Defensive Line Coach Jacques Cesaire (8.8.26)

Starting with the guy who was just up here, what do you expect out of him this year?

“Mason’s (Graham) having an incredible camp so far. I’ve never seen him look this fast. He’s twitchy. He understands the defense, fully understands and embraces it. So, I’m excited about what he can do this year for us.”

Coach (Todd) Monken was talking the other day about how rare it is for a guy to be so early in his tenure but already establish himself as a leadership voice. How are you seeing that in your meeting rooms and out on the field ?

“When I first met Jared (Verse), that’s the first thing he told me. He said, ‘I just want to be a leader, I want to bring guys up with me, intentionally elevate the guy next to me.’ And he’s hit the ground running with that. He came into the room and automatically meshed with the guys, him and Alex (Wright) have a thing, him and Turtle (Adin Huntington) have a thing. It’s cool to see a guy who walks into a room and acts like he’s already been there for years. You can see it in the way he plays, when he’s out there, you know he’s going to talk his junk, and he gets everybody riled up. He gets the defense riled up, talks junk to the offense, and it gets them going too. So, that leadership profile that we all know this team needs defensively is really showing out right now.”

What does that presence mean, particularly for a team with such a young roster?

“It’s good, because when you’re young in the NFL you’re trying to find your voice and your place on the team among your peers and things like that. He’s done a good job of just being himself, being a leader, but also allowing other people to be themselves and go out and do the same thing. So, it’s been cool to see the synergy between everybody; offense, defense and special teams.”

When you talk about how much he talks, all the junk he talks, is that the vibe you want for your group? Do you want your guys to be the loudest group out there?

“I don’t want to be the loudest. I just want them to play sudden, violent and fast. If you have to talk junk to do that, cool, do that. If you want to be quiet, Mason doesn’t say anything, but he’s sudden, violent and fast, and that plays too. I want my guys to be themselves, because that’s who we’ve got and who we’re bringing in. I’m not trying to make them robots or somebody else. That’s Jared’s personality, cool, you can do that as long as you work hard, execute and stay focused. If you can do all that and talk junk, go right ahead.”

We’ve talked so much about Jared being a leader, but he’s still very young. On the physical side, are you seeing ways you can get even more out of him than he did in L.A., and parts of his game that might grow here in Cleveland?

“It’s a two-part thing, we can give him something, and he can give us something. He’s extremely strong, lengthy, violent, he’s fast, he’s really fast. We can help him get into a proper stance, get the width we want in our wide-nine defensive front, and just let him go. In L.A., I think he was more of a stand-up, two-point linebacker that read a little more, which slows you down a bit in my opinion. We just want him going as fast as he can, as many times as he can. There’s a cost of doing business, a little startup cost when a got a guy who has been a linebacker his whole career and now you’re telling him to put his hand in the dirt and go out there and play. But he’s fully embraced it, if he messes up, he says, ‘let’s do that again, let’s do that again.’ This is a guy who really wants to buy in and do it right, do it our way. That’s the first part of leadership right there, one of the big names on your defense doing it exactly how you want, giving a ton of effort while doing it. What he gives us and what we give him right now is kind of a perfect marriage right now.”

Thinking about these first two weeks of camp I know you’ve had some nagging injuries at defensive tackle, you’re still waiting on Maliek (Collins), and you’ve had to sign some guys. How have they handled all those changes due to injuries so far?

“Everybody’s been great. We’ve had some new guys come into the program, and just like Jared, they’ve had to buy in really fast. We play defense a certain way here. It’s fast, violent, sudden, precise. It’s not just running up the field. There are things we have to do on every play versus every blocking, screen and protection. Those guys have really bought into what we’re trying to do. We’re asking them to run as fast as they can, rush as much as they can, close on the ball, and when the ball’s thrown, run to the ball. That’s it. If they do that to start, we’ll fix all the other stuff. And they’ve been doing that. I’m really pleased with all those guys so far.”

When we talk from any other guy from another other level, they love to call you guys ‘the engine’, I know that was a big thing under the previous staff too. How much pride do you guys take in that, and what does it mean to you?

“The engine of the defense simply means this: we’ve made a deal with the entire organization that when the ball is thrown, we’re going to sprint to the ball. We’re going to be first on the scene to deliver the blow on whoever catches the ball or is trying to run the ball. That’s the first part of the engine. The second part of the engine is we get to establish the violence. We’re the first line of defense, so we get to establish the violence, the mentality of the entire defense. So, those guys take a lot of pride in it. We talk about it every single day, we preach it every single day, we practice it every single day. We take pride in that the defense is trusting us with that title.”

How does a pressure become a sack?

“A pressure become a sack? I’m not big on pressures, I’d rather get the sack. But it’s simple: you’ve got four guys equal one. Two big guys in the middle pushing the pocket, two guys on the edge squeezing the pocket as fast as they can. We want to assault the pocket as many times as we can, and we make deals with each other. We will do this every single snap. We’re not asking guys to hold double teams and anchor and hold blocks for other people to make plays. We’re saying that you’re here because you can make a play. That’s what we want from our defensive line, and they take a lot of pride in it, and that’s what we do every day.”

How’s been watching Alex take on more responsibilities, especially going into the season for you guys?

“It’s been really cool. We talked when I first got here, just about leadership, and I’ve always considered Alex a leader. Some leaders are quiet, some are vocal, but he’s done a good job of picking his spots for when to be that leader. The biggest way he’s been a leader is just doing things right. He shows up to practice every day. He’s the example of what we want out of this front, and that’s a guy that we’re relying on and we trust will be one of our main producers this year.”

Going back to Mason a little bit. Todd said one of the things about him that surprised him is that essentially, when he’s on the line, he’s calling out what the offense is doing, he’s really intelligent. Can you speak to that part of his game?

“I said this today in the room. Probably one of the smartest guys I’ve ever been around. He just understands football, understands formations and what the offense is trying to do, and he’s trying to help everybody out as much as he can, and he gets down and he starts rolling. It’s been really cool to see that maturation of him. Last year, I think you all remember, he was feeling a little sick. One thing I saw from that kid, though, is that he got sick in practice one day and he got right back in and kept playing. Then came back in great shape, tremendous shape and had an awesome season. Truth be told, a lot of the sacks he should have had. A lot of those sacks that went to other people should have had been his. Not because he got there too slow or he helped the sack. No, he got the sack but somehow they gave it to the other person. This is a guy who knows exactly what’s going on and he’s letting everybody know. It’s like having a second Mike linebacker out there. It’s really good for us.”

When you watch back the film from last year, how many of those sacks did you see go to Myles (Garrett) or Maliek (Collins) and maybe only those two guys that could’ve had it instead of Mason?

“The most egregious one was in the Raiders game. We joke about it all the time. He came off the field and I said, ‘Man, you’ve got three right now.’ We looked afterward and it said 0.5. I was like, ‘I didn’t even know what to tell you right now’. But he doesn’t even care, he really doesn’t care. He just wants the team to win. That’s another form of leadership right there. A guy who does everything right, works his butt off, comes in every day, is very vocal in the meeting room, and goes out and proves it on the practice field.”

You’ve had a run of guys out at defensive tackle, but that’s also been an opportunity for some younger guys to get in there. Who have been some of the guys who have caught your eye in this small sample size, trying to take advantage of the opportunity?

“Tyreek Sapp is a name that comes up. He’s grown so fast, from where he started to where he is now, I’m extremely proud of him. Adin (Huntington) has been Adin, as usual. Just a ball of energy, a Swiss Army knife who can play inside or outside, he has enough speed to do both. And you guys are going to love “Snacks”. T-Bell (Travis Bell), we just got him, and he just works. I’m really excited to see what these guys do next Saturday. We’re tuning them up right now for all of that. I just can’t wait, I am excited football is back.”

A lot of the drills you guys do out there, the get-off drill on the sleds, everyone’s watching that one, and it feels very competitive. What are you getting out of that internal competition, and how does it translate when they’re going against your offense, and how will it translate off an opposing offense?

“That’s a great question. That drill right there we call it ‘quick and violent hands.’ We want those guys to get off as fast as they can, make first contact, get hands on them, man, knock them back, run their feet. They’ve got to get two steps in the ground before the offensive linemen get their second step down. So there’s competition built right there with that thought process. We’ve got to change the line of scrimmage. We’ve got to reset that line of scrimmage. We make it a competition with each other. ‘Who’s going to get off first?’ We’re going to trample toward the quarterback. If you’re not coming off the ball, that’s an opportunity that you’re not going to get a sack. So we make it a competition, and the guys get fired up about it. I know the fans love it, and we’re getting good, quality work. We’re getting hand work, footwork, and competition with each other. The guys love it, I love it. You go down there, and you’ll see a bunch of grown men working their tails off for this organization.”

As you look at preparing for the season, how do you balance studying the offensive tackle versus Jared Verse. How do you balance at what the offensive tackle might not be good at versus what Jared at?

“First of all, it’s never about them, it’s always about us. What are we doing and what are we going to do? No disrespect to anybody out there, but we focus on us and what we have to do, fine-tune that as much as we can, and go from there.”

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