Miami has turned into Patriots South with a number of former Patriots joining the Dolphins and reuniting with head coach Brian Flores.

Kyle Van Noy, Elandon Roberts and Ted Karras all signed with the team last week, and spoke via Zoom to Miami reporters on Thursday.

It seems Flores was a major reason why all three decided on Miami.

“My number one reason, like I keep saying, is Coach Flores," Roberts said to reporters. "He just made me feel so comfortable with coming down and knowing what type of leader he is and the type of staff that’s here already. That was my number one main reason and whatnot. I’m 100 percent bought in. I can’t wait to get down (there) and I love that I’m a Miami Dolphin.”

Van Noy added: “That’s an easy question to answer. Just, I respect him as a coach, what he brings to the table, what he’s all about on the field and off. As you guys have grown to know him a little bit better, I feel like you guys are getting a sense of how he is as a person and as a coach, and you probably kind of wish you could play for him if you played football. Just the type of attitude he has, the grit he has, the competitiveness he has. I mean, who doesn’t want to play for a coach like that? He’s ready to go all the time, and he brings that same energy each and every day. That’s what you want as a coach; and as a player, that’s who I want to play for.”

For Van Noy in particular, he knows Flores will put him in a position on the field to succeed and he's looking forward to being a leader on his new team.

“I like that question. I feel like my versatility will be able to be a matchup problem for any coach because you never know where I’m going to line up and match up against; and then I feel like I can be a leader to this team." he said. "I just want to win at the end of the day. It’s funny, I tell all of my friends this: there’s nothing better than winning a 1 o’clock game and being at home at night watching the Sunday night game. Like, ‘Man, I’m feeling good right now, we won,’ and gearing up for another week. That’s my whole mentality each week, is to get – whether it’s that Sunday night win or a 1 o’clock win – just that feeling when you get home that you put all you could in that week to have that feeling of, ‘oh man, we won at 1 o’clock. Let’s get it again another week.’”

The Dolphins beat the Patriots in Week 17 last season at Gillette Stadium to force New England to play on Wild Card Weekend, which impressed Karras.

“The obvious improvement being they came up and we lost the last game; but even in both games, (they have) big tough guys on the d-line," he said. "Obviously a stout defense. (It’s a) very similar scheme to what we were doing, but it’s a tough – any time you play – I thought Coach Flores’ teams coming in, even when he was the d-coordinator here, it’s going to be a tough day for guys on the inside. A lot of hitting, a lot of guys covered up. They were a tough team and that was a tough loss for us, so I have a lot of respect for when they came up – New Year’s Eve in New England – and came up and beat us.

"That earned a lot of respect from me, so I’m looking forward to being a part of a team with those guys.”