CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski took questions from reporters on Monday at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus regarding Jerry Jeudy’s performance so far, Jordan Hicks’ apparent injury, and more. Below is the transcript as provided by the Browns media relations department: More Cleveland Browns coverage Browns OC Ken Dorsey on Deshaun Watson: ‘I don’t see any issues with any arm stuff right now’ How the Browns are using their new weight room to gain an edge: Orange and Brown Talk Browns get scare from Za’Darius Smith: Camp report Why is it [practice] closed today? “Good question. I don’t know.
” Does your expert weather people think you’ll be able to stay outside today? “No such thing as an expert weather person. I can’t predict the weather, so there may be something popping through, but it’ll be quick.” What impressed you about Jerry (Jeudy) on his first day in full participation and obviously was able to make some plays out there? “Yeah, you said it, Dan (Oyefusi).
Made some plays, ran a real nice choice route early in practice, ran that vertical play at the end of practice, so kind of showing his versatility as a route runner, but it’s early, so getting him in there and getting him introduced to different concepts at full speed.” Hey, Kevin. I know it’s been a few years now, but three preseason games instead of four.
How does that change the way you approach these games? “You know, it feels like we’ve had the rhythm of these games, and we feel strongly about the plan of how we ramp up to the season and getting ready for week one. Last year was a little bit different because you had that preseason game with the Jets down there in Canton, so we worked through that. But we feel pretty good about how we ramp our team up for week one of the season and then in the meantime, get them ready for some games where we hope that they can go show what they can do on the field, not think a lot.
And really, we utilize those as great tools for evaluation more than anything.” We got a chance to see your experiential learning rooms today. So just how do you think those guys will be able to pick things up better in those rooms? “I think it’s when you’re trying to teach, Mary Kay (Cabot), you so often hear us talk about teaching and learning, and we just feel that that’s a great classroom for the guys to have an interactive meeting, if you will.
And you saw, it’s a beautiful facility. Those rooms in particular, we’re getting to know them. There are so many things that we can do in there.
We’re really scratching the surface, but an opportunity to not just sit in the old, stale classrooms of yesteryear, where you can now go in there and really show the guys an audio visual that really captures their attention. So, the guys have responded really well to it, but we are still, as a staff, figuring out all the different things that we can utilize with those rooms in particular.” Who’s using the golf simulator? “Not me, Cam (Justice), not me.
It’s closest to my office. I did not request that I’ve not been in there, I promise. I think the specialists kind of have that room on lockdown right now.
” Kevin, as you guys of work through who’s going to play in the preseason possibly and when, how much is the new kickoff rules factoring into that? And is there a chance like you’re going to play some guys that maybe you wouldn’t have a year ago because of those rules changing? “I don’t think that will factor into the decisions, Ashley (Bastock). We’ll obviously get a look at it on Saturday night down at our place. We’ll get some really good looks at it versus the Vikings here on our practice fields, but that won’t factor into the decision necessarily.
” We saw Jordan Hicks walk off yesterday. Is he back today? “He’s not back today. He’s dealing with an injury, but we’ll get him out there soon.
” Are you concerned about depth at linebacker, at least for the short term? “Yeah. Obviously, when you have injuries to our three guys like you do, those are things that you look at and you figure out, do we need to bring somebody in? Those are things we’re working through.” Do you anticipate anyone back today, like Shelby (Harris) or JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah)? “Not just yet, but all those guys are making great progress.
” Back to the classroom for a second. You’ve been in this league long enough. Do you have to find new ways to kind of teach these guys, especially the younger players? “We do.
It’s something that we spent a lot of time on as a staff in the offseason. We had a lot of meetings just talking about best practices and one of the things we talked about, and we read some, had some studies presented to us just in terms of the best way to reach guys in this generation, if you will. We talked about the art of notetaking and maybe that’s a loss to art.
And in those rooms, as you see, you’re not going to sit there at a desk and take traditional notes, but you’re going to be more interactive with your teacher, with your coach in this case. So, we’re trying to find that balance of there’s a lot of information that we need to download into our players. What’s the best method to do that? And I think these are a great start towards that.
” Is there anything, any danger of information overload for you and the coaches with all this stuff? “Absolutely, yeah. That’s certainly have a finite amount of space in our brains. I remind our coaches of that oftentimes.
And so, we can’t overload ourselves, we can’t overload our players because we’re just talking about playing fast. Hard to play fast when you’re thinking so, we do also, as you present that information to the players, part of this tool that we have now is how it goes to them is maybe easier for them to understand than traditional sit-down lecture classroom, but that doesn’t change the fact that you can’t just overload them with information. I think that’s a recipe to play really slow.
” Kevin, can you talk about just trying to figure out the preseason, like what his (Ken Dorsey) role kind of looks like on game day? What do you envision his role looking like? Kind of in support of you as the primary play caller? “Yeah, Ken and I have talked about whether he’s upstairs or downstairs, might work through that in these three games. Initially thinking that he’ll start down, but he’ll have a huge influence, particularly on game day with me and the offense in terms of what we’re calling, how we’re calling it, when we’re calling it, and then the ability to sit and talk to the quarterbacks face-to-face if he’s down. But have great face time with those guys and then interact with all the coaches throughout the times that our defense is up, I think he can do a really nice job there as well.
” Is that the choice between up and down, whether to be face-to-face with your quarterbacks or get that bird’s-eye-view that maybe he’s used to? “We’ve talked through. You really could do it either way. We’re comfortable doing it either way.
I want to work through it, see what he’s most comfortable with. We feel really good about the coaches that are upstairs. If Ken does think that downstairs is best, if we decide that that’s best, we feel that we have some coaches upstairs that can be that bird’s-eye-view like you mentioned.
” Every time I look up, I see Matt Landers making a big play out there. What have you thought of Matt and what kind of a skillset does he bring for you? “I think you’re right, Mary Kay (Cabot). He’s made some big plays.
He made plays down the field. He’s gotten behind the defense. I think he has a good understanding of what we’re doing, so he’s in the right place at the right time.
So, excited about him to continue to make some steps and these preseason games will be big for guys like Matt. Show what they can do, you know, in a setting like it’s going to be down there on Saturday night.” Kevin, is there an importance to throwing downfield even if you don’t hit them all for just how the defense has to respect that? “I think so.
You know, what happens in training camp especially or in practice especially, defenses, you don’t have the same. What’s the word I’m looking for? Same chance. If you get beat deep in a practice, it’s not going up on the scoreboard.
Right. So, you may be a little bit more aggressive in practice, at least initially, so you can tend at times on defense to play aggressively. Certainly, knowing that getting beat is not going to be six points per se.
So then as an offense, the offense thinks about taking a shot on that in that type of setting to back the corners off. So that happens in game as well. I think early in the game, sometimes you have corners and safeties and linebackers that maybe play tighter to the line of scrimmage or jump routes if you have a tendency to throw short early in a game.
So that’s the conversation where you talk about, do we need to take the top off early to show them that we’re willing to do that? You have an individual route to a receiver outside, do you show them early that we’re going to go deep? So those are all things that we talk about. It’s really based on the defense you’re playing that week.” How has DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) looked for you and how eager are you to see the competition sort of between him and Tyler (Huntley) as you get into these games? “I think it’s a great room.
I’m really excited about those guys. I think they’re pushing each other like you mentioned, Mary Kay, these games are irreplaceable reps for these guys. So, I’m excited for them and it’s an opportunity for them to compete.
” How about DTR just specifically, has he really come along since last year? “He’s done a nice job. We mentioned it the other day, Mary Kay, I think in year one you saw him come along. I think you’re seeing a similar jump from year one to year two, and that comes with being comfortable in the system.
Obviously, his health has been a factor for him. So, to bounce back and feel really good, I think that factors into it as well.” Kevin, we’re seeing a lot of Martin Emerson against Amari Cooper out there.
How have you seen those two kind of embrace that matchup? And what does that do, especially for Martin to go against him every day? “Yeah, good versus good is always beneficial to both sides and I’ve seen some great reps. I saw a great rep yesterday with Jerry (Jeudy) on the outside with MJ (Martin Emerson). MJ covered him really well.
I shot him text after I was watching it, that it was outstanding. So, he pushes the receivers, the receivers push him, and it only makes you better.” Justin Hardee was a receiver at Illinois.
I’m wondering, has he tried to remind coaches of that? “ Hasn’t reminded me of that just yet, but I’ll remind him.” Some exotic plays on special teams? “Hey, we can draw them all up.” It seems like David Bell has been out there making some plays this training camp.
What have you seen from him and what are you looking for as you get into these preseason games from him? “He’s done a nice job. I think we talked about Dave the other day. Just quarterbacks, like throwing to him.
He’s dependable, they know where he’s going to be, he’s got good hands. So, there are concepts that when you’re running them with players and you have a guy with a high football IQ, you feel confident letting go of the ball because you and the receiver are kind of seeing it the same way. I think that that’s how the quarterbacks see it with Dave.
” How do you view the run game right now as far as just its status? You haven’t had many padded practices. You’re not tackling to the ground and things like that. Just what are your impressions and thoughts of where the run game is at? “Yeah, I think it’s like all aspects of our game, it’s a work in progress.
Everything we’re doing is getting ready for week one of the season. I think you can cover a lot of ground without being in pads. So, all the walkthroughs that we’ve had going back to the spring, all those team periods, they all count equally.
Obviously, you get the pads on and you get to move around a little bit, but we’re not going live here. We’re not tackling to the ground. We haven’t done that in my time here.
So, I don’t know if that’s a necessary thing to have run game success.” If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-589-9966 or the National Council on Program Gambling Helpline (NCPG) at 1-800-522-4700 or visit 1800gambler.net for more information.
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