Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (11.25.24)

How was your weekend?

“Good.”

 

Did you get away from football or did you…

“A little bit. Did get away, yeah. Caught some seventh-grade CYO basketball.”

 

Did you stay off the referees?

“I did.”

 

Hey, is there any update on Ced (Cedric Tillman) he was in concussion last we talked to you?

“Still in protocol. Geoff Swaim and Ced are both in protocol and we’ll see how they come out of it in the next few days.”

 

Anything on JOK (Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah)?

“Nothing new, nothing to updated.”

 

Just focused on going through everything the right way?

“Yeah, again with all those things, we’re going to continue to listen to the doctors.”

 

Do you expect Germain (Ifedi) to continue to be your left tackle?

“I think we’ll… Let’s get through the week and see. But he’s doing a nice job.”

 

With Jed (Jedrick Wills), I know he’s been able to practice some but hasn’t been up the last couple of weeks. But is he…

“He’s trying. It just… He’s going to keep doing everything he can to try to make it to the games. Just not ready yet.”

 

At this time, is he at least able to practice?

“Yeah. I mean, it’s like anything. It’s like all these injuries, you have to treat the symptoms, treat how the guy feels and he is doing everything he can. It’s just, it’s not responding just yet, but hopeful that it does.”

 

For the time span, do you think the prospects look good of him being able to play?

“I think any time you have extra days, it helps dealing with any injuries, but you just, you have to treat the injury.”

 

How frustrating is it for him, just this knee keeps acting up right now?

“Yeah. I think any player when you’re going through this, you want to get out there on the field, you want to help the team, but again, you just have to do everything in your power to get out there. But of course it’s frustrating for sure for these guys.”

 

Juan (Thornhill) has had some ups and downs but it seemed like he played pretty well in that game.

“He did, yeah. I thought all the safeties played well, tackled well, but Juan in particular I thought was good.”

 

Jerry’s (Jeudy) opportunities and his numbers are way up. How much of that is by design and how much of that is just him and Jameis (Winston) clicking?

“I hope some of it’s by design, Zac (Jackson). Yeah, I think Jerry, we know his skill set. He’s done a nice job. I mean, he’s catching short throws, turn them into long gains, he’s catching balls down the field. So, he’s doing a nice job. He also has made a lot of plays in scramble drill since we’ve had him and I think he has an ability to shake open. He’s done a nice job.”

 

Jameis has really done a nice job of spreading the ball around. What does that do for the confidence of the guys running the routes that they know that he’s going to get them the ball?

“I think you’re always trying to spread the ball around. You want your running backs catching the ball, tight ends, wide receivers. And I think it makes life a little bit more difficult on the defense when you can get five guys out and they have to account for every guy. Obviously, as you know, guys like catching the football. So, it helps when everybody’s involved and touching it, that type of thing. But I’ve heard once or twice that, ‘I’m open’. Talk to Dave (David) Njoku, he’s apparently always open, but it’s part of it. Yeah, you do want to spread it around.”

 

You’ve only taken the Browns to Denver one time so far in your career here, but historically it’s been one of the toughest places for this franchise to win at. Why do you — I’m sure it’s like that for a lot of east coast teams. What’s the challenge?

“Well, I would tell you, I don’t put much stock in the history there. I think it’s a tough place to play regardless for any team that goes in there. We went in there last year and did not win. So, it’s a good football team. It’s like all these tough environments that it’s hard to win on the road. So, our focus obviously is going to be playing good football to put ourselves in position to get a win.”

 

Is there anything unique about Denver as opposed to somewhere else on the West Coast?

“Are you trying to get me to say altitude? [Laughter]”

 

Have you put much thought into that? 

“Yeah, it’s something you talk about as a team, but it’s like any element, whether it’s snow or wind, rain, it’s like the elements. You deal with it.”

With Bo Nix, how have you just seen him just grow since his time there as a starter?

“He’s doing a nice job. He’s a good young player, played a lot of football in college. You see that. He makes smart decisions with the football. He’s a good player.”

 

Are you going Saturday or Sunday to Denver?

“We’re going out Saturday. Two-day trip.”

 

Any reason?

“We did this for a couple trips previously. Just get out there for a couple days.”

 

I know you’re just getting into the breaking down Denver but going back to Nix and the amount of time, he’s spent like a decade in college it seems like. Where does that benefit a player like him most, especially a quarterback?

“I think just in general, it’s like reps. It’s getting another turn at it. You look at quarterbacks a lot of times you look at games started when you’re talking about college quarterbacks a part of your evaluation. So that’s certainly something that I think he utilizes to his advantage and just experience and seeing different things.”

 

It’s been a few games now with Isaiah McGuire getting more snaps. Just what have you seen from him, and I mean, does it speak to what he’s shown you guys that he’s in on the last play like that?

“We trust Isaiah. There’s a bunch of guys that played really well in that game that are ‘backups.’ Whether Isaiah starts the first play or not, he’s an integral part of that front. So, we trust our guys when they’re out there.”

 

David (Njoku) seemed to struggle in that game. Do you attribute a lot of that to the elements or what was kind of going on with him?

“I think all the guys certainly had to deal with the elements, but I don’t think there’s any big thing that made him not have as many catches. He drops the easy one, catches the hard one, which I can’t explain that. But yeah, I don’t think there’s anything particular.”

 

With Juan (Thornhill), how have you seen him kind of handle what feels like a difficult year? He had the calf early and then splitting time with Ronnie (Hickman Jr.) now.

“Yeah, Juan’s a pro. Wants to do anything he can to help the team, but he works very hard.”

 

Do you have an update on Charley Hughlett?

“No update.”

 

How much was it, I know we asked a little bit about this after the game, but for Nick (Chubb) to be able to convert on fourth and one, to score some touchdowns and just to have some short yard success like that?

“Yeah, short yard success is really important to stay on the football field. We had that fourth and one early in the game where he got it. We had another, I think it was fourth and one where we handed the ball to Nick, so got hard yards in short yards, hard yards down there in the goal line. Those were very big plays in the course of the game to be able to stay on the field.”

 

The team has talked so much throughout the year about just getting one and trying to use that to turn into a little bit of a run. You guys obviously haven’t had a win streak this season. How can you try to take what you guys did on Thursday and turn that into something where you build some momentum?

“Obviously it’s important to stack wins, but I think it goes back to just playing complimentary football. It’s our defense doing its job, special teams doing their job, offense doing their job. That allows you to be in position late in games to try and go get a win.”

 

Now that you’ve had a chance to actually see the George Pickens Greg Newsome, little scuffle out there. What are your thoughts on that and is that something that you guys might draw the attention?

“I don’t really have a comment, Mary Kay (Cabot), on that.”