Cornerbacks Coach Brandon Lynch (8.6.23)
How do you think man-to-man coverage plays to the strengths of especially your top three, Denzel (Ward), Greg (Newsome II) and Martin (Emerson Jr.)?
“Chris, that’s a great question. You know, we talk about being tip of the spear. So the room has been built with press in mind first. Our speed, length and athleticism and that’s across the board on all of our guys in the room. We’re extremely competitive. So us getting the work, keeping the focus on, it’s really going to help our team.”
The defensive backs looked dominant from those red zone periods at the Greenbriar and really shutting things down. You had to be happy with the aggressive nature of it.
“Absolutely. And really that’s one of like Coach Schwartz’s biggest things. With our toughness, our effort and our passion, we’re really working to keep stacking days as Coach Stefanski has really illustrated for our team and our guys really have that internal camaraderie amongst each other. ”
Who’s been working out nickel like second team?(Cameron) Mitchell the number one guy there.
“You know what it’s really like by committee. We value versatility, like we said, a lot organizationally. So from Denzel to Cameron, also to Mike Ford, we’ve really been doing a really good job in there.”
So Emerson doesn’t go there.
If the matchup requires that, we’ll definitely put a tough guy in there.”
(Emerson)Martin has kind of talked about he likes when quarterbacks throw his way and target him. He really liked that last year but he’s such a quiet guy but kind of still has that confidence. What have you learned about that aspect of his personality?
“I guess, you know, what tip of the spear. He’s a young man that when we talk about toughness, he really embodies that and really encourages our room to really put that at the forefront. So like when we’re in the red zone period, as Miss Mary really asked us about, that’s really a big thing that really gets our group going.”
A year ago he had that pick six and the first, Jacksonville. Did you see a difference? Did that just propel him to the kind of year he ended up having?
“Technique and fundamentals. He’s a young guy. We always are going to put the focus on the work, but he’s a young guy. He’s a come in early, stay late guy. So with him, technique and fundamentals, you really see his development over time.”
But the confidence he got from that game, did that have an effect?
“Absolutely. But I would want to say before the game, just his daily habits really help him propel in that game.”
What do we see out of Cam Mitchell?
“Great toughness and again, he’s a START player for us in every imagine of the word. He’s very instinctive, he’s very aware. He’s a young guy that has very good ball production and he’s a young guy that’s going to help us inside and out.
Talking about the confidence, did you see it grow after the take of Deshaun and then the four down play made Thursday night.
“Much like Emerson, he’s really put the focus on the work. He’s building daily habits and he’s really stacking them daily. So when he’s coming out in the film room as well as out here on the grass, he keeps moving forward.”
When you said he’s a start player, you mean starter, mentality?
“No, sir. For us organizationally, he’s a smart, tough, accountable, resilient team guy.”
Oh, that’s what start stands for.
“Yes, sir.”
It seems like Greg (Newsome) came into camp with a lot of energy and a great attitude and new number and just sort of ready for a fresh start and a new beginning. What have you seen from Greg.
“We put an emphasis on that as a defense and positive energy is always the best energy. And with us being the tip of the spear for our defense, it’s really good to see him leading the charge in that.”
I know Rodney’s not exactly in your room, but I know you guys are around him and you see him. What kind of impact have you seen him have on the secondary as a whole and defense as a whole?
“Leadership. You know, he’s a young guy that he has a lot of reps on task. So when we’re talking about stacking days. Fortunately, we have somebody in the room that he’s done that at a high level. And anytime that you have a guy that’s won a Super Bowl but has really good work habits in a classroom and outside it just leaks over to the whole group.”
With Denzel (Ward), we’ve seen him move inside a little bit. What makes him good in there?
“He has all of the tools. And when you ask about Denzel, he has a rare blend of press speed, length, athleticism and he’s really sticky with his ball.”
Does idea of him kind of playing everywhere and kind of being able to maybe even follow guys around, does that kind of get you excited and does that sort of bring something out?
“Absolutely. It gets us excited as an organization and defensively, whenever you can have a guy that’s sticky in coverage, a guy who is very competitive, that allows our pass rushers to get one more second closer to the ball and that allows us to do the most important thing and that’s to take the ball away for our defense.”
We talked about versatility in the wide receivers room but what does versatility do to the cornerbacks room? What can that provide to a game?
“Position flex. And when I say position flex situationally, it allows us to have really good matchups and we talk about premium matchups and something over the years, we’ve done a really good job competing and really emphasizing us, being a tip of the spear with it.”
So I know there are some situations that you and (Jim) Schwartz will want three safeties as opposed to some situations you’ll want the dime to three safeties on the field, some three cornerbacks. Emerson’s kind of in between. Isn’t he big enough to be classified almost as a safety? Does that give you an advantage?
“Yes, sir. And again, the number one thing on our defense that we want to emphasize is toughness. And that’s something that he gives us across the board, both on the third level and as a second level player.”
Can you talk about the value of having maybe a true post safety that’s been missing from the room in previous years and kind of how that takes the pressure off your corners?
“Sure. Range. And with us really putting a premium on communication, making the complex simple. having a guy that has range from red line to red line, allowing guys to get aligned up, it keeps everybody chill, as we say in the defensive room.”
What goes into the decision to either have that nickel corner or a third safety on a given play, a given package?
“Sure. Situational matchups. We’re really big on winning matchups and winning a situation. So if we have premium matchups as far as with it being a safety on the tight end or with it being more of a passing guy, we’ll go ahead and we’ll apply to such.”
Martin talked about in the system removing if then statements for the defense. Have you seen them kind of latch on to that? I don’t know if simplification is the right word, but just kind of knowing where they’re supposed to be without having to deal with that sort of thing.
“Yes, ma’am. That allows our playmakers to play fast. We talk a lot about having removing the seatbelts, not having any handcuffs, so that way we can process fast and we can execute.”
With Martin at this size, how important is it to have all those different body types in that room, even at safety?
“Sure. Premium matchup. So I know like a big question is who’s going to be in the slot? So having that arraignment of guys like you’re saying that have different position, flex of length, different situational, flex with their athleticism, it allows us to match up all of our guys to win situation.”
# # #
***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.***