Flores Dishes on Tua, O-line, IR players and More
Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores discussed how rookie Tua Tagovailoa responded to his benching, the state of his offensive line and the status of a couple of players on injured reserve when he addressed the media Wednesday morning.
But he wanted to pass along a message before answering questions offering thoughts and prayers to Dallas Cowboys strength and conditioning coordinator Markus Paul, who was taken to the hospital Tuesday for what was described as a medical emergency.
Flores and Paul go way back. They were together in New England in 2004 when Flores began his long tenure with the Patriots as a scouting assistant and Paul was an assistant strength and conditioning coach.
"I’ve known him for a long, long time," Flores said. "This is a great man of faith, great coach, who’s a former great player. So just want to send my thoughts and prayers to him, his family, the Cowboys, their entire organization, their coaches, their players. Again, when you're dealing with health, I mean, a lot of things seem trivial and that's certainly the case here, so I just want to make sure they know that they have our full support and our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
The first football question Wednesday was about the state of the Dolphins offensive line and contingency plans in the event that both Jesse Davis and Solomon Kindley are unavailable to play against the New York Jets on Sunday.
Davis was placed on the Reserve/COVID-19 list Monday; Kindley left the game against Denver on Sunday because of a foot injury that had him on the injury report last week.
Along with the six players who have started games on the offensive line this year, the Dolphins also have guard/center Michael Deiter, guard/tackle Adam Pankey and tackle Julien Davenport on the 53-man roster.
“We're going to have to see how this goes in practice," Flores said. "We’ve got a few guys who haven't played much but practiced well in training camp and throughout the course of the year. We've got some guys who have played in games, have some experience. And we'll see how it goes in practice. They're all waiting for an opportunity. If that opportunity presents itself, then we'll have to see how it goes in practice and get the best five out there and the best combination of players.”
The biggest topic of conversation since the game obviously was the benching of Tagovailoa, and Flores said the first-round pick has responded well.
“He's been fine," Flores said. "I think it's a little bit of adversity. That’s never hurt anyone. He’s fine. We did our normal Tuesday meeting yesterday. Went through the Jets. No issues.”
Finally, Flores discussed the status of running back Myles Gaskin and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, both of whom are eligible to come off injured reserve.
Gaskin (knee) clearly should be back before Godchaux, whose bicep injury has made it a long shot for him to be able to return at any point during the 2020 season.
About Gaskin, Flores said: “Myles is doing everything he can to get back. He’s eligible to come off. We'll make a decision on that here, whether or not (he’ll) come back to practice. But he's definitely made some gains over the last few weeks and we'll see how it goes.”
About Godchaux: “ He’s as tough a guy as there is on our team, as I've been around. It's a tough injury. But he’s doing everything from a rehab and treatment standpoint. I wouldn't rule anything out. He’s eligible to return — obviously, that’s the rule this year that anyone can return after three games, but he's still in treatment and rehab. I'm not a doctor, so I don’t feel I can put a timetable on things like that. But I do know he's since he's been in here getting treated, he looks good, so we’ll just take it one day at a time.”
