Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (8.10.24)
Opening Statement:
“Okay, injury front, you saw Luke Wypler, that was tough, fractured his ankle there so that’s going to require surgery and I’m disappointed for the kid. The goal, obviously, when you get into these games is to get out of there as healthy as you can and unfortunately suffered that one. And then a ton to learn from, I mean, a ton for everybody out there. There were some things that we can definitely do better. Too sloppy in a bunch of areas, but as I reminded the team, we are very much in training camp, so we will continue to work. And with that, I’ll take any questions.”
Do you know if the Wypler thing is season ending?
“I’m not going to go there. I’ll just say he needs surgery.”
What did you take positively from tonight?
“Yeah, competed. A bunch of young guys got to get some work done, or work in that we’ve seen in these game or, excuse me, in the practices and take it to the game, so that was good. It’s a good experience for those young guys getting out there for the first time. I mean, all the things are new – getting to the stadium, in this locker room, pre-game warm up, all of that is new for those guys, so glad that we got that experience out of the way.”
Kevin, do you think that you will be bringing in another center, obviously with Luke’s injury?
“It’s a good question. Those are things that we’ll work through in the next 24, 48 hours.”
Kevin, on the other injured guys, Ronnie (Hickman), David (Bell). Any update on them?
“We got things that need to be worked – we’ll MRI things that need to be MRI, and then we’ll work through it all.”
How did you think the operation went with you calling plays and having (Ken) Dorsey on the sideline?
“Yeah, good. I thought the offensive staff did a nice job. A bunch of new coaches on the offensive staff, so just the communication, whether it was Dors, myself, Duce (Staley), Andy (Dickerson), Roy (Istvan), Tommy (Rees), you name it. I think everybody was getting a feel for the communication more than anything.”
Did you call plays in this game?
“I did.”
Kevin, when you keep everything vanilla in a preseason game like this, does that make it any more difficult to assess how players play?
“I don’t think so, no. I think most teams strive to keep it vanilla, like you said, Jeff (Schudel), just so the guys, I mean, you don’t want to show a ton, but also so that they can play fast. Sometimes if you overburden them with scheme, they don’t play as fast as they can, so that’s all part of the evaluation”
Was the plan for those kickoffs to be in the end zone?
“It was not. Yeah. Disappointed in that. We wanted to see those guys cover. So disappointed with that but Cade (York) obviously had a nice field goal there.”
Overall, how do you think the team handled the new rules with kick off return and kick off coverage?
“Well, kick off didn’t get to see us as much as we would have liked. Kick off return, it’s a different play. And we’ve repped it and repped it and repped it, but to get it live against another team was really, really important. I thought we got some good reps to teach off of.”
Kevin, Dorian (Thompson-Robinson) seemed to provide a little bit of a spark, especially in that fourth quarter, what did you see after you put him in?
“Yeah, made some plays. Obviously, that fourth down play was very impressive, going to his left and being able to get the first down. So made some plays, plenty that he can do better on. But, you know, obviously the goal for that quarterback is to get him in the end zone.”
Can you say anything about (Jameis) Winston with five passes?
“Yeah, I thought he operated well. Again, so much of this, I know we talk about that word operation, but it’s getting your team from the huddle to the line of scrimmage, making the correct run checks, pass checks, that type of thing. I thought he did a nice job.”
Coach, Jamari (Thrash) made some nice plays in the second half. What did you see out of him?
“Yeah, Jamari did some nice things catching the ball and some, some contested areas or loud areas, if you will. I thought he came down with the ball and did a nice job.”
When you have a player like Amari Cooper who has been in trade rumors, maybe is a little bothered by it, he put something on Instagram last night. Do you have a conversation with him? How do you kind of approach that?
“I think you probably know me well enough to say I don’t discuss my conversations with players.”
# # #
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***