Dolphins’ Brian Flores addresses Raekwon Davis injury, Austin Jackson decision, more
Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores said Monday that he doesn’t know the severity of defensive tackle Raekwon Davis’ knee injury and made clear that Austin Jackson remains the team’s starting left tackle.
Davis left the game in the first quarter, limping with a knee injury. He returned wearing a brace, sprinted along the sideline, and looked ready to go back in the game.
But Flores suggested the Dolphins didn’t feel comfortable putting him back in the game without doing more tests.
“We held him out; that’s the decision we made,” Flores said. “We’re running tests now. Nothing is more important than the health of the player...
“I’ll have more information later on today and the coming days. Raekwon is a tough kid. He’s eager to get back out there. We’ll take it one day at a time. We’ll still kind of run some tests; we don’t have any final results there.”
As for left tackle, rookie Liam Eichenberg played the entire game because Jackson had just come off the COVID-19 list and didn’t practice all week. But Flores made clear that “Austin is our left tackle.”
But Flores added that “Liam did a nice job. It was a tough environment against a team that gives a lot of different looks. I thought he played well.”
Asked how the offensive line played, Flores said: “Like every position, there’s a lot of improvement that needs to be made. Improvement is the big mantra at all positions.”
Flores addressed other issues in the wake of Sunday’s 17-16 win at New England:
▪ Flores was asked if there is any reason the offense clicked so well on the first possession of each half: “We try to execute on every drive. It just so happened it happened on the first drive to open the game... and the second half. We need to do a better job executing in between. We’re going through those corrections right now.”
▪ On Sunday’s win in New England, with Sunday’s home opener against Buffalo now looming: “We’re happy about it, but we have to turn the page. There are tough games on the horizon so we have to be prepared for that.”
▪ Is it easier to make corrections after a win? “There’s always corrections in every game. It’s always nice to make those corrections after a win. Definitely a lot of corrections we’re making now. If we make them, we’ll be better for them.”
▪ How much will wide receiver Will Fuller’s speed help the offense? (He missed Sunday’s opener while serving the final game of an NFL suspension.)
“He missed some time in training camp,” Flores said. “We really only had him for a handful of practices. We’ll work him in and see how best to utilize him within the offense and see how things go during practice.
“We have a lot of guys in that room and see how practice goes this week and take it from there. We have an idea where we want to play him. Getting timing with the quarterback, getting timing with the running game, those are things you need to practice.”
▪ On how Miami successfully ran out the clock late: “It was good to see us finish the game with the ball. They knew we were going to run it, we knew we were going to run it and picked up a couple first downs. That’s always good. Myles [Gaskin], Malcolm [Brown], Salvon [Ahmed].. ran hard. We can block it better. We’re making those corrections now.”
▪ On how the first game went with co-coordinators and how the offense looked: “I thought we moved the ball effectively on some drives and some other drives we didn’t. They’ve got a good defense. They played well. They won some matchups. We won some matchups. Tough ball game in a tough environment. Our operational was clean dealing with crowd noise, getting in and out of the huddle.
“Eric [Studesville] and George [Godsey] did a nice job getting the guys prepared and getting guys in position to make plays.”
Here’s my Monday piece breaking down the Dolphins’ use of personnel - including snap counts - at every position and how the players performed.
This story was originally published September 13, 2021 at 1:59 PM.
