Robby Brown – November 3, 2020
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Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown
(What was one thing that you came away with encouraged by QB Tua Tagovailoa and what is one thing you’re going to stress with him this week that he needs to do better?) – “Well, I think I was encouraged. He did some good things communication-wise. I thought he was calm. I thought the coach to QB communication – look, we do that stuff in practice but it’s different during a game. I thought all of that stuff went well. It wasn’t just 100 percent smooth. We had some stuff where he says ‘Hey, I like this, don’t like this,’ during the week and that kind of stuff. So I thought he communicated well with what he needed and every guy is different. Every quarterback is different. Some guys want this little reminder, some guys want this. But I thought he did a really good job of saying what he liked, what helps him and what didn’t help him. And that’s what I’ve told him to keep focusing on. He does a good job of being himself overall, so he’s not afraid to tell you. I think that would be my focus, to try to tell him to keep improving on, is let’s hone in on our communication because that’s the first thing you have to do is be on the same page as the Dolphins. I think he did a good job with that and I think that’s somewhere that I would say we keep focusing on.”
(Obviously so much of what’s happening with the offense right now deals with how well QB Tua Tagovailoa can settle in as a starting rookie quarterback. You have a guy on the staff that did it about as well as anybody in the league ever in QB Dan Marino. What is his role in make Tagovailoa comfortable and giving him advice, and helping him settle down?) – “I was asked about Dan a couple of weeks ago. I just saw Dan five minutes ago when I was waiting my turn to come in here and he came in to check on me and see how everything was going. I think like you said, he’s been there, he’s done that. He’s a Hall of Famer. He’s very open to helping, so I think you’d be very – I guess it would not be smart to at least not ask him some questions. But it wans’t like ‘hey, Tua is the starter. We’re going to ask him a ton of questions.’ No, he’s always been around and always been available to us. He makes himself available, gives advice when asked and we’d be crazy not to ask him stuff, as would Tua or as would ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) or anybody. I think he’s a good resource.”
(We just talked to Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey and he said the design was to keep things conservative and when the score got lopsided, to go even more conservative with QB Tua Tagovailoa. How comfortable are you with the entire playbook for him at this point? There will be building blocks, I’m sure. But he’s not – is his level of recognition with the offense at the same level as QB Ryan Fitzpatrick? It can’t be because Fitzpatrick has been in the league for two decades. Where is he right now with that?) – “I think that goes along with everybody’s different – there are things that, shoot there’s things that ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) sees that I don’t see. ‘Fitz’ has been 16 years taking however many ever snaps. So to compare that would be incredibly tough; but I would say that Tua has a good grasp of what we’re trying to do. He studies hard at it. He has been studying hard at it since the virtual OTAs. I would say that it was a unique game on Sunday. It was unique ways that we scored, a unique way the game started and all of that kind of stuff. I think he’s getting a grasp. He’s continuing to get a grasp. And I think once you do, and I say this every week or every time I talk to you guys, is you prepare the same way. When he comes in the first day, (Head) Coach (Brian) Flores always likes starting with personnel. That’s what we do in the organization. Try to get to know your opponent. That’s where he starts. Every day that he comes in, the first time he comes in, he starts trying to get to know our opponent. Then he progresses – personnel, situations and that kind of stuff. I think he’s got to do the same thing each and every week, and continue to get better.”
(I’d like to go to that first play for QB Tua Tagovailoa when Rams DT Aaron Donald bust through the line and made the play that he did. What was Tagovailoa’s reaction and what were you telling him? Was there anything about his reaction that surprised you?) – “No, there really wasn’t. He has an incredible personality. He’s loose. So when those kinds of things happen, my initial reaction is it doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, it doesn’t matter if I’m coaching in college or wherever I was coaching. My initial reaction is let’s get over to the sideline, let’s sit down. I never want to overreact or jump up. I mean everyone knows – my 4-year old could look at it and say, ‘Ooo, that’s not good. So you don’t say that. You sit down. ‘Hey, what did you see?’ And he tells you what he saw and he saw it well. He knew what he saw, he knew what happened, so then you move on and don’t focus on it and the defensive guys and the offensive guys were saying ‘hey, let’s shake it off. We’ve got you.’ I think the main thing there is not to overreact, and he’s not an overreact-er. He’s been big collegiate games obviously. This is a different atmosphere, but he didn’t overreact. Coach Flores didn’t. ‘Hey, let’s go play ball and that stuff happens.’”
