Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham
(I know you don’t like to go backwards, however, there are specific plays I need an explanation for. On third-and-17, I believe you rushed four, and then there was a third-and-12 where it looked like you guys were in cloud coverage and you were rushing three. I know it’s Patriots QB Tom Brady, and blitzing is not exactly the greatest strategy, but what was the thought process in this?) – “Again, that was last week. Based on the situation, in terms of it was third-and-extra long, I think ‘Flo’ (Head Coach Brian Flores) spoke about it the other day, but we’re trying to do the best call that we think is going to help us in that situation. If it means dropping eight guys and we think it’s going to give the quarterback some problems, that’s what we’ll do. If we think rushing six guys is going to be the best way, (we’ll do that); but obviously, they got the first down. That’s the thought process into it. Sometimes, the situation calls for dropping eight guys and you guys see guys struggle with that or rushing six guys, so that’s how that normally comes into play.”
(What is the thought process with LB Raekwon McMillan moving forward? It seemed to me he was on the edge a little bit more this week. Is that permanent, or was that game plan-specific?) – “All the guys – we’re hoping all the guys are as versatile as possible. The more they can do, the better chance it is to get on the field. The role Raekwon had last week – that’s not indicative of exactly what it’ll be this week, but he excelled in it. He did a good job. I was happy with the work he did on the edge. He had plays when he was inside as well, too. Again, we plan on having guys that are versatile and being able to do different things, so that just fits into that mold.”
(LB Raekwon McMillan seems to be making a lot of tackles earlier this season. What is he doing well?) – “He’s moving well. He’s moving well and he’s diagnosing plays pretty well. He’s a physical football player. He’s a physical football player who brings a little thump to him when he hits people. To me, whenever you’re getting in on some tackles, it’s because you’re doing a good job of diagnosing what the offense is doing, and also you’re finishing plays, so that’s always a good thing.”
(You just lost a versatile player in S Minkah Fitzpatrick. Who are you counting on to fill that void now?) – “Minkah – he’s a great player. I wish him all the best at Pittsburgh. (He’s a) good player. I wish him all the best. In terms of guys that are going to make up for him, there’s a bunch of guys. We’ve got to work through it. We’re still in the game-plan process right now, but we’ll try to figure out the best way to make up for that spot in our defense and move forward from there.”
(CB Chris Lammons is a guy who you gave him a couple snaps to, same as CB Ken Webster. What do you see from those young defensive backs in terms of how they can help you?) – “You know what’s interesting about Webster being a newer guy and Lammons has been here for a while? I’m talking about hard-working, fast and tough. (Defensive Pass Game Coordinator/Cornerbacks) Josh Boyer, our corners coach, he’s looking for tough guys – tough guys that can tackle. On top of that, if you can run, those are some of the things that we’re looking for, and they’ve shown that. Then they get their chance.”
(What’s the skillset with – we saw S Stephen Parker – obviously Rams practice squad last year – played some. He’s in the mix at safety. His particular skillset that intrigues you?) – “I would say the mental part. You start there. He’s a smart guy. (He is) intelligent, has some football IQ to him. (He’s a) good, physical player, smart player that can have some range. He’s shown all of that stuff that’s been pretty good for us.”
(With S Walt Aikens, you used him in the first game to cover tight ends a little bit. Is that a role where you can see him emerging and getting some playing time on defense?) – “I think Walt – it starts off with the fact that (he is a) captain (and a) leader on this team. He’s a physical presence on the field whether it’s defense or special teams. (He has) good speed. (He is a) good communicator. Again, whatever role it’s going to be, it’ll be; but he does such a good job with every role we’ve given him. We’re just looking to see his role grow as the season continues.”
(We know this is a developing team and a developing defense. How do you measure progress?) – “Progress – we’re going to keep it real simple. Are we tackling better? Are we doing a better job of playing blocks and defeating blocks? Is the edge getting set? Is our communication better? Really, if we see improvement there, then improvement on the field will come. Where does that start? It starts with your day off – working to get better there. Then you get to the meetings and then the practice, but all of that stuff comes into play from the individual work you do on your own, in terms of communication, seeing how to diagnose the plays, to the meetings, getting information on the calls, and then going out and practicing it. That’s what we’re going to judge progress on.”
(I know you’ve been around Head Coach Brian Flores for a long time. Do you have a favorite story that he’s either told about growing up in Brooklyn or from the Patriots that illustrates why he might be able to succeed in this rebuilding process?) – “Individual stories – that could take all day, but I know this: A lot of my friends from college are from New York City, and my best friend from college, he’s from Brooklyn. I know where he grew up, and for him to have been at Yale with me and me having my background where I’m from Waterbury, Connecticut where I’m like, ‘how did you get here?’ It’s amazing. To me, just knowing where he grew up and just the perseverance and to be able to do that, to me, it means a lot. You’re a strong person. That’s just my opinion, just knowing the area, if that answers your question. My older brother went to college in Long Island. His friends were from New York City. Seeing them be successful, I’m like, ‘wow.’ I thought I had it hard, but no.”
(DE Charles Harris, where would you say he is two games into the season?) – “It was funny during the game, the look in his eyes. He’s a focused player. He’s improving. He’s improving, and all of that stuff will come as we progress during the season. He’s still a young player. He’s still learning football just like we all are. I feel like I’m still learning football every day trying to get better. I really like the progress in terms of the run game, starting there. Playing with his hands, and playing with low pad level. And then in the passing game, providing pressure, transitioning in the play action. I thought that improved during the game this past weekend. He’s making strides to being a better player and he’s working at it. You have to be diligent about that. You’ve got to work at it, because anytime you get complacent in this league, you’ll be out of here.”
(With the pressure, not necessarily from DE Charles Harris, but you did get two sacks against QB Tom Brady which is not an easy thing to do. Do you feel like you’re getting enough pressure on passing downs?) – “I think we’ll always have enough – I think you want more pressure. You want to be able to affect the passer more. We’re working towards getting more pressure in terms of making – whether it’s the passing windows for the quarterback or making sure we’re discipline in our rush lanes, we’re just trying to do a better job of affecting the quarterback. That’s amongst other things we’re trying to do a better job of. We’re really just trying to get better every day. I don’t know when I’ll ever be satisfied with the rush or the pressure; but we’re going to keep striving to get better at it.”
(You guys have allowed a lot of points obviously. How tough is it to shut off the daily or weekly competitor in you and keep the big picture in mind here?) – “I’d say the daily and weekly competitor in me never shuts off. I mean, I would hope not. Just like I said, if I got complacent and wasn’t being competitive, I don’t think I’ll be who I am. It always is there for me. Thankfully in this league, you get 16 opportunities and we’re on our third one this weekend. You move on and now we’re getting ready for Dallas, who is a great offensive team, built from the ground up – offensive line, to the back, to the quarterback, to the receivers. We’ve got plenty to get ready for. If I’m not competitive – I’m competitive right now when I got up this morning, whatever time this morning, to get ready for you guys. (laughter) Trust me, I pray that the competitive spirit never leaves me. I don’t care what happens.”
(How does it not drive you crazy, how do the results not drive you crazy?) – “Because I know – I know I have another opportunity this weekend. But before that, I have another opportunity today, Tuesday. When I woke up this morning, there is an opportunity to study the film, get to know these guys – whether it’s (Dak) Prescott, whether it’s (Amari) Cooper, they’ve got a lot of players you’ve got to get to know to try to put our players in the best position to defend them. I can’t imagine not waking up and being competitive. I was dreaming about them last night.”
(With LB Vince Beigel, it was the way that you utilized him this week – I know roles change every week – but did you see him as a pressure player when you guys acquired him?) – “The thing that – he has some length, he has strength, and he has some quickness and he has some natural knee bend to him. Right there, you just mention those terms right there. Whether you’re a DB, linebacker or D-lineman, that’s going to help you in terms of whether you’re a pass rusher or setting the edge. Those are positives right there – being able to play with some extension because he has length. Being able to bend, come around the corner, those are things that play into him being able to do that. Thankfully for us, he was able to apply some pressure on Sunday and we’ll see if we can improve that as we go through the week.”
(Back to Head Coach Brian Flores for one second. Do you think apart from his coaching ability, is it just the sheer perseverance that will serve him well?) – “I just think that’s the first initial in my mind. But then just knowing the man, the thing I value about him and our friendship is that he is very honest. He’s very honest and that’s why I trust his vision. That’s why I trust him completely, because he’s always been honest with me whether I’ve been in the wrong, or been in the right. And we shared an office together. So I know that. I know he’s going to be honest with me. I might not like what he says, but he’s going to be honest with me. To me, that’s no different from my mom, my dad, my brothers. To me, you don’t have to be all ‘lovey, dovey, buddy, buddy.’ As long as somebody is going to be honest with you, I value that more than I value somebody patting you on the back all the time. That’s’ why I think – I’ve said enough. I’m focused on the Cowboys right now. But I’ve got the utmost respect for coach.”
(What are you looking for from the players that you are going to put on the field Sunday, and every Sunday?) – “Smart, tough, tackle, heavy-handed, some of the stuff that I’ve labeled before – and passionate about their role. Passionate about their role and executing their job. That’s what I want. That’s what I want, and guys that play together – really play together. That’s going to be the big thing with us, just playing together. I was happy to see those guys playing together, having success together, and hopefully we’ll get more of that.”
(You do understand the mental toll that’s happening to this team in terms of draft picks leaving and what we call a purge. You do realize that it takes a toll on the players?) – “You’ll have to ask the players about that. I just know this: when I go up in front of those guys, the eye contact that I’m getting, the questions I’m getting, these guys are ready to go to work. I’m looking forward to seeing them when they get in tomorrow, and be ready to work. Again, we’ve got 16 opportunities. We’re down to 14 right now that are guaranteed. So, let’s go get it – this one this weekend.”
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Offensive Coordinator Chad O’Shea
(How do you measure improvement with your offensive line?) – “I think that it’s an ongoing process and some of the things that might go unforeseen we measure improvement in. Obviously, the way the game went for us is not what we want as far as not scoring points and those things, but we thought that there was a lot of improvement at all positions on some small things that we’re asking of the group to try to make progress on. Certainly, I think that was true of the offensive line. This is a work in progress for us. It’s one of which we’re embracing the challenge. I know that the players are, the coaching staff is. I think that what we’re asking is to improve every week and to get better and certainly, they’ve done that.”
(With the issues you’ve had on the offensive line, why not move the pocket more, why not change launching points for QB Ryan Fitzpatrick or QB Josh Rosen?) – “I think that there’s – that’s a good question. I think there’s a lot that goes into our plan and the pass game on offense. Certainly, there’s a number of factors one of which is the defensive scheme that we’re presented each week. That may change and that may vary what we do as far as our protection systems. Like I’ve always said, we’re always going to try to do what’s best schematically to produce points and contribute to winning football. The protection scheme is one that we definitely look at very closely each week. I think there’s a number of factors involved that would determine what protection scheme we’re going to use on a weekly basis. I think there’s a number of factors involved in that. It’s a great question on moving the pocket and those things and that’s certainly one way in which we could do things. And I can just say that we do everything on a weekly basis to try to evaluate everything whether it’s the protection scheme, whether it’s a pass concept that we think is going to work. And that’s one of our jobs as coaches is to do what’s best for our team.”
(When you have a lot of drops like you guys did with WR Preston Williams, WR Jakeem Grant and RB Kalen Ballage, do you hammer on that the next week in practice? Because obviously these guys know how to catch. Or do you kind of do your normal work? How do you handle that?) – “The first thing I’ll say is those guys have done a good job in that area thus far. Obviously, I thought it was uncharacteristic in the game. Certainly Kalen is somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect for and no one (was as) hurt and was as disappointed as much as Kalen after he dropped the football in the game, because he’s one that really takes a lot of pride in his work and one of the areas he takes a lot of pride in is catching the ball. Is it something that we work on daily? It is. Is it something that we’ll continue to emphasize because of some of our issues that we had in the game of not catching the ball? It is, and we’ll emphasize those fundamentals that we think we need to improve on, but certainly catching the ball is one of our everyday fundamentals that we try to emphasize as an offense.”
(There’s been a little bit of mention I guess of how much QB Josh Rosen had to grow when he got to you guys. Can you quantify a little bit of where he maybe was and where he is now?) – “I think we’ve made progress. He’s made progress, certainly. I think anytime that you have to learn a new offense and you have to learn a new language and you’re doing it at a place in which it’s your first year, there’s challenges along the way. But I certainly think there’s progress that’s been made. Last week was a good week for him – and during the week – of preparation. He stayed well prepared during the week. He worked extremely hard in the meeting rooms, in the walkthroughs and in the settings other than in the practice field to try to improve as a player and help our team. And I think that’s what we’re asking of our players right now in general is let’s control the things that we can control. One of the things that we can control is our improvement. Certainly, Josh has been an example of somebody that I think has really tried to do that and tried to improve. The quarterback position is a difficult position to play regardless of what system you’re in. There’s a lot that it entails and a lot of responsibilities that you have that are unique to the positon. I think that it’s a difficult position to play in the National Football League. I think that there needs to be a number of factors involved to get to the point where you’re a consistent player at that position. Certainly, he’s aware of what those are and he’s continued to work on those and we’ve bene pleased with his progress. Although he’s not out there playing in a game, we’ve bene pleased with some of the things at practice and he’s making progress.”
(Where is QB Josh Rosen in terms of reading defenses and getting the team into the right play?) – “Again, I think it’s similar to some of the other positons: we’re making progress in that area. I think it’s a great challenge at that positon, because there’s so many other things that are going on prior to the snap that they’re responsible for and then the ball is snapped and you’ve got to read the coverage as the quarterback. It’s something that he has worked tremendously hard on. I think anytime you put in the effort that he has, that you’re going to make improvement. I would say we’ve made progress in that area. It’s an area that was been well stated that he needs to improve on among other things that all of our players need to improve on. That’s one of them for Josh and I think we’ve made improvement in that area.”
(You’re always evaluating QB Josh Rosen. How many games does it take to give him a fair full evaluation at the end of the season?) – “It’s a good question. We’ve talked about that as a staff and I don’t think there’s a set in stone number. I think this is an ongoing process whether it’s practice reps, whether it’s his familiarity with what we’re doing scheme-wise and where we think that is. I think that you can’t put a number on it and that’s how we’ve approached it. We’ve looked to see improvement and that’s certainly what he’s done and how he’s approached it is he’s tried to improve. That’s what we’re asking all of our position groups. I know the offensive line and the quarterback position is being talked about more than the others, but certainly we just mentioned the receivers and the running backs having to focus in and catch the ball better and be better fundamentally. I think that that’s probably true of all positions right now. There’s no set number to see whether we make improvement – it’s just over the long haul, the progress needs to be made.”
(I know that you mentioned with us the Mike call is something that was difficult for QB Josh Rosen to pick up and he’s felt like that’s something he’s progressed with substantially since he’s got here. When you find younger quarterbacks, are there things that now in this new era that are harder for them to pick up as they transition to the NFL?) – “I think one of the things in general that’s happened is in college football with the amount of no-huddle offense and the spread offense, a lot of responsibilities in the NFL that you have at the line of scrimmage and in the huddle as far as communication-wise, it can be challenging for players to transition from college to the NFL. Certainly, that’s one of the challenges, but that’s probably true of other positions, too. You take the receiver positon for example, they line up and look to the sidelines in a lot of the offenses in college – which I have a tremendous amount of respect for those offenses and the way they do things in college – but it’s challenging as far as the transition that one makes from college to the pros because of simply not being in a huddle, breaking the huddle, seeing some of the coverage things that are different in the NFL to college. I do think that there’s challenges. I think that’s true of any offense you may go in, not just specific to our offense here at Miami.”
(Right now you guys are converting 20 percent on third downs. Obviously, it’s what’s handcuffing this offense. Is there a strategy that you think can work to get you in better down-and-distance situations?) – “I think the success of third down really relies heavily on the success of your early down success. Our inability to get ahead of the down-and-distance on early downs has been something that’s really hindered our success on third downs. To your point, when we talk about third down, it relies so heavily on early downs. Again, when you’re at third-and-longer and you play the game like that, that’s a tough place to play the game, especially with the multiplicity of what teams are doing defensively. They know what position they’re in defensively and that is they can be aggressive and bring pressure and do things they would not do if the distance was manageable at third-and-2-to-5. If we can do a better job on early downs and be at a more manageable third down distance, obviously, that’s going to really help our third down and that’s where we want to be.”
(With RB Kalen Ballage, obviously, the drop aside, he’s not even averaging a yard per carry right now. How much is that the line versus him finding the right hole?) – “I think that, and I talked about this last week with Kalen, that’s Kalen’s stats, but it’s everybody’s stats. I really, truly believe that. I think Kalen, I’ve been impressed with him as a runner and we really stressed to the team that it takes all 11 to be successful and this is certainly true of the running back positon. They rely so heavily on not only the offensive line but the tight ends and the receivers to block-run for us and for the quarterback to get in the right play whether it be an alert at the line of scrimmage or the right identification of the front. There’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle in the run game and unfortunately right now for Kalen – he’s a player in which I have a tremendous amount of respect for because of his work ethic and his professionalism and he’s a talented runner and one of which we need to help him obviously be better. We’re all in this together and it takes all 11 for an offensive play to be successful.”
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Tuesday, September 17, 2019
General Manager Chris Grier
(Obviously, we’ll ask about the S Minkah Fitzpatrick trade, shortly, but one big picture rebuilding plan we wanted to clarify with you. You’ll obviously – besides having a ton of draft picks – you’ll have a ton of cap space next offseason. Would your hope be to go out and spend on impact starting-caliber free agents before the draft with the hope of being a competitive team next year, or would you think it’d be best to hold off on major free agent spending until you’ve gone through a draft or two more in this cycle?) – “We’ve talked about building this long-term with sustained success right away, and for us, we’ll be very aggressive. We’re not going to sit here on a bunch of money or anything. The plan is to build a winner here. No one likes losing. We’ve talked about building a team that’s going to win and compete for championships for a long time instead of being in this one year, and then you fall back for two or three. Again, it is a long-term vision, but we will be aggressive.”
(What is the time schedule as far as, say, getting to the playoffs, getting to a Super Bowl, having a winning record – things along those lines?) – “I don’t know if you really put a time frame with it. For us, it’s – we’ve positioned ourselves to where we think the organization will be in a good place here shortly. How long that takes – like I said, we’ll be aggressive (in) free agency. Again, we’re not going to sit back and not do anything. We’re going to be very proactive and try and get this turned quickly.”
(Why have you given up on two of your last four first-round picks?) – “I wouldn’t say ‘given up.’ With Laremy (Tunsil), that was one where we got a phone call and they kept pursuing us. Multiple, multiple times, we talked and kept telling them ‘no’ and what it would take and they came and offered it. A funny story I was saying the other day was I called Laremy about the trade, and Laremy walked in my office and saw it on the board and goes, ‘I would trade me for that.’ (laughter) But seriously, we were not trying to do it. With Minkah (Fitzpatrick), it was just one of those things. The player had expressed that (it was) maybe time for him to change, so we tried to make it work. Myself, (Head Coach) Brian (Flores) and (Chairman of the Board/Managing General Partner) Steve (Ross) – we had multiple conversations with him, saying we wanted him here and viewed him as a core piece and wanted him here. The kid just felt it was time for him to move, and we told him what the value was. We told teams we had multiple offers, and we felt that the Pittsburgh one was the one best for the organization.”
(You’ve lost the first two games by a combined roughly 90 points. Obviously season tickets are not cheap. What would you say to fans who are wondering if they’re getting their money’s worth?) – “I would say to the fans that I appreciate their support, and they deserve a winner. We’re trying to build them a winner. I would think the fans would also say that the cycle we’ve been in the last 10-plus years is not good enough, and we’re trying to right that as fast as we can. They deserve a winner, and we’re trying to do that for them.”
(What do you think you can do with up to seven picks in the first three rounds next year?) – “We can do anything we want. (laughter) Whether it’s free agency, as well, and the draft. For us, we’ve positioned ourselves where we think we can do anything or get whatever player we feel that will help us as soon as possible.”
(Are you looking to trade anybody that wants to be traded? It sounded like S Minkah Fitzpatrick came to you and said he wanted to be traded. So will you try to move people if they want to be moved?) – “No, no. For us, we had multiple conversations with Minkah. We told him we wanted him to be here multiple times. Brian (Flores), Steve (Ross) and myself – we all expressed that. For us, when we got to a point where we weren’t sure if it was going to work, we said, ‘Hey, if we get the value that we deem was worth moving him, we would do it.’ There’s no precedent here where any player is going to come in here and say, ‘I want out’ and we’re going to do it. Again, I have not had calls from any agents or any players asking to want out. We’ve extended some of our younger players –Xavien (Howard), etc., Jakeem (Grant) and all of those guys are bought in 100 percent. They’ve told me again as much Monday. So we have a good group of young guys that want to be here.”
(Did S Minkah Fitzpatrick say why he didn’t want to be here?) – “I’ll let him talk about that if he wants, but it was nothing – he likes Brian (Flores) a lot. He likes it here. He had talked a little bit about some of the position stuff he thought, and Brian I know told you guys the Patrick Chung story and stuff. I’ll just leave that for Brian and Minkah.”
(What have you said to Head Coach Brian Flores about the situation?) – “Brian and I have been lock-step on it. Again, we’ve had a lot of conversations. Brian and I communicate every day. I talk to Steve (Ross) every day. We’re in this 100 percent together. I believe in Brian. He’s a great leader, a great man. I think he’s the right guy to lead us through these times. So for us, Brian is a good football coach, he’s a good man, and Minkah said he appreciated that about Brian. He really liked him. It was just too bad it didn’t work out.”
(What is the plan for QB Josh Rosen this season, and have you guys kind of zeroed in on a quarterback for next season?) – “In terms of Josh, we just want him to keep developing. For him, it’s been a – and he will tell you – it’s been an eye-opener. He said he’s learned more here in the last couple months than he has, he said in his whole career. For him, having someone like ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) to mentor him and to be that kind of veteran influence to help him has been great. I think when he’s ready to go, if the coaches deem it’s time for him to play, he’ll play; but the good thing for us is we see him every day. We see him in the meetings, see how he prepares and learns and handles himself. We’ve been very pleased so far, so when the coaches feel they want to make a change – if they want to do that – then, that will happen.”
(Drafting a quarterback in the first round, are you committed to that for 2020?) – “We’re going to do whatever we can to make our team better right away. For us, yeah, we’ve all talked about the quarterback being an important piece, and it’s competition. We’re not shying away from that, so whoever’s here, there’s going to be competition at every position whether it’s quarterback, o-line, wide receiver, o-line; so, yes.”
(When you guys set up a strategy last January, February, March, was this part of it? Or as the season predicated, you’d make – trade S Minkah Fitzpatrick, trade T Laremy Tunsil and take the roster down further than you expected?) – “I would say (it was) very unexpected as far as the Laremy and Minkah situations. You can’t prepare for that. I’m not going to sit up here and lie about it; but for u,s the opportunities as well were kind of unique with a little bit of the historic haul for him (Laremy Tunsil) and Kenny (Stills), with what we’re getting. So I think for us, to strike on this opportunity – because we know as the team was built right now, it wasn’t going to win a Super Bowl, much less – it’ll be hard to compete for a playoff spot. Again, we’re trying to build a team that’s going to win right now and do it, (and be a) long-term winner and bring a championship here hopefully to South Florida.”
