Pass Game Coordinator/Wide Receivers Coach Chad O’Shea (10.11.24)
How do you keep the room motivated when there really have not been enough good offensive plays to get everybody involved? Is there a frustration in the room or what’s kind of the vibe?
“Our emphasis in the receiver room is to stay in the present and to just stack days together. We need to concentrate and focus truly on what we need to do better. How we can help the team, and how we can help the team is just doing our job and being as consistent as we can for this team. So the emphasis truly has been to stay in the present for our group. I think they’ve had a really good attitude, and they’ve approached every day like that.”
What have you seen out Jerry (Jeudy) these first five games as he’s sort of acclimated to the offense? Because it seems like when he gets involved, you can see the impact he makes on the passing game and improving it incremental stages.
“Yeah, Jerry’s done a good job being able to be flexible within our offense and that’s created some of his opportunities that we’ve allowed him to move around the formation. And he’s gone out there and made plays for us, and he’s also made plays on some things that what we call ‘off schedule,’ In some of the scramble situations, he’s done a great job of uncovering and being a good separator and playing fast in that area to create some plays for our offense. So that’s been an area that has been unscripted for Jerry that I’ve been really impressed with is his ability to play off schedule and make some of those plays. And I’m very impressed with his separation ability, but he’s in that position because he’s smart enough to handle moving him to where we need to use his skillset.”
Along those lines, because I wanted to ask about the scramble drills with him, what makes a guy so good at that? Is it instincts? What goes into that?
“I do think there’s a combination of things that go into being good in a scramble situation, and being instinctive is definitely one of them. I think some guys are just better in those situations than others, and Jerry’s certainly a guy that I’ve been very impressed with. Just his ability, it’s like he’s in the backyard in Florida and he’s just playing with the guys and he’s uncovering and he’s the one that ends up open. So I think a lot of it is an instinctive trait, but I also think it’s something we work really hard on. We have worked really hard on the fundamentals offensively of the scramble from the quarterback position to everyone else involved, the other ten guys, I think it’s something you can work and improve on, also.”
With Amari (Cooper), the bar is so high considering everything he’s done. Why do you think he quite hasn’t had the same production over these first five games that I guess we’re used to seeing?
“Yeah, Scott (Petrak), I mean, I understand why you’re asking that question. I think this; I think it’s a long season and let’s let this season play out and understand that it’s not always going to be perfect. Obviously, Amari has really embraced some of the adversity here early in the year that he’s had, and he certainly had some. But I don’t want to jump the gun here and put this in one category, that it’s one thing or the other. I just think that I like the way he’s responded to this, and I’ve really seen this in the way he’s come in the building and worked hard and really tried to stay in the present. Like I mentioned earlier, how important that is collectively for us as a group. And he certainly has done that individually and I’m impressed with the way he’s responded and I’m looking forward to seeing how he plays moving forward.”
That perspective that Amari has though, how critical is that for his because he is working through these things, but also because he is a veteran in that room that he can instill that on the younger guys as well?
“Very important. Amari is one of our leaders on our team and on our offense, and a lot of times how he goes, the others go. So, he is a great leader in that. That his actions speak louder than his words. We know that in him. But the way in which he’s responded to some of the adversity that he’s had early in the season says a lot about him and I know it’s contagious to our locker room. If they see Amari responding the way in which he has, which I’m very impressed with the way he’s responded, he’s been very positive. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do and he’s really concentrating on today. I know right now he’s in that locker room and he’s worried about one thing; going out to the field and having a good practice today. I think if he has that mindset, I think that mindset is contagious to our football team.”
Jamari Thrash hasn’t appeared in a game yet, but kind of what have you seen from him over the first couple weeks of his rookie season?
“Yeah, I really like Jamari Thrash’s development. There’s some things that obviously so you guys don’t see in the meeting rooms, and on the field and in the walk-through settings. It’s been very impressive. I have very high expectations for him, and that is because of his growth. He’s continued to improve daily. He is one that takes coaching very well, and he has really done a good job of following the leadership of our team and saying, ‘Hey, how can I do this differently? Can you help me do this?’ Whether it’s a fundamental technique in the receiver room or it’s just something in general of the transition of a rookie in this league, I really like that he’s using all the resources for him to improve. I’m very excited about Jamari Thrash.”
It seems like early on, like when we’re out there while Deshaun’s (Watson) throwing to Jerry and Amari, some of those guys. On the other end, DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) is throwing to Jamari and some of the other wide receivers. Is that something you’ve always done? Is that just about kind of making that those guys are getting live reps even though maybe they’re not getting the reps with the ones?
“Yeah, Daniel (Oyefusi), so what we do is because there’s limited reps during the practice sessions, we try to maximize the reps we get. So, we break into separate groups and let guys work independently, and what that does is it maximizes our reps. Instead of guys standing there in line waiting to go, we say, ‘Hey, let’s go two-spot.’ Let’s maximize our reps and let’s let some of the younger wide receivers work at one end and then have some of the guys that have those game plan specific players work with Deshaun. So really, it’s more of a practice organization that we do that and I think it’s really helpful to our team.”
Chad, about Kadarius (Toney), you’ve been able to see him on the field a little bit. What have you learned about him in his still relatively short amount of time with the organization?
“Yeah, I mean, I know a lot about him as a player. We’ve seen that on film through, be it the (New York) Giants film and the Kansas City film, and we followed him very closely at Florida. He’s another player that very similar to Thrash, he’s done a lot of asking questions and really leaning on the veterans and the coaching staff on just learning the offense. And right now, he’s still learning the offense. He hasn’t been in the building as long as some of the other guys. But he definitely has a unique skill set, very impressive skill set and unique in what he can do. So, the biggest thing for him is just to put one foot in front of the other and learn the playbook, learn the building, and it’s a guy that just continues to improve based off of the way he’s worked.”
How can you attribute the Browns leading the league in dropped passes this season?
“Yeah, our drops this year is something that we’re working really hard on, fundamentally. The way I always look at drops is, ‘Hey, we need to go and do it more. We need to catch the ball more.’ So we have definitely addressed that at practice. We have done things from a practice standpoint, from an individual drill standpoint to really focus in on the fundamentals of catching the ball. I think that there is always going to be a fundamental early in the season that needs to improve. I mean, there has been some years where we need to improve our blocking or our top of the route, route running or our releases. So, there are so many different facets of fundamentals that occur within each position, specifically the receiver position. The glaring one for us that we need to improve is catching the football.
So how do we improve that? We do it more. So, we catch the ball more. Guys have again embraced that challenge that they know that we need to be more consistent in that area, but I think no different than any other fundamental, just go back and invest more time and work harder at it.”
What do you see out of the (Philadelphia) Eagles’ corners? Looks like they’ve got one vet that’s kind of proven and then a young rookie (Quinyon Mitchell).
“Yeah, so I think that it’s a unique blend. They have a veteran player one side and a rookie on the other. They’re playing very well within that system. That’s a new system for them, but they’re playing very well within that. I think they’re both zone and man. They’ve been very impressive in how they play their technique. So, it’s going to be a great challenge for us to go into Philly and play versus what I consider a very good secondary, and I think they’ve just played very well within that scheme.”
Any given week, we’ve seen with our own two eyes and all over the Internet there are plays where it looks like Deshaun is missing the open man. Like last week it was Jerry on the first and seven in the endzone. So, my question to you is, to what do you attribute that? I mean, is Deshaun just not seeing the field or are there issues that are going on in some cases between Deshaun and the receivers? How do you fix just the whole passing game?
“Mary Kay (Cabot), I think there are so many things that go into each play. And offensive football is truly everyone has to be on the same page. And if one person is not on the same page, the execution of that play is not going to be what we want. So, I really believe, let’s talk about the passing game, that it takes everyone to be on the same page in the passing game. It’s just not the quarterback. There are so many things at the receiver position that we can do to help our quarterback. We can have the detail, the dependability on each play, the coaching points need to be exactly the right way. So that’s really what we’re focusing on is like, what is our job and how can we go do that job at the very highest level? So, when you look at some of the call it lack of success that we may have on an individual play, it’s so many different factors and you can’t lump it into one person or one specific type of play. I just believe that we all need to have the mindset, ‘Hey, we need our individual accountability, we all need to do our job better and we just need to focus on the main things.'”
Is some of that due to the choice routes in some cases that you guys are running this year?
“Yeah, I think the play type in which it’s not all this type of play that we may not be doing well on or that we’re doing good on. It’s just in general just being on the same page, regardless of if it’s a run and us blocking in the run game, or if it’s a specific pass, maybe we’re not at the right depth. And I just think there’s so many things that go into that. But it’s not a specific play type that we’re saying, ‘hey, we’re just struggling on these types of plays and not these.’ I mean, certainly we’re always going to try to do what’s best for our offense and focus on those things moving forward. So, if it’s something we haven’t had success with, we’ll maybe move away from it. But the choice routes in specific to your question have been part of our offense and will continue to be a part of our offense. We’ll just work really hard at those and try to improve.”
I noticed yesterday you guys were practicing, from what I could tell, at a much faster clip in the time that were out there. I mean, it was just boom, boom, boom, getting more reps in at practice. Is that one of the things that you guys have focused on this week?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s always a focus to really be very efficient in our practice. I think Kevin’s (Stefanski) done a great job of being organized with our practice and we’re moving from drill to drill where guys are able to be at their highest effort they can be based off of the practice structure. But I really feel like the last couple weeks, we’ve really gone out there and practiced hard and the guys have really accepted the challenge of, again, ‘do more, play with great effort during practice,’ and I’m a firm believer in that what happens at practice, happens in the game. There was a coach that I once worked for that used to talk about practice execution equals game reality, and I believe that. So that’s been something we really emphasized to our group. and that’s something Kevin believes strongly in, too, is what happens at practice will ultimately show up in the game, so let’s make sure we’re at our very best. That’s why I’m looking forward to getting on this field here in a little bit and seeing if we can put that into action and have a great Friday practice.”