coach SPEAK

Head coach Brian Flores offers his thoughts on a wide variety of topics, including Jakeem Grant and his value as a returner, what the new linebackers will bring, and Jacoby Brissett’s team-first attitude

- Brian Flores

Q. What was the thinking in making changes in the linebacker room? What did you hope to accomplish in terms of skills you wanted to add? Are you happy with the group now that you have after obviously adding a handful of players at linebacker?

BF: Yeah, we made a couple of additions to the linebacker room — Duke Riley, (Benardrick) McKinney – and yeah, we like the group. They work hard, they’re tough, they’re smart, they’re competitive, it’s important to them. Going back to the spring and OTAs, it’s a group that works well together, or they’re trying to work well together. They’ve all got a different skill set that we can potentially use, whether it’s pass game, pass rush, run defense, kicking game. Again, (it’s) a very competitive room. The new guys plus ‘Bake’ (Jerome Baker), plus (Elandon) Roberts, plus (Calvin) Munson, plus (Sam) Eguavoen – I think it’s a competitive group. If we continue to just build and take it one day at a time and try to improve every day, we’ll hopefully have a solid group.

Q. WR Jakeem Grant was able to attain All-Pro status for his performance as a kick returner and punt returner. How do you value and balance a player’s ability in that area, even if he’s not necessarily say a starter at the receiver position?

BF: I think there’s a lot of value in having an explosive returner who can flip the field and flip field position and score. I think we all see the value in that. Jakeem obviously is very explosive. He’s obviously productive, not only as a returner but as a receiver as well. We’re happy to have him. We’ll keep working. Obviously there’s a lot of competition in that room.