Passing Game Specialist and Tight Ends Coach Tommy Rees (10.18.24)

Is David (Njoku) a little bit ready for more action, do you think? 

“Yeah, I think he’s progressed well over the last couple weeks coming off the injury. Each week we see improvement there and just what he’s able to do, and playing full speed and we’ll continue to get him in there and get him doing what he does best and find opportunities for him to impact the game.”

 

Tommy, as someone who kind of has his hand in the passing game and coordinating that. Just why have we seen just the struggles of the passing game and what needs to change for that part of the offense to really take off? 

“The passing game really takes everybody on offense from the line to the receivers, tight ends. I mean, it’s a sum of the parts and it just feels like some of the inconsistencies show up when one specific group doesn’t do their part and sometimes it’s the tight end, sometimes it’s the receivers. It just adds up that way. Like offensive football, you got to have everybody on the same page doing what they’re supposed to do to have success and we’re continuing to find ways to get that done and improve that. But it really takes ownership from each group of just doing their job more consistently and finding ways to affect the defense and really create opportunities for explosive, create opportunities for run after the catch. It takes all of us working together to find ways to improve it.”

 

How much do you attribute that to obviously kind of bringing in some new concepts, some new schemes and just the maybe the transition period and all the guys kind of learning the offense? 

“Yeah, I think our guys have done a nice job picking up. There’s a lot of consistency and then the nuances that came in this off-season. I think our guys have done a nice job of picking those up. We just again got to continue to have everybody striving to do their part and making sure that we can have success that way.”

 

Kind of along those same lines, Bubba (Ventrone) was talking about how he started slow one year Indianapolis and then they went on a run and made the playoffs. And he said one of the things that year was they had a bunch of new guys on the staff. And you guys have a bunch of new guys, you’re part of it, on the offensive staff. Does it take a while for, I guess, all those minds to come together and figure out who’s doing what and how you fit? 

“Yeah, no, I think staff cohesion is really important. I think as leaders, Kevin (Stefanski) and Ken (Dorsey) did a great job from when we all got here of building the cohesiveness amongst the staff and making sure that everybody was on the same page. And there’s always learning curves or things that you go through with anybody new. But I feel like we’re all on the same page. We got to make sure that we do our part as a staff as well to make sure our players are ready and prepared. I don’t attribute a lot of that to any of the newness. I think we just got to continue to find ways to improve, continue to find ways to allow our players to go out and play fast, play with confidence and know what we’re trying to get accomplished.”

 

Tommy, you’ve obviously called plays at the college level, but calling plays is calling plays in some regard. How difficult is it when things aren’t clicking the way it needs to, how difficult can it be to really find that one play, to maybe to get into that kind of rhythm as a play caller to where you really feel comfortable with this call is going to pay dividends?

“Yeah, I mean, I can’t speak for Kevin on that. For a play caller, you want to call things that you have confidence in, that your players have confidence in. At the end of the day, you go into a week with a plan. Sometimes that plan can be adjusted throughout a game, but I think we have confidence in those plays. And, yeah, I mean, when things aren’t working, it’s always hard when you’re in the middle of a game. But I think we’ve done a nice job of kind of digging down to, ‘Alright, these are the things that we believe in, these are the things that our players believe in and let’s try to execute those as well as we can.’”

 

It’s hard to imagine that you guys can trade away Amari Cooper, your number one receiver, and somehow your offense looks better the week after that. So, what gives you the confidence that it can? 

“I mean, I think, look, Amari’s a great player. Want him to have a ton of success. But for all of us, we have to — when you lose a great player, it’s okay. How do we accomplish some of those things with the sum of our parts. And everybody stepping up, finding ways, not one guy is going to replace Amari, but I think the sum of our parts can allow us to have success, and it challenges the other guys in the receiver room, challenges the guys in our room, challenges the guys in the running back room, that people need to step up and make plays when they’re given the opportunities. And I believe that we have guys that can do that. And again, it’s going to be about all of us, the sum of our players, contributing to have to fill some of those things that Amari did for us for a long time here in Cleveland.”

 

Along those lines, just what does Amari’s departure sort of mean for the tight end group? Specifically, maybe getting David more involved and other guys in that room? 

“Yeah, obviously there will be potentially more opportunities. But I think David, Jordan (Akins), Geoff (Swaim), who’s played for us last couple of weeks, we just got to continue to strive to own our responsibility within the game plan. There can’t be any further pressing, can’t be anything different in how we approach it. We got to be consistent in how we look at it and when our number’s called, we want to be reliable for Deshaun (Watson) and for the rest of the team and that’s really what we’re striving to do.”

 

You guys look at the those two (Cincinnati) Bengals guys coming off the edge, (Sam) Hubbard and (Trey) Hendrickson. What stands out about those two guys? 

“They play really hard, run and pass. They compete, they finish. Obviously, Trey’s produced, Sam’s produced at this level. They have a fastball, they have a counter, they know how to get after the quarterback. We’re faced head-to-head with those guys both in protection and at the point of attack in the run game. So, just really trying to study how they try to impact the game, what things they get to, and then also just our understanding of like, ‘Hey, we’re going to have to strain on every play because these guys are not going to stop.’ So, I have a tremendous amount of respect for how they play the game and we’re going to have our work cut out for us, but it’s a challenge that we look forward to.”

 

(Maxx) Crosby is one of those guys and I think people refer to Hendrickson as a guy that never stops, like you mentioned. Are they on, like, a different level than maybe some other guys in this league as far as the nonstop effort? 

“I mean, when you look at the edge guys that you play week to week, there aren’t a ton of guys that you’re saying, ‘Hey, this is an easy task.’ So that’s kind of the life in the NFL when you have really good players playing on the edges. And us as tight ends, we got to make sure that we’re right there.”

 

Is that where going against Myles (Garrett) in practice pays off when you guys get to the regular season?

“Yeah, Myles is in a pretty unique class up there, you know what I mean? So, yeah, when we get our opportunities to try to touch Myles, that helps us get better, for sure.”

 

The refrain has been that once all these other things start going right, that Deshaun will function a lot better. Can you just give us your thoughts on that whole concept? 

“Yeah, I mean, look, I think all of us have a responsibility to produce offensively, right? And that’s not solely on the quarterback, not solely one guy, one group. We all have to own what we’re doing offensively. And certainly, we got to do our part. Like I said, we want to be dependable to the offense, we want to be dependable to Deshaun and make sure that we’re able to produce when our number is called.”

 

What kind of energy has it brought to you guys to see Nick (Chubb) back out there knowing he’s going to come back this week? 

“Yeah, I mean, from the moment I was here, Nick’s a pretty special guy. I learned that pretty quick. And I think the respect that he’s earned from the players, from the rest of the league, from this city, obviously, it’s well documented at this point. So, when he walks out on the field, everybody notices. But it’s really from a respect and a love that his teammates have for him. And so, I certainly know the guys in the locker room care deeply about Nick and are excited to have him back.”

 

Just to go back to David for a second, obviously, he’s been banged up this year. Banged up in training camp, and then the ankle and the knee pops up. I guess just how have you seen him kind of deal with that injury adversity where these things keep popping up and he keeps working his way back?

“He’s been levelheaded through it all. When the ankle first happened, he immediately said, ‘I’ll be back earlier than you guys think,’ which he was. So, to his credit, he’s worked his tail off to get back because he cares about this team, and he wants to make sure that he’s able to give whatever he can to help us get things ready to roll.”

 

Have you contemplated using four tight ends at all? 

“Those aren’t up to me; you know what I mean? They make my grade sheet a little longer, but, no, whatever we can do to help, we’re ready to do.”