Dolphins Head Coach Brian Flores
8-22-2019
(What was your assessment of QB Ryan Fitzpatrick?) – “I thought offensively – (Jacksonville is) a good defense. It was a tough start. The first half – running the ball, moving the ball – I think we had three or four three-and-outs. It was a tough start. It’s a good defense. I think our defense and special teams kind of kept us in the game early. We got us a couple of field goals and went into halftime 7-6. I thought they fought and played well. We had a drive to start the second half. Ryan (Fitzpatrick) went out, and Josh (Rosen) came in and had a couple of good drives himself.”
(What is your assessment on the second half – how they handled both of those scoring drives?) – “We were backed up on the 1-yard line, and put together a nice drive there. Josh (Rosen) played with his feet, kept a couple of plays alive, made a couple of throws. (Patrick) Laird, I think he had a run in there as well. They were able to keep the drive alive.”
(Are you able to – where do you stand on the quarterback battle here?) – “It’s still an evaluation. I think we saw a lot from both guys today. ‘Fitzy’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) did a good job, Josh (Rosen) did a good job. I think that as a staff, we’ll get together and really talk it over, and we’ll make a decision. We’ll make the decision we feel is best for this organization, for this team.”
(When do you want to make this decision?) – “Well, we’ve got – we’re, what, two and a half weeks away from opening day? We’re going to get started on Baltimore fairly soon, and we’ll make that decision hopefully or definitely by then, by the time we get started for Baltimore.”
(S Bobby McCain got hurt in the first half. What do you do in that back safety position? You’ve got S Montre Hartage there. How do you kind of evaluate where you want to go moving forward if you have to lose Bobby for an extended amount of time?) – “The next guy’s got to go in. Look, it happens in this league. Guys go down. We’ve got a backup for that position. If somebody goes down, Hartage is ready to go. He went in there and played well. That’s what we need at every position. Things happen. It’s a violent sport. There are injuries, and we need our backups to go in and play well.”
(When you evaluate the quarterback situation, do you take into account who played against the starters and who played against the reserves, or is this just results oriented from that standpoint? – ”It’s results oriented always. It’s a production business. I don’t care who you’re in there against. You want them to produce. That’s what we see, and that’s how we kind of evaluate it. We want to see good decision-making really at all positions, but definitely the quarterback position. When it’s time to check it down, we check it down. We don’t want to make throws into traffic. We’ve got to have good ball security. I thought from that standpoint, we were good. So I think all of it kind of goes into it.”
(And QB Josh Rosen, has he satisfied you as far as his decision-making?) – “Yeah, I thought he did a good job today. I really did.”
(Did going up against that defense give you a good read on what you may have wanted to see from QB Ryan Fitzpatrick in the first quarter?) – “Yeah, absolutely. Look, when you’re up against a defense like that, the big thing is ball security. I think we did a good job from that standpoint. We didn’t move the ball the way we would have liked, but we didn’t give them the ball either. The defense played well. We made a couple plays in the kicking game. Look, it’s all three phases. If you put them together, you get what we had out there tonight, which is the other units picking up for the offense until the offense got rolling in the second half. That’s kind of the way this game’s played. So I thought, from that standpoint, it was a good team effort.”
(As you look back at the film, what did you learn from your offensive line?) – “I thought it was a tough opponent this week. We’re going to have tough opponents every week in this league, but they battled. I thought they fought. We had a couple of penalties there in the second half, but I thought they battled. I did. I thought we were ready to go. I mean, I asked those guys for great effort, intensity, and they brought that.”
(Do you foresee QB Ryan Fitzpatrick or QB Josh Rosen playing next Thursday?) – “That’s something we’ll discuss as a staff. They may both play. They may both not. We’ll see. That’s something that – we’re still evaluating both guys. If we feel like we need to see a little bit more, we’ll do that. If we don’t, then you’ll see more of one or the other.”
(Has Jerome Baker taken over the reins of this defense? It seems like he’s pretty much in control out there.) – “I think he’s made a lot of progress over the course of training camp. He’s a guy that’s taken on a leadership role. I really appreciate the work he’s put in and the leadership role he’s taken. He’s playing well too. Hopefully, we’ll continue that and we’ll continue to progress.”
(As far as the offensive line, is there still time to make changes among the starters, or at this point, do you figure out strengths and weaknesses and kind of go in that direction?) – “Yeah, there’s always time to change. That’s always something we could do. I think the guys who are in there right now, I think they’ve started to – the communication is better with the group that’s in there. They’re starting to understand how to play together, their strengths, their weaknesses, like you said, and I think they are starting to gel a little bit. Hopefully, we’ll continue to do that.”
(Is there anything QB Josh Rosen did today to make your decision harder?) – “He played well, and that makes the decision harder. I think that’s pretty clear, clear and evident. But there’s – again, there’s other things at play here. ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) played well, I thought, and there’s some things – when you’ve got a young quarterback, again, I’m a proponent of not rushing that, not rushing the process for young players. So we’ll make the decision for what we think is best for Josh, ‘Fitz,’ and this team.”
(CB Eric Rowe had an interception and also had a pass interference penalty. Where’s your comfort level with him? And is it to the point where that’s his spot?) – “There’s still competition all over this team. He did have the PI (pass interference). We want him to turn and look at that situation. It’s something we harp on in practice and talk about constantly. I would have liked him to make that, just turn and look and not get the PI (pass interference) penalty. He came back and made an interception, which is good; but that’s kind of the ebbs and flows of the game. What he does a good job of is never getting too high, never getting too low, staying right, staying even. But I would have liked to see him turn and look for that ball. There was another one to start the second half that I think he could have turned and looked and made a play on that one as well. But, hey, it’s a learning experience. He’ll probably get tested on that moving forward and hopefully he learns from it.”
(Totally unrelated issue, was it like a coincidence that it was eight consecutive Jay-Z songs at practice?) – “Yeah, I figured I would get this question. (laughter) So after the playlist was done, what you guys don’t know is I walked up to Kenny in front of the entire group and said, this is a challenge to you to get open, catch the football and make plays for this team regardless of what’s going on outside of this building. The next day – because there was a lot more attention paid to this than I ever would have imagined – I got up in front of the team and I told them that I support Kenny. I support Kenny. I support the player protests. I mean, quite honestly, they’re bringing attention to my story. So let’s talk about that. I’m the son of immigrants. I’m black. I grew up poor. I grew up in New York during the stop and frisk era, so I’ve been stopped because I fit a description before. So everything that these guys protest, I’ve lived it. I’ve experienced it. So, yeah, I applaud those guys who protest. So whether it’s (Colin) Kaepernick or Eric Reid or Kenny (Stills), I applaud those guys. I told Kenny that in our meeting, in front of the entire team. So that’s where I stand on this thing, and I think it got – it got way more press than it needed to. I’m trying to challenge one of my players, and I’m going to do that how I see fit. Look, what these guys protest about is important. I lived it. I experienced it. I don’t know how many people have, but I lived it. So I understand why guys protest, and it’s important. But you know what else is important to me? That guys perform. There’s 89 guys in that locker room who are counting on Kenny to get open, catch the football, and perform for this team, and that’s important to me. If anybody’s got a problem with that, then we’ve just got a problem. We’re going to agree to disagree. I feel like that’s important, and that’s where I stand on this thing. Whatever scrutiny or media or whatever I get, then that’s what I get. I believe, and that’s it. Look, the player protest, I lived it. I mean, I don’t know how many people in here have, but I lived it. So that’s where I’m at on that. It was a challenge to Kenny to perform regardless of whatever’s going on outside. I would say – and I’ve said this to him – he hasn’t performed to that level over the course of this training camp as I’ve seen him. So that was a challenge.”
(So if you support what they’re doing, how come you stand?) – “Why do I stand? I stand because I want to stand. I feel like it’s important to stand. I do. I feel like it’s important to stand. I feel like it’s – I don’t know what you want me to say on this one. I think it’s important to stand.
(When did you have the meeting with WR Kenny Stills?) – “When did I have the meeting with Kenny?”
(Yeah, was it before? Was it after the comments on Monday? Was it before practice on Tuesday? When did you guys have that meeting where you issued him that challenge?) – “I talked to him right on the field.”
(On Tuesday, before Tuesday’s practice?) – “I talked to him on the field. You guys weren’t there. I talked to him on the field and issued the challenge to him: ‘Hey, let’s get up here, and let’s make some plays regardless of what’s going on, and I talked to him after practice.”
QB Josh Rosen
(Maybe not as well as you would have liked to have played, but how do you feel you played in that second half there, especially with that scoring drive?) – “I thought I made a couple of good plays. Still definitely messed up a couple – even two plays that actually were successful plays. I kind of messed up a little bit, but there’s always ways to improve. It was a little more good than bad last week, but my motto has been making the next day better than the previous, and I think today was better than yesterday and last week.”
(In the one play that really stands out, I guess you stepped up, flushed out, just went to your right and I think TE Mike Gesicki you found?) – “Isaiah (Ford).”
(WR Isaiah Ford. What did you see and how did you get to that point?) – “I dropped back in the pocket. Tackle did a really good job of keeping areas high. I stepped up and kind of flushed it a little bit, and I knew Isaiah (Ford) was coming across the field on the concept we have, so I was kind of trying to run it a little bit. I just kind of knew he was back there, and, I found him.”
(Do you feel like your pocket presence has improved over time?) – “Yeah, I think, just as my grasp of the offense increases and I get more comfortable with it, I think that also helps to be more at ease in the pocket because you know where your answers are. Like if one or two isn’t there, you know exactly where your back is or you know where three is. I think that just comes with reps.”
(How do you feel like you’re putting it all together?) – “Pretty good, better, not great. Pretty good, but hopefully tomorrow is better. It will be.”
(Earlier you said that your focus is not on the competition. Two minutes ago Head Coach Brian Flores said that your performance kind of makes his decision more difficult, tougher. Do you feel you achieved your goals for tonight?) – “You’re going to hate my answer, but my goal is to play better than last week, and I think I did that to a small degree, to a degree. The competition, that’s his thing. So questions you ask with him go back and forth between you guys, but for me, I’m just trying to handle my business and trying to make next week better than this week.”
(Are you able to quantify how much you’ve grown since the beginning of camp to where you are now?) – “Yes. With three capital letters, yes.”
(How would you explain that to us as best as you can?) – “This offense puts a lot on the quarterback to make calls in the run game, the protection game, and make a lot of checks and audibles and stuff like that. That can be a bit of a hindrance at first, but as you sort of learn to kind of tackle it and you can start to use those things as an advantage. So I think I just need to get more and more comfortable with that much control and start to use it to your advantage. I think Fitz will tell you he doesn’t have the most gifted physical skill set, but his ability to take that much command of the line of scrimmage and get in the right play and make sure everyone’s lined up in the right spots and running the right routes, I think that’s why he’s been so successful. I’m just trying to add that to my game. I didn’t expect to come in here, but I’m welcoming the challenge and trying to conquer each day.”
(We heard through the broadcast, I guess you’re working through some of your MIKE calls. Where is your comfort level in that particular area?) – “Better than last week. I will tell you, though, that the first team and second team stuff does make a significant difference because there are some fronts out there, the ones, that I’m definitely going to have to ask (Quarterbacks Coach) Jerry (Schuplinski) to break all those down. But it’s on film now, and I’ll try to learn them and master them, so if I ever see them again, I’ll knock them down.”
(The MIKE points thing, you said earlier this preseason, this is the first time you were doing that. At UCLA was the center doing it?) – “Yeah. Most offenses, even in the NFL, I’m pretty sure a good chunk, the center still does it. But it’s not just like the MIKE point and calling out the MIKE because the MIKE could be different on any play. It more has to do with what entails with calling the MIKE. You have to sort of center the run game or the protection game and then organize your receivers on who’s blocking safeties, and you’ve got to understand who can and can’t blitz and where your hots are because, like you have options. If it’s third-and-long or something, you can’t just throw hot because you won’t get the necessary yardage. You’re probably better off trying to shore the thing off and then throw it somewhere else in some deeper routes. So that kind of control, I think, is why Tom and Drew and Philip and Aaron in the toughest of crunch times, third-and-12 in a big game, will walk up to the line, and they know exactly where to go and what to do.”
(Are you getting help from C Daniel Kilgore and C/G Chris Reed?) – “Oh, yeah.”
(You feel like you’re trending upward and you feel good about that. Do you feel that degree of improvement will continue indefinitely as long as you’re continuing to play?) – “Yeah, going to infinity and beyond. (laughter)”
(That’s a pretty exciting idea for you, a month from now you’re that much better.) – “Diminishing marginal returns a little bit. (laughter) So you get a lot of improvement off the bat and as time goes on, maybe a little less over time. But as long as it’s some improvement, I’m good with it because I think constant upward momentum is better than a roller coaster.”
(You had a 99-yard drive tonight. Have you had one of those before?) – “Probably somewhere sometime.”
(It’s pretty rare. What’s it like to have your back literally on the goal line and then get the touchdown.) – “I don’t know. I’ve got 11 dudes trying to tackle me, so it’s more focused on the here and now. I just know we tried to get on a hard count, get them to jump offsides, buy some room. Our running backs made some, definitely swept through some holes there, and it was a team effort. It was a good drive. It wasn’t like a walk off, go-ball that went 70 (yards). It was a drive, which was pretty good to feel as an offense.”
