After Dillon Gabriel was named to be the starting quarterback on Wednesday for this week's game in London with the Vikings, Gabriel spoke to the media and said he thinks he can bring the Browns a fresh start for the offense.
"I think initially it's great juice and great energy," Gabriel said on Wednesday after he was named the starting quarterback. "And that starts on Monday, the beginning of the prep week. That starts with just having great meetings, having great practices. So, we're taking small sample sizes and bites of the whole thing, and making sure that we just focus on what we got in front of us.
"And I think if we have a great week of prep, and we continue to put that at the forefront, I think we'll continue to have that," he said. "But like I said, it's not just one person, it's all of us coming together, creating momentum together so we can go move the sticks and put points on the board."
Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz thinks the fresh start can even be contagious to the defense.
"Oh, for sure," Schwartz said on Thursday. "Energy is contagious and you know, the way we preach, that's one of the things that we preach. We preach physical toughness, physicality on defense. We preach effort and we preach energy and enthusiasm and those kinds of things. So yeah, certainly that stuff's contagious. I feel like when we do a good job of that, it can be contagious to the offense, and I would expect the same, it would be a lift for us too."
The defense is currently ranked No. 1 in the NFL, but the offense has been not been holding up their side of the ball.
Offensive coordinator Tommy Rees said the change was made with the idea of pumping some life into the stagnant offense that has averaged just 14.0, points a game, 31st in the NFL.
"We're looking at all avenues, right, to waking up, and to get the ball moving and score points, that's what we're after here," Rees said. "We want to play complementary; we want to score points and do our job. So, certainly going to try to put Dillon in the best positions that make him feel comfortable to do that."