Robby Brown – September 15, 2020
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Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Quarterbacks Coach Robby Brown
(Overall, what was your impression of how QB Ryan Fitzpatrick handled the game?) – “I think we all know the bad part; but I think he never really got in a great rhythm. He had some good things that he did really well. We have some things that we can improve upon. That’s the way it is every game, but we just need to try to get in a rhythm and get it going. I think he did some good and some bad, just like we all did.”
(I just wanted to get an idea of how you go through a week with QB Tua Tagovailoa as the backup and how do you teach him maybe some of the things that you’re teaching QB Ryan Fitzpatrick while he’s not necessarily the guy?) – “I think that’s a really good question. I talked a little bit about it when I was asked about coaching philosophy, but I’ve talked with Tua (Tagovailoa) a lot about, ‘hey, we’ve got to figure out what works for you, how you learn.’ He’s in a unique situation in that he’s got a 16-year vet in front of him that’s tremendously willing to help, that he can learn a lot of the game from. He’s got an offensive coordinator that’s been around the game a long time. So my job is to kind of try to figure out what is working that he’s learning, try to be a translator so to speak, because you’ve got two guys maybe speaking a language that have been together for a long time in Chan (Gailey) and ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) and then I’ve been with Chan several times. Then I kind of try to figure out what’s working for him and then go from there. But he sits in every single meeting that ‘Fitz’ does. He goes through – you try to get him mental reps because you don’t get a ton of reps during practice, but you try to get him the mental reps and then narrow the game plan each and every day like, ‘hey, okay let’s learn this part, this part, this part,’ and he did a really good job last week. That was the first time, so we’ll try to improve upon it each and every time and get him more and more in-tune to what we’re trying to do. But we’ll try to get better each and every week and fine-tune it as we go.”
(When you have a young quarterback like QB Tua Tagovailoa, is it more about getting him packages that he’s comfortable with or personnel that he’s comfortable with? How do you get him to take that next step in his development?) – “I think it’s both. You have to get him comfortable and there’s some things that he’s very comfortable with that he says, ‘oh man, I’m great with that.’ And then there’s some things that it may take him an extra day to learn; but it’s the same way with ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick). You may put a play in and ‘eh’ and then they really like it 24 hours later after they run it in practice. I think it’s a little bit of both, but it’s the same way with the starting quarterback, too. What personnel does he like? What plays? That kind of thing. That’s Chan’s job and he does a really good job at that – at figuring out what they’re good at – but it’s both and I would say that for the starter, as well.”
(A little bit earlier today, we were talking with Offensive Coordinator Chan Gailey and it came up as far as what QB Tua Tagovailoa was doing on the sideline Sunday, what he was understanding, what he was asking questions about. What did you observe? How did he comport himself during the game and what did he take away from that learning experience?) – “I think it obviously with no preseason games, it was his first one, so he’s got the hat on listening to the call, those types of things. Then we come over and get him into the tablet, listening to what ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) is saying about the tablet. ‘Hey, we’re getting this or that. We’re getting this front. This guy’s going here. This guy’s going there,’ and realizing how fast those decisions are made I think was very good for him. He was very in-tune. He knew the game plan well, so he was in-tune to what we were doing and he knew what we were saying. There was never a time where he was like, ‘what are we talking about?’ But it is a learning process and it’s a learning process if you used to be in the box coaching and now you’re on the sidelines and trying to make those adjustments. So it’s a learning process for everybody; but I thought he was very in-tune to what we were doing and like I said in his preparation, we’ll just try to get better at that each and every week and see how much we can absorb and how much we can learn.”
(I wanted to ask you about QB Ryan Fitzpatrick’s second interception to I think Adrian Phillips. It looked like the safety just kind of came down and robbed the route. He never saw him. I’m curious what you saw on tape and how you communicated that to Fitzpatrick and kind of the coaching point there for you.) – “I think ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) answered it after the game. I can’t remember exactly how he answered it, but he said ‘I didn’t see him.’ I knew he didn’t see him immediately. Chan (Gailey) knew he didn’t see him immediately when he was coming off the field. I think that’s about knowing people and I’m not going to sit there and say ‘what happened?’ He comes off the field and he says, ‘I didn’t see him.’ So he answered that. I didn’t even have to ask him, but he said the same thing he said to you guys after the game. He didn’t see him.”
(If I could ask a little two-parter: I know you had mentioned earlier about QB Tua Tagovailoa’s learning style. What have you maybe learned about how he learns best? I know some people are visual learners or audio learners. How have you learned about maybe how he regurgitates information?) – “I think we’re still early in that process. I know that sounds crazy for me to say, but we’ve been at it really in-person just a little over a month. So I think we’re still early in that process and you just keep fine-tuning, keep fine-tuning and keep fine-tuning it. But to sit here and say, ‘oh he’s only a visual’ or ‘he’s only’ – I couldn’t tell you right now, but we’re trying to work through that and try to figure out. It’s just Week 1 in the game-planning stage, so we’ll just work through it and try to figure it out as we go.”
(I wondered if you attended the QB Reid Sinnett workout, what you liked about him and is there enough time during the work week to spend any time developing a second young quarterback?) – “That’s a good question. I did attend the workout and he did a good job in it; but as far as a new guy coming in like that and the time during the week of game-planning and all of that stuff, you kind of try to break it down into parts for him. ‘Learn this part, learn this part’ and give him little pieces to learn and then just build on it the same way you would with any young quarterback. You just try to accelerate it as fast as you can and I’ve been around him for a little less than 24 hours, but he’s working trying to learn it.”
