Miami Dolphins Media
Conference
Sunday, January 8, 2023
Miami, Florida, USA
Robert Saleh
Visitors Postgame Presser
Miami 11, Jets 6
Q. Went out banged up but wanted to get back in for the team, for the organization and the teammates?
ROBERT SALEH: It speaks a lot to the locker room. We’ve got the right guys. It’s unfortunate the way it ended, obviously, with not getting in the playoffs, starting 7-4 but we asked the guys to fight and they absolutely fought all the way to the end and give credit to Miami, they are going to the playoffs. But gave them a run.
Q. How do you explain a six-game losing streak toned the season?
ROBERT SALEH: Doesn’t matter. I can explain it a million different ways but it’s a six-game losing streak.
Q. You’ve gone three games without scoring a touchdown. Just talk about the problem recently.
ROBERT SALEH: Same thing. I can give you a bunch of problems but we didn’t get it done.
Q. To have that start to the season, how frustrating, disappointing is it to end this way?
ROBERT SALEH: It’s frustrating because you know you’re right there, and there was, when you’re rolling on all cylinders, and 7-4, pretty healthy and one thing leads to another and you lose six in a row. I’m not going to fault these guys for how hard they fought. Took Minnesota to the wire, Buffalo to the wire, Detroit to the wire. Didn’t like the way we played that Thursday night game in Seattle but loved the way we came out today. Again, took Miami down to the wire and just one or two plays go our way it’s a
different story. It just didn’t work out today.
Q. How do you think Joe played today?
ROBERT SALEH: I thought Joe was awesome. He took a beating. Just getting rid of the ball as best he could and playing within the offense, trying to give it to our play-makers. Thought Garrett played really well but he did about everything you could ask out of them.
Q. How do you remain positive during all of this?
ROBERT SALEH: Because I know what kind of team we have, and I get it, I get outside noise and all that stuff. I get the disappointment of a six-game losing streak but honestly the silver lining is that we’ve got an unbelievable core group of guys and I’m really excited for this off-season, really excited to see them take off, and we’re going to get this opportunity again and we’ve got to go finish.
Q. What message did you send to the guys after today’s game?
ROBERT SALEH: You know, we’re going to be in these positions again. I know we are. You know, in my first year, I’m going to talk about it more tomorrow but when we’re out of the playoffs with four games left, we simulated a playoff run, playing December football and this year we actually got to live December football. Didn’t go the way we wanted at all. Next year we’re going to be in December football and the
challenge is going to be finish, not just be satisfied with December football but finishing December football. We had our opportunities. Didn’t work out the way we wanted it to for whatever reasons you want to give, but next year we’re going to be in this exact opportunity and it’s going to be about finishing.
Q. What gives you the confidence that that’s going to be the case?
ROBERT SALEH: Because we’ve got a good team. We do. We’ve got a good team. 7-4, it wasn’t a mirage.
We’ve got a championship-calibre defense, we’ve got a bunch of young guys that are going to be healthy and get back here, and we’ve got an O-Line that’s going to be healthy and get back here, and I know we’ll get the quarterback position right. When all that happens, we’re going to be in the same situation and it’s going to be about finishing and it’s going to be about finishing all off-season.
Q. Any particular message?
ROBERT SALEH: I’ll talk to them tomorrow. But I’ve been talking to them throughout. It’s not going to change. It’s going to be the same. Go home, go on vacation, go do something, clear your mind from football and when you get back, have that clear mind and get ready to go play and become the person we all know he’s capable of.
Q. Standing by the door coming in — I’m sure you feel his disappointment. What do you say to him about the way this happened?
ROBERT SALEH: You know, I say sorry to everybody, Woody, Christopher, IRA, Jamie, E, all the players, all the coaches, all the fans. Because I know it’s been a long, long ride of not being in the playoffs and I know it was right in our finger tips and we’re not going. But at the same time I know we’ve come a long way over two years and I’m excited about what we’ve got ahead of us. So you know, it’s just, like I said, it stings right now but when all this dust settles and we reflect on the season, we’ll be excited about what we have to offer and kicking off this off-season the right way and getting us back into this position where we’ve got a chance to clinch and get into the playoffs.
Q. The quarterback fixed, what does that look like to you?
ROBERT SALEH: Getting the people that are here better and just evaluating it and just like I said, it’s all hands on deck. We’ve got a free agent in Mike, free agent in Joe, we’ve got to talk to them. We’ve got a young kid in Zach that we are committed to. Right now it’s taking over our quarterbacks in house and
from there, just evaluating and finding ways we can get better.
Q. Are you prepared to say Michael Cole will be back next year?
ROBERT SALEH: You know what I’m going to go back and do my process. I get it. It is so important for me to go through process. I’ve said it before, just the amount of things, the adversity that he’s had to deal with this year, you just can’t blame one person. There’s a lot of things that can go around, and so making the best decisions for this organization are first and foremost.
Q. How long does it take you to put football behind you before you get back on it?
ROBERT SALEH: I don’t know. This one is going to be on my mind for a little bit. I don’t know, I’ve got seven kids and a beautiful wife at home, so they let me forget pretty quick.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports ….
Joe Flacco
Visitors Postgame Presser
Miami 11, Jets 6
Q. You went through a progression in Baltimore as a young player, do you think this team, the next step is
just learning how to win these December games?
JOE FLACCO: I mean, I was talking on the radio about it. I think we have the pieces in place to be one of those teams. It didn’t show this year, but you know, you build a team to win in December, January, February, that’s how — and I think when you build a team like that, it’s not always going to be pretty and I think the first step in that is usually getting your defense to turn the corner and become an elite
defense and I think you can see a lot of that from our defense this year. I think when we start to make a couple little adjustments on offense and do a couple little things to kind of turn the corner ourselves, I think you’ll start to see a team that, you know, it still might not look pretty every week but it’s about
winning games later in the year. I think we have the foundation to kind of get that done. I know it’s tough to feel — to try to look for positives when another season is coming to an end without a playoff spot.
But that’s the reality of it. Only one team went to the Super Bowl every year. It’s more disappointing the later you lose in the season. I think the fortunate thing for the guys here is that they have the opportunity to build something and be a part of something that’s going to be special when they get it done. In Baltimore we had a core group of veterans when I got there that this team didn’t quite have until this
year a little bit. Different circumstances and different teams. Yeah, I think there’s a lot of good guys in that
locker room that know how to play football.
Q. What’s next in your football future?
JOE FLACCO: I went out there today, and I honestly felt as good as I’ve ever felt. I know there’s probably a lot of people out there that don’t look at it that way and don’t want to see it that way but — listen, when you’re sitting on the bench and you’re not playing football, it’s not a lot of fun. It isn’t. And it pulls your mind in a bunch of different directions but every time you get back out — every time you get back out on the practice field, and obviously on Sunday on the game field, I mean, it’s just so much fun and so
much fun to be out there with all those young guys and still do anything I love. That’s what I plan on doing until, you know, I’ve said it before, I’m going to do it as long as I can and that’s my plan and we’ll see what happens this off-season and what kind of opportunities there are wherever that is.
Q. You said on the broadcast your son had a Tyreek Hill jersey —
JOE FLACCO: I told him, like a couple months ago, my dad kind of made this promise to them that if I happened to be playing in Miami at the end of the year — my second son happens to be — they are all Tyreek Hill fans obviously, I mean, who isn’t, what kid isn’t. But my dad promised them, hey, if your dad is playing that last week, I’ll take you to Miami and we’ll go see the game. And all of a sudden on Thursday, like, hey man, I’m playing. I know you’re picking them up from wrestling practice, when they get in the car, just a warning, they are going to give you hell about going to this Miami game. So I’m just giving you heads-up, like whether you actually meant it or not — and he’s like, “Oh, man, no,” he was all excited about it. He recruited my mom obviously to help him out or he wouldn’t have been successful in his journey, I don’t think. But I think that’s awesome. How cool that, like to have that opportunity as a little kid to be on an NFL football field and watch your dad go against one of your favorite players. I think it’s awesome, too. I felt very fortunate today to be able to like introduce them and just see how happy they
were. It made me happy. I was excited to go play today and that was part of the reason that I was so excited.
DraftScripts by ASAP Sports ….
TE Tyler Conklin
(Is it hard to wrap your brain around that you guys were at 7-4, so much to play for at the end of
the season, you lose six straight, just kind of what happened?) – “Yeah, it doesn’t even seem real.
I mean, how do you have a collapse like that? I don’t know, these are tough questions, guys. I wish I
had the answers for them. I don’t know why we haven’t scored touchdowns. I mean it’s frustrating as
hell, and how we dropped six straight – you’d think we’d have a good shot of the playoffs at one point,
right? We obviously just didn’t do what we needed to do to make that happen and it’s just frustrating.”
(What was Head Coach Robert Saleh’s parting message to you guys right after the game?) – “It’s
hard for him too, obviously, in this situation, but just about how he cares about us and the love we
have for this team – coaches to players, players to players. You know, that is something – we do have
a really close team, a close locker room. We just have things we need to fix, and if anything, I think
we’ve got to use this as fuel – not just fuel but know that we can be 7-4 and playoffs aren’t promised.
That’s a pretty big damn lesson there, to be sitting there and thinking you’re going to make the
playoffs for the first time in forever and then have a collapse like that. You know you can’t take anything
for granted, and that’s a good lesson for this team.”
(How much is it going to fuel you going into the offseason?) – “Yeah, it’s not hard to fuel me. I was
a walk-on in college; I was a fifth-round pick. So it isn’t hard to fuel me, but I definitely think as a unit
it will fuel us. I’d like to think we’ll be getting together a lot in the offseason as skill positions and
quarterbacks. I’m excited to get back out there and start working with everybody, just as players
figuring out how we can come back as best as we can. I never have a problem being fueled for the
offseason.”
CB Sauce Gardner
(How frustrating is it just to be 7-4, possibly in the playoff hunt and then be eliminated like this,
losing six straight games?) – “Like I said last week, we want to win so it’s extremely frustrating, but
now it’s to the point we can’t dwell on the past. We’ve got to just attack this offseason cause this time
next year we’re going to be in the playoffs.”
(What gives you the confidence that you will be?) – “We got the people in this locker room right
now to do it. We got the players. We just got to execute more. I already know this feeling, this taste
in our mouth, everybody is going to come back next year, or later this year whatever it is, with that
right mentality.”
LB C.J. Mosley
(Is it hard to believe that you guys lost six in a row after the way you started the season?) – “No
one was expecting that on our side, especially, but like I said, we try to put our best foot forward
every single week. I know everybody in our building gave it their all – coaches, players, scouts,
everybody that goes into preparing for a game. We can’t hang our head low, because compared to
last year to now, there’s so much improvement, so much stuff we can talk about. But we all have a
goal, we all have our ambitions and our mindset when we step out this field when we come to work.
This offseason, we’ve got a lot of stuff to work on. It’s going to be exciting, so be ready for it.”
(Will it be hard to watch the playoffs on TV knowing that if you had just won one of these games
that might have been you?) – “It will be hard. We all set up for a mission going into the season,
during the season. So my challenge to everyone [is] go watch the playoffs. We feel like we deserve
to be there, so go watch it. Let that fuel you. Let that piss you off, because that’s where we want to
be. We deserve to be there, but we didn’t do the right things this season to get that done. Watch
those games, especially for our defense. Watch those other defenses ball out, because we’re sitting
at home, one of the top ranked defenses and we can’t do nothing about it. But what we can do is
come back this offseason, put our heads together, put our minds together and just attack every
single day when we get back together. We all know it won’t be the same room, but the people that
we do have, the people that we do bring in, will be the right people, and we’re going to go to
work.”
(You talked about improving from last year to this year and it showed in the record. What are
you expecting the improvement to be like next season?) – “Last year, our foundation was set. This
year, I feel like we obviously took leaps and bounds going into the season, so now we just have to
keep building. We’re going to Year Three with our coaches and with the players and our young guys
that we drafted that have been balling out. So man, we’ve got a lot of stuff to look forward to. Like I
said before, that was a tough to not make it to the playoffs, obviously, but we don’t have anything to
hang our head down on. We have a lot to look forward to. We have a bright future here at the Jets.
We have some young guys who are going to be doing a lot of great things, so we’re excited.”
