Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (11.17.25)
Opening Statement:
“All right, before we get going, I just want to obviously let everybody know we’re thinking about Bernie (Kosar) as he’s going through his medical situation here. I was able to text with him last night and he knows that we’re with him and he’s with us. So just sending all the good vibes, good thoughts, I can to Bernie right now. Injury front, Dom Jones has a significant knee injury, likely heading to IR (injured reserve). Jack Conklin, Cam Robinson, those knee injuries, we’ll treat those day to day. I’ll know more as the week goes on. Dillon Gabriel remains in the concussion protocol. You know, obviously watched the tape last night, this morning, watching it now with the players and disappointed because that’s a ballgame in the fourth quarter where you want to go finish and get a win as a football team, and we came up short. And it’s all things that we will learn from that. We absolutely have to play complementary ball there. Offense, defense, special teams to play to find a way to win. And that’s what we’ll be focused on this week. With that, I’ll take any questions.”
Yeah, Kevin, what do you think the plan will be with Dillon being in the protocol? Will you kind of lean towards turning it over to Shedeur (Sanders) so he can get that full week of practice and be ready to go on Sunday?
“Yeah, we’ll work through that the next couple days and this week, obviously, Mary Kay (Cabot). I’ll update you guys Wednesday as we get into Vegas preparations.”
Hey, Kevin, when you look back at Shedeur’s first experience yesterday, what are the biggest maybe coaching points and what are you telling them, especially about dealing with the pressure that the (Baltimore) Ravens brought?
“Well, I think you learn from every single play, Scott (Petrak), that you’re out there and there’s always lessons to be learned and obviously there’s always going to be good and there’s always going to be bad. And that’s just part of playing and getting reps. And then part of learning is taking all those coaching points that come with those reps.”
And what did you see on those two, the back-to-back throws into the end zone, looked like they had a chance. Just need to be better balls or what did you see there?
“Yeah, trying to make a play on both of those. The scramble drill, obviously trying to make a big play, got out of the pocket, did a nice job, and then their player made a nice play down the field.”
Hey, Kevin, I wanted to ask now, do you have any further details on everything surrounding Dillon’s concussion check? Was he presenting symptoms? Did he say anything? Was it a spotter? How did that come to be?
“Yeah, he was feeling symptoms at halftime, obviously got with the trainers immediately and addressed it.”
And as of this morning, is he still presenting symptoms to your knowledge?
“Yeah, I’m not going to get into specifics, but he’s still in the protocol.”
Kevin, I know this is a weekly question, but will (Deshaun) Watson be cleared to practice?
“Yeah, I don’t have an update there.”
And you said last night that if Gabriel is unable to play, it would be Shedeur. You have (Bailey) Zappe also. Is there any need for another quarterback to join the team this week?
“Yeah, all things that we’ll work through, but feel good about our group.”
Kevin, what are the challenges for your offensive line when Gabriel and Shedeur have such different styles?
“Yeah, I think for all players, Jeff (Schudel), it’s just important that you focus on your job. And our guys know what our roles are and that there are, of course, there’s different styles to quarterbacks, there’s different styles to runners. You know, how the running back, your starting running back may run a play that is a little bit different than the backup running back, but that’s all part of it. And I think the big focus there, Jeff, is just that everybody does their job on any given play.”
I mean, it seems to me in a way that their styles are so contrasted. It has to really be more difficult or, I don’t know more difficult, but different for your line.
“Yeah, the general principles, the rules. You know, how we structure, the protection is regardless of the quarterback.”
Kevin, I know Wyatt (Teller) said post-game yesterday that it took them a good couple minutes to get used to Shedeur’s cadence and everything. Just what do you think of the offensive line’s performance second half and just everybody trying to adjust on the fly?
“Yeah, I thought, listen, we can better in a bunch of different areas. Obviously, those are things that we will continue to improve. But that’s all part of playing this game is making sure that when guys come in and out of a lineup that you don’t miss a beat.”
Kevin, if I could follow up on Deshaun real quick. When’s the deadline for you guys to make a decision about him on that reserve PUP (physically unable to perform), whether or not you will open that 21-day window?
“Yeah, I don’t know the answer to that, Daryl (Ruiter). I know he’s doing a great job in meetings supporting the guys.”
And then just on Shedeur, when you, when you watched that yesterday, obviously that’s a tough spot for him to come in. We talked about the lack of first team reps and whatnot. Just what did you see from him, you know, when you went back and watched the film this morning? And, how much of that do you think, you know, positive or negative, can he take a step forward by now, getting some practice time?
“Yeah, I think it’s all positive. You’re constantly learning as a young football player, constantly learning as a quarterback through all reps. You know, we talk so much about mental reps and those types of things, how important they are. So, all those physical reps, I think, add up and will only improve as he continues to get turns.”
Hey Kevin, I know a lot of team structure, kind of how they give their reps away to their backups kind of similarly, when you look at that situation and knowing that Shedeur didn’t get those first team reps, would you have changed anything about the approach, about how you maybe divided up the first team reps from training camp to now?
“Yeah, I understand the question, Cam (Justice). I think it’s important that you do what you think is right for a football team. The development of our players is constant. It doesn’t happen just in one drill or in one practice or one meeting. So, we trust our guys, we trust our backup players to be ready to go. And Shedeur is ready to go. Obviously, I know he wants to play better, I want to coach better, all those types of things, but that just comes, that’ll come through work. That’s where it will come.”
And then on the other side of the ball, Devin Bush said yesterday that, you know, they want to do more specifically for Myles Garrett in a game that he has four sacks, five tackles for loss, they want to do more not only to help push him, but to get him wins. I know it’s not just Myles, but is that kind of a shared mindset in the team of not wanting to waste big performances, so to say, by not getting the win?
“Yeah. We’re so focused one thing, Cam, and one thing only, and that’s winning as a team. And when you come up short it’s hard to really think about anything else about a given game.”
Hey, Kevin, I got just a couple questions about the tackles position. Obviously, you say it’s day to day with Jack and Cam, but would the plan be Teven (Jenkins) and KT (Leveston) likely to start at those spots? What would be kind of the, what is the kind of contingency plan there?
“Yeah, we have options, Chris (Easterling). We have to work through all those things this week. Obviously, the availability of Jack and Cam will determine that, but KT went in there when we had an injury yesterday. Teven went in there when we had an injury yesterday. So those are certainly options if that’s the case.”
And then following up, this is like the third straight year where you’ve just had all sorts of injuries at that specific position, both tackle spots. Have you ever seen anything quite like that in your time in the league?
“Can’t remember. I don’t know. But again, I think it goes back to, injuries are a very unfortunate part of this game of football. And we have guys that are backups and we trust them.”
Hey, Kevin, I wanted to ask you if you could just explain some of the different nuances and challenges, I know you have in the past of, you know, splitting up reps with a rookie starting quarterback and a rookie backup quarterback and the different challenges that kind of presents.
“Yeah, obviously reps themselves are different both in the off season and in the regular season. We’ve always structured it with making sure we’re getting all of our guys ready to play. I think our players, starters and backups, do a great job of maximizing all of their opportunities, whether it comes, again, in a given rep or comes in a meeting, whatever it may be.”
A couple of questions here real quick for you, Kevin. First of all, when you said after the game that Dillon would start if he cleared the concussion protocol, were you pretty much talking about the (Las Vegas) Raiders game and will you take this kind of week to week? Is that correct?
“Yeah, I’m just talking about the fact that he’s in the concussion protocol. So, we’ll obviously make sure that takes precedent here, Mary Kay (Cabot), and make sure that he’s getting better by the day.”
But what I meant, what I mean by that is, does Shedeur have a chance to nail this thing and hang on to the starting job if he goes out there and performs well, and then when Gabriel comes back or how is that going to happen?
“Yeah, I’m not going to speculate on that type of thing. I know this – we trust our players, we trust our guys to put in the work, and we’re just going to be solely focused on this game that’s in front of us.”
Okay. And then you’ve been around a lot offensive football throughout your whole entire career. Just so people have an understanding about how those first team reps work in practice, all those years that you were in Minnesota (Vikings), was it ever customary to give QB2 any of those first team reps in practice?
“Yeah, and I understand the question. No. The starter gets the vast majority, obviously, if not the entire majority. I will say this. We trust our players. Shedeur is putting in great work. You know, on the field, in the meeting room, he will be better with reps that he’s getting. Like any player would better. But we trust him and he’s somebody that’s continued to put in the work and will continue to do so.”
Last night Myles mentioned that Shedeur said sort of tried to shoulder the blame for the loss sort of in front of the team in the locker room. Just what was your message to him in that moment? Myles kind of said, you know, he wasn’t going to let him do that. But what was your message sort of to him?
“Yeah, obviously I’ll keep those types of messages between us, but this game has never been about one player or one play in a game. It’ll always be a team effort in all areas.”
And then the Ravens have used that sort of Mark Andrews wildcat tush push play before. I think they actually just used it last week against the Vikings. A different version, like a different play off of it. But how much was that something, you guys, you know, prepared for or kind of thought could be part of the game plan for them? And how much was them doing that version of it? Just them running the right play at the right time?
“Yeah, I mean, you got to tip your cap to them. Obviously, it was a well-designed play. There are things that we can do differently on that play, and they had shown different things off of that. Not exactly that play. So, it’s a…you hope that they might get the first, but you get them down for a gain or whatever it might be but well executed by them.”
Kevin, were you guys able to identify when Dillon suffered the concussion?
“Yeah, I don’t know that we know for sure when it was, but obviously the hit on the play, where they kept the ball to the left side was likely where it happened.”
Yeah, Kevin. I wanted to go back to really like the Blitz 0 and Cover 0 looks at the Ravens for shown because, you know, they dropped out of a lot of those looks and they would bring like a DB, especially in the second half. What, as you know what as an offense, can you guys do better to execute against that? Because I know a lot of times, a lot of longer developing passes that were kind of like crossing over into the zones. Like, when you look back to the film, do you think that maybe you could throw a couple screens, just get the ball out quickly and get the ball in space?
“Yeah. We’ll always look at things that we can do better. Obviously, we have to have a better protection just overall on a bunch of areas of that game, but we’ll look at everything.”
Kevin, just your time here in Cleveland, just getting to know Bernie and everything. How much have you come to kind of appreciate him trying to battle through his health struggles and kind of coming out on the other side?
“Yeah, I mean, Bernie’s my guy. I know that this town has such a special relationship with Bernie from his playing days and then the impact that he’s had on this community over the course of all these years. I didn’t have that experience with Bernie prior to coming here, but since I’ve been here, he has just been such a supportive person of me, so kind to my family. I think he sees my family every game day and just is so good to them. So, he’s a special person. He’s a special Cleveland Brown, and we are all rooting for him and we are all right there with him right now.”
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