Flores charged with keeping Dolphins healthy in pandemic and, you know, making them good | Opinion
The challenge for Brian Flores and his new (remade) coaching staff this season is really quite gargantuan.
If this was a normal year, a year without pandemics that kill and riots that burn and elections that divide, the task of turning a 5-11 team into something much, much better — perhaps even good — would be daunting enough.
Because it’s possible but rare when a club rises from the division’s cellar to division contender.
But this year, and all its drama, adds difficulty into the Dolphins’ 2020 soup recipe. It threatens health issues beyond muscle sprains and subluxed shoulders and blown-out knees. So Flores and his staff are facing a dual threat from 2020.
Yes, there’s the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills and New York Jets. (Well, maybe not the Jets.) But there’s also COVID and other outside forces that can weaken a team.
So which is the bigger challenge, Brian Flores?
“It’s a combination of both,” he said during a video conference call with reporters Wednesday. “You always want your team healthy. Right now COVID is what everyone’s talking about, but when we get into practice it will be soft tissue injuries or shoulders or knees, things of that nature. There’s nothing more important than the health of the team. And that’s going to be at the forefront this year especially.
“But at the same time we’re working towards trying to improve on the field as well. So that’s fundamentals, that’s technique, that’s conditioning. So there’s a lot to try to improve upon. Yeah, we need to keep them healthy so we can go out on the field and improve.
“They go hand-in-hand in a lot of ways. And, you know, these are very, let’s call them unprecedented circumstances. But we need to make the best of the situation and that’s been the message to the team.”
Ahhh, the all important coach’s message to the team at the start of training camp. It is the coach’s clarion call to players that serves as their training camp theme.
And here’s the one Flores delivered to his players:
“There’s no real point in dwelling on the lack of games or practice,” he began. “We have to make the most of every opportunity we get to go out there. And the healthy guys will practice and the guys who aren’t, won’t. And those practice reps are going to be very important this season.”
Let there be no doubt. This is still training camp. It’s different, but it’s training camp.
And jobs are at stake.
“I think every rep’s going to be important,” Flores added. “Every walk-through rep, every practice rep. We won’t have preseason games. That’s all we’ve got. I don’t think there’s any point in dwelling on it or being upset about the circumstances. We just have to make the most of the opportunities that we’re going to be given.
“Every rep is going to be important. Every rep in individual, those are evaluations. And the improvement those guys make in practice, in walk-throughs, are going to be what either keeps them on the team or doesn’t keep them on the team.”
In that regard, this 2020 Dolphins training camp will be much like the others. It will be about competition among players as they win or lose starting positions and roster spots.
And that, as has been reported in this space this week, includes the quarterback position.
Flores acknowledges that incumbent starter Ryan Fitzpatrick has more experience and probably knows the offense better than Tua Tagovailoa or Josh Rosen. But he’s not crowning Fitz King QB at this point.
He’s like everyone else who needs to earn his status.
“You always want competition in training camp,” Flores said. “Every position is an open competition. Some players are further ahead than others. We all understand that. But there are no jobs that are just going to be handed out.”
Dolphins players know this. They also know that (switching back to pandemic talk now) they have a responsibility to themselves and their teammates to be, well, responsible.
“My message to the players has been about really making good decisions, being responsible,” Flores said. “I think they’re going to have to make some sacrifices outside the building and inside the building. If we can do that, we’ve done everything we can possibly do to limit the spread of this virus.
“There are some challenges, but I think we’re trying to meet them head-on and do the best we can with them.”
Challenges in the air and on the field. That’s what these Dolphins face this 2020 training camp and beyond.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 11:57 AM.
