HC Kevin Stefanski (6.6.23)
Opening statement: Good day out there. Great to have all 90 guys out on the field in the meeting rooms, working really hard. It was a good day of guys competing. They took care of each other. It was a safe and competitive environment. Got a lot of work done, and that’s really what we’re here to do. So to finish off our offseason program, we have this mandatory minicamp. We’re going to make sure we take advantage of these days, take advantage of all these meetings, and try to continue to get better. That’s really our focus. So with that, I’ll take any questions.
Kevin, a couple of your players have been robbed. What did you say to the team? Greg just gets his car stolen, so it wasn’t like he was in the wrong.
As you know, it’s an active investigation, ongoing, so I can’t comment much other than to say I’m glad our guys are okay. I want our guys, I want all of our community to be safe. Cleveland Police has been outstanding. Chief Drummond and I spoke yesterday. We want everybody to be safe, and we want to get violent people off of our streets.
Kevin, how are the players doing today, that had to be a little bit scary going through that.
Again, I don’t want to comment too much other than to say, this is something that we take very seriously. Obviously, our organization, our players are aware of things that we’ve got to make sure we’re doing to keep ourselves safe, but we just will continue to educate our guys. And then in this particular instance, I’m really happy those guys are okay.
Now that’s he’s here does Garrett look like the good Garrett?
Myles, he always takes very good care of himself, works very hard in the offseason. So he looks like normal Myles.
Is 7 on 7s the best Deshaun has looked?
I think you’ve always got to be real careful. Former defensive back speaking now, 7 on 7 is geared to the offense. You should complete balls at 7 on 7. I’m the head coach, not just offense.
Kevin we saw Jakeen out there building some punts. Just his progress. And how good is it to see him get to that stage of the recovery?
He’s coming along. He works really hard, still working hard in the meeting room. Even though he’s not taking reps out here, he’s still a major part of it and then able to slowly bring him along with the return game. And Jakeem is a pro. I love having him around, and he’s working really hard.
Coach, what’s at the top of the priority to do list this week?
I think there’s a bunch of things. Tom I think for us, this whole offseason is about building a foundation, and that’s foundational fundamentals techniques, schemes, relationships, all those things. So in order to get where you want to go in the season, you’ve got to make sure that you spend this offseason not skipping any steps. So this minicamp is really the final step in our offseason program. So every one of these meetings, every one of these periods, every one of these walkthroughs are important. Every rep has to count.
Kevin, you mentioned the pace earlier. What are those conversations to the players about where it obviously can’t be full go, but you still need to see work?
We constantly talk about it. I’ll tell you, it’s really hard. It’s hard on the guys up front. There will be a time, and it will be in July and August when we have pads on where you can come off the ball and it looks like football. When you’re in helmets, and based on the rules where they do not want contact with the helmet or the shoulders, they don’t want contact at the point of attack, that’s agreed upon between the PA and the NFL. So we just want to abide by those rules. So it’s not perfect. I know it’s hard from a mentality standpoint for, again, guys up front, but we can get a lot of work done from an alignment and assignment standpoint in these drills.
Is this car theft thing a chance to tell the guys kina of a cautionary tale for how to be safe?
As you can imagine, Mary Kay, everything that we see in our game, there’s things that you always try to teach off of. I take things from the headlines every day to teach off of. So an instance like this, again, I want to reiterate that I’m happy our guys are okay. This is a violent crime, and we’ve got to make sure that those people aren’t on our streets, but we can always use opportunities to educate them.
Is Anthony Schwartz batting an injury and what is it?
Yes. I’m not going to get into specifics, but he was out there today.
Amari went up and got one in the end today. Just what can you say about the progress he’s made coming back from that core muscle surgery?
Yeah, Darryl, since he got out there and started doing indy, he honestly looked exactly like the old Amari to me, which is a guy that works really hard, comes off the ball with explosive movement, catches everything. He’s looked like himself. We’re just are going to be real smart about how we bring him along.
Donovan had a couple of catches in the back of the end zone where he got his feet down. It’s 7 on 7s, I know that, but that’s what you want to see in 7 on 7.
As you know, Donovan is such a trustworthy target for the quarterbacks. He’s always exactly where he needs to be from a route perspective, from a depth perspective, and then to have ball skills like he does and throw it to a spot where only he can get it, and he has the wherewithal to get his feet down. Donovan, I think we talk about him like he’s a young player, but he’s a pro now, and that’s kind of what pros do.
Kevin, what have you thought of Tillman? I think he made one nice catch.
Yeah, I think Ced’s done a nice job. I think, like all of our rookies, he’s swimming at times. We’re throwing a lot of information at them. He’s very intelligent, so he’s getting it, but it’s a lot and we don’t want to give them just pieces of it. We want to give them everything and just make them feel how much they have to work at this thing. So a lot of our rookies, Ced included, are inundated with information and meetings, and he’s doing a really nice job. I think you saw, like you mentioned, that’s his physical trait, the ability to just go body it up and go get the football, and Dorian and he have been doing that for a long time. But I think Ced’s doing a really nice job. And like a lot of our rookies, he’s learning.
What do you like about the idea of putting Za’Darius Smith inside? How does that maximize your talent.
I think Coach Schwartz and our defensive staff, you’re always looking for matchups and to have versatility among that front. I mean, really, all of our d-ends can rush inside, and that allows you game by game, to move the pieces around as you see fit.
Speaking of Schwartz, do you see a common thread between what he and Bubba bring your team?
I don’t know if there’s a common thread. Obviously two guys that I think very highly of, the people and the coaches, I think they’re doing a really nice job with their units. And like all of us, we’re just trying to focus on the work here and focus on minicamp number one. I know Coach Schwartz and Coach Ventrone and the offensive staff want to get back in there and make a bunch of corrections and be better tomorrow.
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