CLEVELAND, Ohio — Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski took questions from reporters on Friday with regard to hosting the Ravens, injury report, Lamar Jackson, and more.
Below is the transcript as provided by the Browns media relations department:
Opening Statement:
“Okay, obviously great opportunity at our place, division opponent, second time around seeing this team. Like we’ve talked about all week, we have to go play our best football, have to do all those things in a game as an offense, defense, special teams that give you a chance. So, I’ve worked very hard this week and put in the work, and then Sunday we get to go do it in front of our fans, and that’s the exciting part for us. So, with that, I’ll take any questions.”
How about Denzel (Ward)? Did he just come down with this illness today?
“Yeah, it was today. So, I don’t really have update just yet.”
What about Maliek (Collins) with the oblique? Was that today as well?
“Yeah, just felt something early in practice, so did not finish.”
And have you made a decision on if Alex (Wright) will go on IR?
“I do not believe we’ll put him on IR.”
If it’s not Denzel, then Dom Jones would be the guy?
“Yes.”
What have you seen from the rookie?
“Yeah, he’s played some meaningful snaps for us. You know, we trust a lot of these young players and certainly we would put him in that category. Dom is a guy that goes out, knows what to do, plays to his strengths, his physicality, his length.”
Obviously if Denzel can’t play, Tyson (Campbell) becomes the most experienced guy back there. How have you seen him settle in over the last few weeks since he’s been here?
“I’ve been very impressed with Tyson, both on and off the field. Just how he goes about his business, how he works, how he fits in with his football team, off the field. And then on the field, I just think he’s played so physical, plays the run game, has made plays in the back end with the ball in the air. So, I’ve been very impressed with Tyson.”
Kevin (Stefanski), if Maliek can’t play, Mike (Hall Jr.) I think only played three defensive snaps last game, are you guys going to up his workload potentially?
“Yeah. He’s certainly doing better and better every single week, every day. So, he’s ready for a bigger workload for sure.”
Can you just talk about how well Maliek has been playing for you guys this whole season?
“Yeah. Maliek’s obviously, I think, playing at an extremely high level, being part of our success up front, both in the run game and in the pass game, Mary Kay (Cabot). Just how disruptive he can be, defeating blocks one-on-one, I think he runs games really well with all of our guys. So, he’s been a extremely productive player.”
If Maliek can’t go, for Mason (Graham), how much more does that put on his plate?
“I’m not ruling Maliek out just yet. But in that scenario, yeah, we trust our guys to step up if they get a bigger share of reps and those types of things. But Mason, similarly, has done a very good job in a bunch of different areas, and I think it’s probably no surprise that he’s got a guy like Maliek that he can watch work at his craft every single day.”
Following up on that, with Mason, obviously, a lot of people just look at the raw stats, you know, specifically sacks, when they’re looking at a defensive lineman. What have you seen out of him beyond that, those numbers that show the progress he’s making in his rookie year?
“I don’t know that anybody is only looking at sacks. If they are, they’re not looking at the whole picture when it comes to defensive line play. I know around the league, the importance is placed on pressures and is placed on their ability to affect the quarterback. And obviously when they result in sacks, that’s ideal. But the ability to affect the quarterback is the most important thing that defensive lineman can do.”
Just over the last three games, it really seems like the (Baltimore) Ravens defense has come alive and the numbers are just off the charts. What kind of challenges are they presenting with the way they’ve been playing?
“Yeah, they’re playing at a high level, Mary Kay. They’ve played really well, like you mentioned, versus some tough opponents and good offenses, they’ve played the run and the pass well, good players throughout all three levels of the defense. I think they’re doing a nice job.”
I was reading, I think Zach Orr talked about placing an emphasis on batting balls recently and I think they had 12 or 13 in the last week.
“I think five in the last game.”
Just total passes defensed. How do you combat that as an offense, whether you’re Dillon or the offensive line, how do you combat that?
“Well, I think philosophically there’s different beliefs in how you rush the passer, ask Coach (Jim) Schwartz about, if you want them batting a bunch of balls or do you want them rushing the passer? So, there’s a give and take. We have Shelby (Harris), obviously, who’s a master at it. So, there’s a way to rush the passer and have that innate sense of when to get your hand up to match the quarterback’s hand. So, been around a lot of guys that do it really well, certainly they have a group that’s very aware, both at the defensive line level and at linebacker and safety level – ball aware. Really good ball skills throughout the defense.”
You’ve had a lot of games this year where it’s one score game late third quarter, early fourth quarter and unfortunately it just kind of unravels for you down the stretch. First Baltimore game is a prime example of that. What’s the teaching lesson there to your team, and just how do you get these games across the finish line so they don’t fall apart?
“I mean, it’s a 60-minute football game, so you have to have the mentality that you have to play your best both early and late. You’re right – in the last game we did not play well in any facet, especially late. And that’s a huge point of emphasis, is playing as a team, and our offense and our defense and our special teams – feeding off of each other, and playing complementary ball gives you a chance in those games.”
We were talking to Duce (Staley) about Quinshon (Judkins) and the patience that he’s shown. Is that something you guys really identified before when he was coming out in the draft, and how have you seen it showing up so far?
“I think patience for a runner is so important, but I think it’s also a bit dependent on scheme. There’s certain schemes that are slower developing where you have to let the blocking scheme develop, there are certain schemes where you’re really on the move and you have a read in the zone game, if you will. So, I think it’s the ability for runners to have the patience when needed, have the burst when needed, burst through the hole, and not to the hole type of idea in a lot of the zone running game, and then just being true to your read in some of the other gap scheme runs.”
When Lamar (Jackson) is suffering from a little bit of a knee injury this week, does that change anything in your game plan, your strategy or anything like that?
“No. Obviously great player, we understand all the different ways that he can make life hard on a defense, both from the pocket, making throws and out of the pocket, making throws”.
Kevin, Tommy (Rees) was talking about that fourth-and-one yesterday, he told us he wished he would have run the ball. When you guys are going back through that stuff, is it hard to balance sometimes, like, ‘hey, this was a good call that didn’t work’ versus ‘we should have called something different here’?
“Yes. I mean it’s the classic process over results. Sometimes you have a call that maybe wasn’t a very good call, and it works. Everybody says, ‘hey, great call’, and sometimes a player goes and makes a great play and trying to separate what your process was from the results. So, the defense is going to win reps on given plays, it’s just, that’s how it works. Now, you hope on that rep that it turns into, sometimes it’s first-and-10 and you were looking to get this coverage, you didn’t get that – well, quarterback had to get out of the pocket, throw an incompletion and it’s second and 10. That’s not the ideal, that’s not what we wanted, but you got to tip your cap and say, ‘okay, defense made a good call there’. So, there’s so many times throughout that game, and throughout every game and throughout play call that you’re just trying to think about the players and less so about the plays, and then also think about your process that got you to those plays and got you to putting the game plan together.”
Bubba (Ventrone) mentioned that you guys made some tweaks to the coverage teams during the game, but did you do anything else this week to try to shore up special teams?
“Yeah, we’ve looked at everything, Mary Kay. That’s certainly a focus for us, is making sure we’re putting guys in the right position. So, certainly potential to move some guys around.”
Kevin, in the two weeks post the bye, has anything changed with Shedeurs’ practice or his routine at all?
“No. He’s doing a really nice job, including just now coming off the field with the red zone drill that we did, so continues to work very hard, doing a nice job in meetings, doing a good job.”
When you allude to the red zone drill, is it like the post-practice with the developmental guys?
“Yes.”
Have you guys always done that in years past?
“No.”
So, is that unique to a team that has like 14 rookies?
“For sure, yeah. I mean, going back to the spring, we’ve done a lot of things that we really hadn’t done before. Because you have so many rookies, you have two rookie quarterbacks, you’re trying to maximize every minute you have out there. So, certainly throughout this season, we’ve tried to be extremely intentional about development of our players. We’ve done individual periods on Mondays and Saturdays, which we haven’t done before, for players that didn’t play in the game. Just getting, trying to add up all those individual periods, all those minutes of development with their coaches. I think it’s just important with young players, and so that you’re not just assuming that they’re getting better by sitting in the meeting room, you want to give them discipline reps as well.”
What about for you – when you’re not calling the plays, is the actual practice different?
“No, I would not say practice is much different. You know, over the years, there’s been practices where I don’t radio the plays into the quarterback. So, that’s nothing different.”
Kevin, Quinshon is good inside, obviously finding those little seams and just as good in space. How unique is that for a young player to have that kind of balance?
“Yeah, I’d say it’s pretty unique. I think a lot of runners, Tom (Withers), over the years, have certain schemes that they really like and want to get back to. I think of Adrian Peterson, when I think about some of the things that Adrian, like, ‘give me this again, give me this again’. Runners like to see the same scheme, and that helps them as the game goes on. I think Q definitely has run schemes that he likes a lot, but I don’t think there’s limitations in any way to the type of scheme that you run with him. So, to your point, whether it’s an inside zone, or a wide zone, or a gap scheme or a toss scheme, I think he has the ability to run all of those, and as a young player, I think is open to running all of those. But as he gets more reps and we get more reps around him, you certainly find the run schemes that he really wants to lean into, and Tommy and the staff have done a nice job already of identifying those.”
Has there been a major evolution in the running game? In your time in the league where it used to be, they want guys to smash it up into the hole, and now with Q, you’re given the option of reading it and then blasting?
“Yeah, I think the game has changed in so many ways, and I think the run schemes have evolved. I think so much of the motion in the run game has changed up how defenses are fitting runs. Certainly, the personnel groups have changed. There were years where you get really big and bring everybody in, there were years where you’d spread everybody out, and I think that’s probably more true now, spreading people out than it was previously. But even having said that, there’s a lot of teams that believe in bringing their receivers in tight to block all the safeties that you see down, and then you watch some teams that stay in a two-by-two and don’t move, and don’t motion anybody, and have success that way. So, I think the run game evolution has been similar to the evolution of all offensive football, in that you’re trying to stay one step ahead of the defense, which is hard to do because there’s some really good defensive coaches out there. So, you’ll make an adjustment to how you’ve run a play over the years, and then we’ll make an adjustment to take that away, and you’re moving on to the next game. So, it’s just a constant battle to try to stay ahead of them.”
Are there any updates on the injuries for Winston Reid and DeAndre Carter and whether they factor into potential?
“I don’t have an update, no.”
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