Defensive Coordinator Mike Rutenberg (9.10.26)

 

Mike, now that you’ve had Jared Verse for three months, how has the acclimation period been, and what type of impact do you think he can have for you?

“He’s such a unique guy. He’s really like a unicorn in that he sets a standard with his play style and who he is. Really, what we saw early is what we continue to get. He sets that standard from the jump, in meetings, great questions, great insight. And then on the practice field, his standard of not only performance but style, and how hard he plays, has been the same every day. It’s really cool to see.”

 

This was the first time as a coordinator calling plays. What was that process like for you in the preseason, and what’s your focus going into the first game?

“I’ve been really fortunate to have great people who have mentored me and given me opportunities to call plays in preseason games and scrimmages. Even going into this offseason, Todd’s (Monken) been awesome in terms of helping me prepare, calling some different practices. So, I feel really comfortable with our process, and the beauty of it is that we’ve got great players. We’re going to make it work and can’t wait to help them get into great position.”

 

How much have you thought about the biggest moments and what you’re going to call? Like it’s third down late in the game, or a big fourth down, whatever it is, having your play ready to call?

“Every moment’s a big moment, right? We’re fortunate with great players and a great staff that we’ve been preparing for this game just like we prepare for practice, just like we prepare for preseason. So, I feel really good about where we’re at with our preparation.”

 

Mike, when you’re dealing with a player like Travis Hunter, who’s obviously going to play corner, but there are going to be ways they’ll utilize him on offense, how do you handle that, given the limited amount of data?

“Yeah, Travis is a great player, along with their other skill players, including their other wideouts, tight end, the quarterback is a great player and the running back. They’re a really good team. So, we’re going in preparing for everybody, and excited for our plan.”

 

We got a chance to talk to Alex (Wright) in the locker room today. Obviously, it’s a tough loss to lose him for the season, but he said he’s going to be around the team, leaning on you, being a mentor to the guys and learning coaching skills from you too. What does it mean to have a guy who’s not able to be productive on the field because of the injury, but to be around the team and contributing in that capacity?

“Well, you got to hit my heart with that one, man, gets me emotional up here. A-Wright is heart, mind, fist to a T. The guy connects with the players and the coaches. He does everything. He strains for the man next to him. He prepares. He is the ambassador of violence. He’s everything you want from a Cleveland Browns defensive player, and we’re still getting it from him. He’s begging me to come to meetings, telling me he wants to be on the field. You want that in your family, I could go on for an hour, you guys know. It’s been awesome, and anything we get from A-Wright is a plus, because of the man he is.”

 

Trevor Lawrence has always run the ball, but last year he had nine touchdowns, a lot more than he’d ever had, with a new coach. Do you expect to see him do more of that under this coach this year?

“I think, like I mentioned earlier, we’ve got a great offense we’re playing against, and we’ve got to prepare not only for each great player but their scheme as well. So, everything about our preparation is to help get our players in the best position, no matter what they’re doing, us being ready and playing to our style of strain, celebrating, playing smart and violent.”

 

How has the acclimation period been for some of the veteran additions like Sam (Williams) and Derek Barnett? Is it more plug in-and-play style for them on the attacking front?

“It’s awesome to get new guys. The nature of this league is that you get new players, and those guys have worked as hard as you could possibly imagine. They’ve worked their butts off. Derek’s obviously been in it. Sam’s had experience in it. Those guys are pros, man. They approach it the right way. We’ve got a great defensive line coaching staff, starting with Jacques (Cesaire), Ralph (Street), Laroy (Reynolds), Shaq (Wilson) and together they’re preparing really hard. It’s really cool to see.”

 

In the preseason you’re not doing traditional opponent game planning. With you being a first-time coordinator and play caller, no one really knows everything you might throw at them. What about that element of surprise? Do you feel like that’s been building early here, and are you excited to unleash some of what you’ve been practicing no one has been able to see?

“I mean, you know me, I’m excited to watch us play as hard as possible. I can’t wait just to watch us celebrate together. I can’t wait to see our preparation hopefully come to life. We’re built off violence, and that’s what we’re looking for in every play.”

 

When your players keep repeating your words ‘the ball is oxygen’, how do you keep that mantra going for a full season?

“I mean, you need it to live, right? Like you need oxygen to live. The ball is our livelihood. If Laney was on the ground, I’m scooping her up, that’s my daughter. The ball is the same, and every day we’re just going for takeaways. Let’s get one, let’s get two. If we didn’t get one this day, let’s make up for it the next day. We’re drilling it constantly. We’re continually showing it, working it, working it in walk throughs because that’s the game. It’s giveaways and takeaways, and hopefully we’re taking the ball away.”

 

You obviously have some adversity with your edge rotation. Just wondering how that’s going, what it’s looked like over the last couple of weeks. Will Mike Hall be a part of it? How do you feel about it in general?

“You know me and the engine, Mary Kay. They’re going to go, they’re going to go, and whoever’s out there is going to go. That’s been the standard here. It’ll continue to be the standard, and the engine is just going to keep going. Everything we can do to help those guys, we’re going to do, but they’re just going to keep going.”

 

Grant Delpit said on the radio yesterday that you designed defensive plays like other coaches design offensive plays. How do you do that?

“I think he’s giving me way too much credit, because we play really hard, really smart, and really violent. That’s what we do. Listen, in terms of preparation, it’s based on fundamentals. It’s a players’ game. It’s going to be our players’ defense; they’re going to make it come to life. And hopefully we’re doing everything we can as a coaching staff, with the collaboration of the players, schematically, to get them in the best position to play and let their talents take over.”

 

How do you come up with a play call that confuses a quarterback but not your guys?

“Yeah, I think he’s giving me way too much credit. We’re going to play what we play and play hard as hell.”

 

Would you rather have your defense lead the league in turnovers or sacks?

“Win. Win. I want to help the Browns win. I learned that from Jeff Ulbrich, man. Raheem Morris used to say, ‘help the team win on defense. Find a way to help the team win, on defense.’ It’s a team game, we’re a team staff, Browns helping Browns, man. I want to help this team win.”

 

Quincy (Williams) said you watch more film than any coach he’s ever been around. Where does that come from? The fact that you think you need to watch that, or the idea that you want to.

“First of all, I can’t imagine that I watch more film than anyone. There are amazing coaches in this league, in college football and high school, who are all dedicated to watching film and helping their players. I was just raised on hard work, and not being super talented athletically, so I try to outwork as much as I can. But everybody works hard, our coaching staff works hard, our players work hard, and they watch a ton of film. It’s really fun when we all start to watch film together, seeing different things on tape, ‘oh, did you see that? You see that? Cool.’ ‘Hey, what do you think about that?’ And that’s where the collaboration comes from.”

 

When you talk about playing with that violence, who are some of the players out there that are espousing that mantra for you?

“Mary Kay, I really hope it’s our whole defense. When the ball is thrown, we’re arriving with bad intentions. We’re built off that. We choose violence in everything we do, and it doesn’t have to be a tackle, ball’s in the air, we’re knocking it out. That’s what we’re built off. We do our job so my brother can do his, I do mine and a little bit more. And our guys have done that. They do it in practice, they do it in walk through. It’s awesome to see.”

 

We heard Jared breaking down the guys before practice today, and we’ve heard him a ton throughout camp. Same with Quincy. I know you’ve talked about their energies individually, but how much do you hope the energy that they bring plays into the entire defense and the attitude you talk about?

“Oh, that’s what you live for, right? That’s why you play and coach this game, the energy and the joy of watching people make plays, and the celebrations that come with it. And then when it’s not going well, you need that same energy to get it back. Those two have been awesome with it. But I could name the entire defense and the coaches, man. No celebration loafs on this defense. We are celebrating and bringing the energy even when things are hard, because that’s going to happen, and we’ve got to have the positive energy to bring it back.”

 

With Jared, he talked about going to the pass-rush summit and learning different moves, experimenting during training. What’s the process like for you as a defensive coordinator in trying different things with a player and telling him, ‘Yeah, this could work’ or ‘no’?

“Sure. It goes back to the collaboration of players together. Players learning from players, coaches to players, coaches to coaches. You want guys to experiment, you want guys to take their shot, because they prepared. He prepared all summer working on things. What a great opportunity for him to work on different things and find his inches within the pass-rushing game. It’s really, really cool to see.”

 

You’ve talked about some of your experiences getting chances to call plays prior to this and preseason this year. Still though, being a first-time defensive coordinator, I’m sure there’s a bit of a learning curve, even for you. How do you combat some of the unforeseen things that might come across your desk during a game that maybe you haven’t seen before and how do you handle it?

“Sure, there’s no doubt that there’s a learning curve in everything I do. But you just want to stay the course. You want to remain positive, rely on your preparation, rely on the players and the coaches, because we’re in it together. When things are going well, be jacked up and fired up. And when things aren’t going well, stay the course, try to figure it out as quickly as possible, and get our players in the best position to succeed.”

As you’ve prepared for this week, what’s something new that you’ve learned about Tyson (Campbell) and Denzel Ward? How they complement each other in this defense.

“I’m not going to say I’ve learned anything new, because I’ve seen those guys be dogs since the second I got there. That whole secondary is a bunch of dogs, and the way they work together and feed off each other is awesome.”

 

As much energy as you bring, when you’re talking in headsets, how do you toggle between bringing the high energy, but also knowing when you need to make a call and be focused?

“Again, it comes back to helping the players get in the best position. Jeff Ulbrich, who I obviously talk about a lot, as he helped me through the last four, or five years prepare for this job. It wasn’t him preparing me to be a coordinator, or me saying ‘prepare me to be the coordinator’, it was just a brotherhood we had. One of the things he used to talk to me about all the time, when he was a player, was just the calmness — Mama’s voice in your ear. I tell the players all the time: over-communicate. Mama’s voice, Auntie’s voice, Grandma’s voice, Dad’s voice, whoever’s comforting voice is. So, when we’re communicating on the field, ‘right, right’, that’s just Mama’s voice. Calmly communicating into their ears, giving them enough of what they need, and then letting them play. And then when it’s all in between the white lines and good things happen, let’s celebrate and be jacked up. But I always tell the MIKE linebacker, pop up, look at the scoreboard, look at the sticks, make sure I’m clicked up, hear it, make the call, get my eyes right and go play ball.”

 

Are you excited to see or find out where your sack and pressures are going to come from?

“I’m just excited to watch us play, Mary Kay. And I really feel that every day. I love watching and going out to practice. I like going out to walk through. I even like going to meetings with the guys, just to see the preparation, the hard work, the dedication that these men have to playing their best. It’s awesome. So, practice, game, night-before a meeting, I just love watching them enjoy getting to do what we do.”

 

 

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