Newly acquired Miami Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy has a lot of experience with Dolphins head coach Brian Flores.
The two spent three seasons together with the New England Patriots, with Flores overseeing Van Noy’s linebacker group during that span. That built-in relationship is probably a big reason why Van Noy opted to sign a four-year, $51 million contract with the Dolphins this offseason.
But that’s not to say that it’s always been sunshine and roses for Van Noy and Flores. In fact, the star linebacker recently told Adam Lefkoe about a time when he and Flores nearly fought during a Patriots film session.
“Me and him have gotten into it,” Van Noy said laughing. “I don’t know if I’m going to get in trouble for this.”
Van Noy then broke down the story.
“We’re watching film. He comes in and it was me and Elandon [Roberts] at the time, because Elandon was a rookie and I was just getting there so we just tried to watch film together,” Van Noy said. “He comes in and basically lights us up, that we suck, this, this and this. I think the score was like 40-something to nothing. I’m like scratching my head like, ‘I don’t like this dude. He’s basically saying we suck and we played alright.’
“We get into the next meeting and Bill [Belichick] mentioned Elandon and me playing good and we looked over and we look at B-Flo and he’s like shaking his head. He’s like, ‘I know he said you played good, I also think you played good, but my expectation is for you to dominate each and every play, and that’s what I was trying to get across.’ When I realized that and Elandon realized that he had our best interests, like he wanted us not only to be a great player, but a great person. Man, I’ll go to bat for B-Flo any day.”
Clearly, Flores is the type of coach that expects the most out of himself and his guys.
Surely, it was that fiery spirit that helped him lead the Dolphins to win five of their last nine games last season.
Flores, Van Noy and the rest of the Dolphins will surely look to keep that momentum going once the 2020 season kicks off.
