weeks on getting through our evaluations of the team here and really self-scouting our team and seeing – as Brian just said – what we want 2021 looks like. We’ll start dealing with that here shortly, once the Senior Bowl comes around here in a couple of weeks and we’re down in Mobile, (Alabama) and we’re going through that process. We’re excited to have the picks we have. There are some good players; but again, most of the players haven’t even declared yet still. We’re not going to speculate on anything, but we’re excited about the future here and what we can do for 2021.”
(Consideration for GM of the Year, I think you guys put together a great team. You guys obviously won this season. What are your thoughts on any consideration for yourself as GM of the Year from outsiders?) – “To me, at the end of the day, it’s about building the thing right and winning games. To me, the one thing I think – Brian will hate me saying it; but to me, I don’t think there’s any question that Brian is the Coach of the Year. Brian does not like any of that stuff. He hates when I say it. But for what he did with this roster and team, to go through this with the pandemic, the young players, how young we were with no offseason and a completely new roster, to win 10 games with what we have and a rookie quarterback, eight rookie players on offense playing, Brian and his staff did an unbelievable job. I’d also like to thank Brandon Shore and Kyle Johnston for keeping us updated on protocols through everything and updating the COVID procedures, and Brian enforcing it with the team and reminding them every day that he loves the guys and don’t be embarrassed if you get COVID (because) it’s not anyone’s fault. I think it created a sense right from the start that the team knew that Brian had their backs, believed in them and the team believed in him. And it showed this year on the field. I don’t really listen to any outside stuff, but I think the important thing is what Brian did what this team and I think that’s what people should really be talking about.”
Brian Flores:
(I think a lot of what 2021 might come down to is what you all can do to maximize QB Tua Tagovailoa’s skillset to make him most comfortable in the offense. When you think about those considerations, what comes to mind? Is the system, for example, the right system for Tua?) – “I think you’re way down the road right now. I think we’re just kind of going to take this one day at a time and again, go through our evaluation. Everything is going to get evaluated. I mean we’re thinking about basically the end of 2021 right now – the end of the 2021 season, that’s essentially what that question was. I think right now we’re going to focus on evaluating the team, evaluating the roster and create a vision for what we want 2021 to look like. That’s a one day at a time process and that’s kind of the early part of the offseason. I understand the question. I do. But I think the answers to that will come as we go through these evaluations. We’ll probably have better answers then and that will obviously be included in our vision for the team.”
(Thank you for a winning season. I think everybody’s appreciative of that. What’s the next step? What is the goal for the Miami Dolphins as far as accomplishment for this year?) – “The goal is to get better every day and try to develop the people, the players, the coaches, the people within the organization, develop ourselves and let the results take care of themselves. That’s what we talk to the players about. Let’s do a good job with our process, with our preparation; and that was our message to them about the offseason. Your process, your preparation throughout the offseason. We’ll do the same thing as far as our process and our preparation as far as our vision for what we want the team to look like. We’ll take it one day at a time and we’ll try to get better every day and we won’t leave any stone unturned. We’ll do everything possible to bring results to the fanbase, to the people in our organization, and that’s important to us. That’s something we talk about on a daily basis.”
Chris Grier:
“Brian said it all. We’ve said it before: it’s a process and we’re just getting better every day. We’ve never set a timetable for anything. It was just about getting better each day. That’s all it is.”
