Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (3.1.23)

Opening statement:

“Good to see you guys. Excited to be here in Indy. This is an important time as you know with the player evaluation and acquisition period. This is an important step to get to know these guys so we are doing that in the interviews and we are doing that medically with all of these appointments they have with the doctors. It is important. The coaches are working very hard to spend some time with these players here. Excited about where we are, and happy to talk about some of the things that are going on, including being able to announce our staff a couple of days ago, which is an exciting time for us. It was a lot of work, but proud of the group that we were able to put together.”

 

On the Browns and Jets playing in the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game:

“We are very fortunate to be able to play in that game. I think it is an unbelievable honor to do so. It gives us an opportunity to celebrate (Pro Football Hall of Fame inductee and Browns Legend T) Joe’ (Thomas) career. That part we are excited about. Heading down there to Canton. I have done it before when I was with the Vikings. What we will do is we will end our offseason program a week early in June and then go back about a week early in July. We will start a little bit earlier and then get the team ready for the season.”

 

On defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz:

“Jim is great. Spent a ton of time with him. His office is right next door so we spend some early time together in the morning. Jim is sharp. Very pleased with what he is doing. I think he is back in the saddle again in that chair where he is able to put his scheme together. I think he does an unbelievable job with coaches, just listening to coach the coaches and listening to him talk about his scheme and the things we are going to do. He is well on his way. He is doing a really nice job.”

 

On if he will continue to call offensive plays in 2023:

“I will, yes.”

 

On if it is important to him personally to call offensive plays:

“I don’t think it is important to me – I think it is important to do what is right for the team. I feel like that is the right thing to do for the team.”

 

On if QB Deshaun Watson is the main reason he feels it is important to the team that he continues to call offensive plays :

“Not in that lens. I just feel like it is the right thing to do.”

 

On the new Browns coaching staff:

“As you know, we had continuity there for a bunch of years, and that can be good, and I think sometimes change can be good. I think for me and for us, this process of talking to a bunch of coaches and interviewing a lot of coaches, you learn  lot about the candidate; you also learn about different ways of doing things. I think there is certainly a different perspective that I gain from some of the people we were able to talk to and obviously the people we were able to hire. I think it really pushes you to rethink certain things of what we are doing and make sure that we are trying to do the best thing for the team.”

 

On the decision to relieve former special teams coordinator Mike Priefer and hire assistant head coach/special teams coordinator Bubba Ventrone:

“As you know, you are always trying to make the decisions based on the information at hand. We ultimately decided to make that move. I think the world of Mike Priefer the person and the coach. He is a really, really good football coach and a really good friend. With Bubba Ventrone, we are excited about what he brings. I played against Bubba back when he was at Villanova, and I was at Penn. We go way back. He is a good coach. Excited to have him. A former player, a player for the Browns. Obviously, I think that lends to credibility. He knows what Northeast Ohio is about. Excited about Bubba.”

 

On QB Jacoby Brissett:

“I am a huge Jacoby fan, the person, first and foremost. We were with each other just for this past year, but really see the game similarly. We have talked at length about Jacoby. When we were first talking about signing him, I made a lot of phone calls to people that knew him, and it was all very consistent in just about the type of person you were getting. He played good football for us. We will see what the future holds. I do not know what the future holds for Jacoby, but I am a huge fan of his.”

 

On the biggest differences when switching from Brissett to Watson:

“I think some of the differences were really, really small and some were big. I think they are just two different players. There are obviously schematic things you are going to do with your quarterback that has this skillset, and then this skillset, you are going to differ, while trying not to be totally different. You can’t transition completely 180 in the middle of a season, but try to play to each of their strengths.”

 

On plans for the Browns backup QB in 2023:

“I think we will see. I think that is the truth. I think there are options there. I think (Executive Vice President of Football Operations and General Manager) Andrew (Berry) and his crew are working through all of those options, but we don’t have a definitive answer at this time.”

 

On senior offensive assistant Bill Musgrave and Musgrave’s ability to help in the run game:

“Excited to have coach Musgrave in his role. He is going to help in a bunch of different areas. You mentioned that run game, and those are things that Bill did a lot of with (UCLA Head Football Coach) Chip Kelly in Philadelphia. That is just an example of things that you are always trying to get better at what you do, and obviously Bill has had success with that area. That is one area, the run game, but there is a ton where he can help our staff.”

 

On if he has talked to QB Deshaun Watson during the quiet period of the offseason and how the two can work together in the future to make improvements on offense in 2023:

“We can talk to each other, but just not about football. We are still talking. I think just getting on the same page on everything – how we meet and how we structure practice making sure he is comfortable with different things. You talk about everything under the sun with players in an exit meeting and certainly try to do the same with Deshaun. I know we are seeing the game very similarly. I think he is very excited about what we are going to be doing offensively and what we are going to be doing as a team. I think he is excited to go play some football in the spring and summer.”

 

On if Watson will have a say in how the Browns offense will look moving forward:

“As you know, it is March so I think we have plenty of time once we do get back together to try different things. There is no shortage to the amount of the offense you can run. It is just a matter of what you can hang your hat on and what you can get good at come the spring and summer.”

 

On offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt working closely with Watson:

“The first thing I will tell you is Alex Van Pelt is one of the best teammates I have ever been around. AVP was in the quarterback room as really the main voice for the first two years. (Tight ends coach) T.C. McCartney, a really good young coach, was in there, and T.C. just finished his first year with our tight ends and did a great job. Just felt like with (Cardinals offensive coordinator) Drew (Petzing) leaving to go to Arizona, this was an opportunity for AVP to go back in there. I say that because AVP and I are in every quarterback meeting. AVP took a step back so that Drew could have that voice in there and did a great job. AVP is ready for whatever I feel like and we feel like is best for the team. He is ready to do that. I think it brings continuity to the position. I am always cognizant of how many voices are talking to the quarterback, and there are different ways to do it. I just feel strongly that with AVP’s voice in there and myself, we are going to move (offensive assistant/quarterbacks) Ashton Grant, our young offensive assistant, into that quarterback room. That is an opportunity for me to talk about the success we have had with the Bill Willis Diversity Fellowship. Ashton was our first person who we hired in that position in Year 1 for us in 2020. He has worked with the running backs, the wide receivers, the tight ends and now the quarterbacks. (Cardinals QBs coach) Israel Woolfork, who was previously our Bill Willis Diversity Fellow is going to Arizona as the quarterback coach. That program is working. It is not just on the offensive side of the ball, which I know is important. We are crazy about developing our young coaches. I think we have some really good young coaches – I am not going to name all of them – I am excited about all those guys. I would point out a guy like (assistant special teams coach) Stephen Bravo-Brown. Bravo we brought in, a college wide receiver, and he worked two years on our defense, we moved him over to special teams, he finished off his first year and now he is going to go into his second year of special teams. We are trying to develop some young coaches, and I think we have some really good ones.”

 

On reassessing the playbook for 2023 with new coaches on staff:

“I think that is all a part of the process. I think you really do it every season, even  when you have continuity and when you are maybe not bringing in some new coaches. You try to pull everything apart and look at it year-to-year, but typically, you really structure your day and you spend half the day on personnel and watching college tape and you spend the other half on your offense, on your defense or your special teams. We are spending plenty of time trying to look at what we are doing schematically and making sure that we are turning over every rock schematically to look at different things, and then you do have to put your scout hat on in February, March and April. (Executive Vice President of Football Operations/General Manager) Andrew (Berry) and his crew do a great job of listening to the coaches and hearing the coaches out. The coaches are watching a ton of tape. Honestly, this is the first time where I get to watch some tape. Now that we have the coaching staff hired, I can hide up in my room here, just turn on the tape and watch a bunch of these young men for the first time.”

 

On Musgrave’s nephew, Oregon TE Luke Musgrave:

“He has given us some good insights (laughter). We met with Luke this morning with the coaches in the formal interview setting. He has given us some insight. It is good when you hire coaches from college. Not all of them have nephews that are in the draft, but they have gone against different players in the PAC-12 for instance where they can give us great insight on some of these players.”

 

On how the Browns identified safeties coach Ephraim Banda:

“Ephraim was someone who came highly recommended to us. We talked to a lot of people. We really were diligent about this process. I just think you have to be. I think also the league is being more deliberate about all of their hiring. I think that is one of the things you saw with the head coaching hiring this season, as well. Try to spend as much time as we can to search every avenue for good young coaches and good coaches, period. Spent some time with Ephraim. Put him through an interview. Did a ton of reference work on him, and all of it was so positive. Getting to know him, you get to feel his energy. He has had a unique path to coaching. Certainly, excited to get him in our building.”

 

On if Musgrave will help coach the QBs room:

“Bill won’t be in the quarterback room. He will be contributing throughout our entire staff. Bill has a ton of experience as an offensive coordinator in this league. Obviously, experiences playing quarterback, coaching the quarterbacks and coordinating the offense. He will assist me in a bunch of areas and he will assist AVP in a bunch of areas, but day to day, he won’t be in the quarterback room.”

 

On his process of evaluating draft prospects:

“For me, oftentimes, I get to the combine and I don’t know much about the players. I love college football, but I don’t get to watch a ton of it. My kids know the names better than I do at this point (laughter). I will turn on the tape and usually put on games. Pick a game, check the stat line and make sure the player played in that game and then turn it on. I go back to (seniors assistant/special projects) Kevin Rogers, who is one of our coaches, taught me how to watch tape and how evaluate tape when I was a young coach. He just said, ‘Write what you see.’ He was very pragmatic about it. I try to just write what I see on there. After a while, you feel like your notes are kind of matching up and formulating an opinion as you go. It takes time. There is no secret. You can’t snap your fingers and be done watching a player.”

 

On if he believes most of the Browns defense’s personnel is in place with the change to Schwartz as defensive coordinator:

“I do. I really do. I think with that front and with how we have played, it is not a huge departure. We are not for instance an over or an even-front team. We are not going to an under front or an odd front so the front in some ways remains the same. There is a ton of nuance in how you play it, which can vary, but I think ultimately the team is built to transition nicely into Jim’s scheme.”

 

On feedback Schwartz has provided:

“We have talked about everything. We are looking at this thing from A to Z, from coaching, to our coaching staff, to the players and how we structure things. I am very, very fortunate to have Jim, a former head coach, to one side of my office and (offensive line coach) Bill Callahan, a former head coach, on the other side. I have a lot of very veteran guys who I can lean on, and Jim is one. Jim is a great defensive coordinator, as we know, but he has run teams. He kind of sees things from that lens and can be very helpful to be, as well.”

 

On WRs David Bell and Donovan Peoples-Jones:

“Donovan is a young man who has taken a step every season he has been with us. I think he has worked his tail off in the weight room and on his body. You see a guy who just has physically developed. David Bell is super dependable and super reliable. When the ball came his way, he made a play. Excited about him taking that next step, as well.”

 

On the relationship between Van Pelt and Watson and if being together last year played a role in not hiring a QBs coach:

“It did. AVP is a former quarterback and has done it. Has coached a bunch of guys and coached a lot of good players so I think again lends an instant credibility with AVP when you are talking about the quarterback position. We spend a lot of time together. We spend time in that meeting room. We spend time on the field. During games, AVP is the one sitting on that bench going over the pictures. There is a built-in relationship there. There is respect there. AVP is a coach who can push this player, along with myself and the rest of our staff, but I just think there is a built-in relationship there.”

 

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