Head Coach Kevin Stefanski (7.29.23)
What’s your theme for today’s practice? What do you want to do?
“It’s going to be good work. We’ll have some competitive periods. I think towards the end of practice, you’ll see what’s unscripted, meaning everybody’s off to the sideline. The players – it’s not on the script. They don’t know what play is coming up. So just getting ready for game reps, which are coming sooner than later – Thursday night. We have to get guys used to getting in the huddle, getting out of the huddle and their coaches aren’t standing behind them telling them where to line up. It’s a little bit of taking the governor off, if that makes sense. So some really good work. We’ll do some one-on-ones down in the red zone, which I think is always important for the wide receivers and DB’s. But it’ll be a great opportunity to go against each other in competitive periods.”
Do you have to kind of, you know, ‘Hey guys, don’t…’ Do you have to have that message with them?
“You know, I have the message. AVP (Alex Van Pelt) and Coach (Jim) Schwartz and Bubba (Ventrone), reiterate. Bottom line is you can compete like crazy and you can take care of each other. And that’s what we’re trying to do because it’s Browns versus Browns.”
Did yesterday end the acclimation period? Are you in full-fledged training camp starting today?
“In some ways, yeah, I would say that there are certain thresholds that you hit and you’re ready to ramp up and it’ll look like practice. But until you get into really that Washington game, you’re still in some ways acclimating to the heat, acclimating to everything you’re doing then. Not to mention both sides, offense and defense are still in installation mode. So you’re going to work some plays here today that haven’t been run yet in practice. And you just went over this morning with the team, and Jim’s going to install different blitzes and different coverages that we haven’t run just yet. So we’re still in that phase where we’re ramping up the installation as well.”
What are you most excited to see?
“I think it goes back to what we’ve been talking about. It’s really hard to evaluate interior play without pads on. Now at least we get to see full speed up front, albeit you’re not cutting somebody on the backside of a wide zone run. You’re not taking a shot on somebody. There’s going to be a point here where a safety is going to have a free kill shot at a wide receiver that he would take in a game, but you would never take in practice. But you get to see a little bit more aggressive nature up front.”
How about the running back evaluation? Is it harder to do without pads on? Do you need the pads?
“Yeah, it is. It’s almost impossible. And I think that’s where the game reps are so important. The preseason game reps are where you really see it. We’ll thud up the runner on defense and then try and knock the ball out and then let him run. But really, those preseason games are the best evaluation.”
Kevin, you didn’t put Michael (Woods II) on PUP. You kept him kind of on the active roster Is there a hope that Woods could potentially work his way back?
“I don’t know the exact reason for NFI, PUP, those types of things. I’m not entirely sure. He’s doing great. He’s rehabbing like crazy.”
Every time we talk to you about Za’Darius (Smith), you mention how hard he works. Is it another example, yesterday on his day off, he was out there running sprints?
“You know a veteran guy like Za’Darius has earned some time off, but that time off, you don’t sit on the couch. When you have time off, you use that extra time to your advantage. So, what he wanted to do and what fits really well into our plan for him is he wanted to get extra running, so that’s what he did. But no surprise there.”
When you look at the defensive guys who are excited to get the pads on, they’re excited for their contact. How do you do the messaging, where they want to show finally what they can do, but yet you want everybody to be really safe and healthy?
“Yeah, it’s part of it, Mary Kay (Cabot). All 32 clubs have a very, very similar day when the pads come on for the first time. And you just have to remind the players, and I can promise you it’s going to be some young players that need the reminding.”
What are you looking to see out of (Grant) Delpit – with this being his fourth year, third year healthy? What are you looking for?
“I thought Grant really came on last year. I think that he had some really high moments. He continues to build on that. Very smart, heady player – physical, makes great plays on the ball, very good ball skills. So, I just think it’s a matter of just building on what he’s been doing.”
Do you have any guys that you know will not be participating today, who will kind of sit out because of their injuries?
“No. There may be a couple of guys that are out, but due to injury stuff. But for the most part, guys, we’ll have a full slate of guys.”
Is Mike Harley Out?
“He’s in the protocol. Yes.”
How did you feel like Amari (Cooper) looks getting back?
“I thought good. Yeah, he looked good to me. Just watching him throughout the drills, he looked good, he feels good. So, I think we’re in a good spot there.”
I was watching, Ced (Cedric Tillman), who had to rerun a route a couple of times. With a rookie, how do you guys go about addressing, ‘Okay, this is what went wrong. How do we fix it?’
“That’s very normal rookie stuff. As you know, Coach (Chad) O’Shea coaches his players hard. They have a ton of respect for him. He’s never embarrassing people. But you know that when you’re out there, coach is going to get on you if you mess up. And Ced’s a very conscientious kid. He’s also a rookie, so he’s going to make mistakes like all the young rookies do. And it’s a matter of not making the same mistake twice.”
What are you looking at plan-wise tomorrow (for practice) in terms of that workout?
“Another good practice. It’s a training camp practice for us. It’s an opportunity before we get out of here to have a really good practice.”
So you’re not shortening it?
“Moving it up just to help on the back end, help the equipment guys, help everybody that’s going to pack some buses.”
You’re playing all the young players in the first game. Jerome Ford is a young player, kind of as the number two back. Have you decided?
“In the (New York) Jets game? Yeah, I think I’ll get to that next week. With the majority of players will be younger players, but there will be some guys that are playing. But we’ll talk about that next week.”
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