HC Kevin Stefanski (10.2.23)
Opening statement:
“Okay, injury front, Ethan Pocic is dealing with a knee injury and a chest injury. He’s day to day. If we had a game this week, likely wouldn’t have made it, but good thing that we’re on a bye this week. And then Myles (Garrett) is dealing with a foot injury – again, day to day, but feel good about him. Obviously watching the tape, you know, you’re disappointed, you’re frustrated, but we got to own it. We share in the wins, we share in the losses and we’re a 2-2 football team, which means there’s some good and there’s some bad. So that’s what today, this week is about, identifying some things that we need to do better and fix them and that’s what we’re going to do. So watch the tape with the guys today, point it out, coach off of it and get better next time.”
Yeah, Kevin. Just wondering in light of what went down with Deshaun (Watson) yesterday, I know you said there was no structural damage, but do you guys feel like you need to over this bye weekend, look a little further into what’s going on with the shoulder medically and make sure that everything is cool in there?
“Yeah, I’m comfortable, Mary Kay (Cabot), just with the medical. I know Deshaun, obviously, we talked with the doctors, structurally we feel good about it. He’s going to use this week to rest and continue to get treatment. But, yeah, I feel like medically we’re all on the same page.”
Bye week is usually the time of the season to acquire players if you feel there’s a need. Backup quarterback at all in your thinking or can P.J. Walker be merged into a more prominent backup role?
“I think, you know, coming off of yesterday, obviously Dorian’s (Thompson-Robinson) disappointed. You know, that’s the first outing for him. He will continue to get better, but that’s really where my focus is, Tony (Grossi).”
One follow-up on Watson. You said yesterday, pretty much it was his call. So, he was medically cleared to play? If he would have said, ‘I’m good’, he would have played?
“Yes. And you know, let me say this, Tony, I mean, he knows his body. He’s played through serious pain before, very, very serious injuries. It wasn’t a matter of pain tolerance or anything. He just did not feel like he had his full faculties.”
Kevin, just to follow up on that real quick, you guys dealt with a similar situation with Baker (Mayfield) and I realize they’re independent, but as far as you know, the players saying I’m okay. And typically players always going up, leading up to a game say they want to play. Did you have any indications during that practice week aside from him not being able to throw a lot, that there was a potential he would not be able to go? Because it seemed like Saturday night the word coming from the team was you guys were really, really confident that Deshaun was starting.
“Well, we listed him as questionable. He didn’t throw all week and we had to get to the game, and that was the first time he’s going to throw to see ultimately how he felt, if he felt like he could drive a throw, those type of things. So he was confident in it. Like I told you guys, he’s disappointed, but I wouldn’t make it any more than that.”
And then just your thoughts that going through the film this morning with DTR (Dorian Thompson-Robinson) and what he was, wasn’t able to do. Your thoughts change as far as how you approach that game, or do you think that if you could do it all over again, you just stick with what you ended up going with?
“Well, if I could do it all over again, I think anybody coming off a loss would probably change some things up. That’s my job, our job as coaches. Got to put these guys in position to succeed. Didn’t do it enough yesterday.”
Hey, Kevin. I know there’s a lot of circumstances involved with the run game, losing Nick (Chubb) and Jack (Conklin), but what can you guys do during the bye to stabilize it or improve it?
“Yeah, we can be better, obviously. I trust in the guys we have. I trust in the scheme, those types of things. We’re four games into the season, so it’s an incomplete sample size to draw a ton from it, but we can better. We will be.”
You know, it feels like a lot has happened in these first four games. It feels like that way to you. And how do you process kind of everything that’s gone on?
“Yeah, it’s the NFL. Honestly, Scott (Petrak), every year we say it, you can’t predict what’s going to happen. That’s why everybody tunes in. It’s unscripted as far as I’m told.”
Hey, Kevin, I was going to ask you about the offensive line, and Scott talked about the running game. What can you do to get on track? And you look at the numbers and they had, like, four sacks and ten quarterback hits, tackles for loss, a lot of them. Is there anything you can do on the offensive line and shuffle that around over the bye or just correct?
“Yeah, we trust in the guys we have, Fred (Greetham). I think we can play better, we can coach better, but we trust in the guys we have.”
Kevin, going off of that with Elijah (Moore), what are you kind of seeing? I know yesterday, obviously, the circumstance with the loss for yards, but what have you just seen in the way that he’s handled his role and kind of understood what needs to be done in the running back, when you put him in those kind of situations.
“Obviously that was a tough play the other day, but we want to continue to get him the ball. He’s going to be a big part of what we do. He has versatility where he can line up in the formation. We, I, will do a better job of getting him the ball.”
Following up on that, is it like a mindset shift at all? I guess, when you go from more of a wide receiver role to then that kind of running back and where he has to work on that at all?
“Yeah, I mean, I think like anything with your roles, you start to carve them out and they evolve over the season. Anytime you can do more, we’re going to explore ways to get guys the football in different ways, but he certainly works hard at learning his job and then doing his job as well.”
Hey, Kevin. When you have uncertainty at the quarterback position, like much how much of last week did you spend kind of game planning with the idea Deshaun was going to play and then how much were you able to actually adjust when you found out he wasn’t going to?
“You know, again, that’s our job. Truly, it’s our job as coaches. You put a plan together and then the backups execute the plan and then based on who’s available to you, you adjust your game plan both during the week and in game. So, what happened yesterday was not an issue of not knowing if DTR was going to play. That was not it at all. We just have to coach better and play better.”
Hey, Kevin, obviously (David) Njoku was a late add to the injury report with that household accident. Did you get a chance to talk to him about it and how is he feeling and did he go to the hospital at all after what happened?
“Yeah, I’m not going to get into specifics of it. I’ll let Dave kind of handle that. With the result we had yesterday, it’s hard to feel good about anything, but the way he played was unbelievable to me with what he went through. And not just the pass game, the run game. He’s the first guy picking his teammates up off the ground, it felt like every single play. So, he was a warrior yesterday. It was impressive to watch.”
The use of Harrison Bryant continues to be interesting to me. I’m wondering that’s a very slow developing, complicated play you had. Was that in the game plan, the flea flicker, was that in the game plan for Watson or specifically for DTR?
“It wasn’t specific for Deshaun. It was just – felt like we’d have an opportunity to take a shot there in that down and distance.”
I have one about Deshaun, you talked about letting it rip. When we watched him throw Thursday, Friday, Sunday, it never felt like he threw one full speed. Was he able to try that at all during the week?
“No. That’s ultimately what we’re trying to give him an opportunity yesterday to see if he could.”
And then defensively, what did you think the issues were, especially in that second quarter where they had those two long touchdown drives?
“Yeah, a couple of different things. Obviously, they give them credit. The quarterback made a couple of plays. They ran the ball. They had a couple of scheme runs that were good. We just got to correct them. That’s what today is about. But I thought, by and large, our defense, that’s a tough out with that offense and I thought they competed.”
# # #
***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.***