LB Mack Wilson (11.9.20)
LB Mack Wilson:
On items the Browns addressed today:
“Just the moral of the story is to make sure that everybody is taking care of the team and trying their best to protect everyone by doing the right thing outside of the building. Everybody is just trying to keep their home safe and not letting any and everybody come to their home around them and their loved ones because those are the people that you are with every day so obviously they do not COVID and you do not, either. I feel like it is very important that you just make sure that you just taking care of things at home, most importantly, and not trying to bring it home around your family or anything like that.”
On hearing QB Baker Mayfield was being placed on the reserve/ COVID-19:
“It was crazy. At first I was like, ‘Dang, Baker got COVID?’ But then I saw that he was a close contact with someone that tested positive, which is big, as well, because they are going to treat just as if you have COVID. I feel like it is important that we stay six feet apart. I feel like that is hard on a lot of guys because we are a team and we may be close to one another, not on purpose. That is just something that we have been used to doing all our life. I feel like it is just very important that we just remind each other and remind ourselves to try to stay six feet apart.”
On if there was a lift at practice seeing RB Nick Chubb, TE Austin Hooper, G Wyatt Teller and LB Jacob Phillips back on the field:
“Oh yeah, it definitely gave me energy just to have everybody back. I just feel like this team is still building and we are still working on trying to become a great team. Just try to get everybody back healthy and to have those guys back today obviously gives us a huge boost as a team. I just can’t wait to see what we do week in and week out. I just can’t wait to see how we respond with having everybody back and how hard we want to go out each week and finish this second half of the season out strong.”
On his optimism about the team attacking the second part of the season, given his Twitter comments about his excitement for the second half of the year:
“It is just something that I had a chance to think about over the bye week. Just thinking about all the things that are stopping us from winning and just going back watching film and looking at how close we were to winning games and some of the things we were doing that was killing us as a team, we were beating ourselves a lot. Just small things that I can see the potential of us becoming a great football team. It is those things that we have to correct. Hopefully, the rest of the guys on the team did a self-evaluation, as well, and just were honest with themselves. ‘This is what I have to do different. This is what I have to do better. This is what I have to work on.’ I feel like we are headed in the right direction. We are just going to continue to take it one day at a time and just be at our best.”
On if he feels he will be much better in the second half of the season after having more time to recover from his knee injury:
“Oh yeah, most definitely. Today, I felt good moving around. I feel like I am at 100 percent. Just going to continue to treat it as if it is still messed up to stay on top of it. Just go out and be the best version of myself and just be that guy that is always going to be willing to do whatever it takes to win and do whatever it takes to help the team win. I am just all about what can I do to help impact the guys around me that are on the field with me, even in the locker room or anything like that. I am just happy to be back feeling like myself.”
On evaluating the Raiders game and how the Browns defense can make corrections, particularly in the running game:
“Obviously, that was one of our worst games as far as stopping the run. When we watched the film, it was not what they did. I feel like there are a lot of plays from that game where we mis-fitted runs where maybe the linebackers did not come down the field quick enough to get the double team off the D line so that they can win their one on ones. We were just shooting ourselves in the foot. That allowed them to get those five to six-yard runs every pop. That is something that we corrected over the bye and something that we went over today and corrected so that we can go and be at our best and just compete. It is all about who wants it more. We just have to continue to show that every day.”
On if the Browns defense can make impactful changes for the second half of the season following the team’s self-scout during the bye:
“Honestly, that will be all up to the coaches. That is out of my control. That is out of my hands. Whatever adjustments they feel that they need to make to give us a better chance to be dominant or give us a better chance to be a better team, that is what it is going be. Obviously, you have guys on the field who may feel like they deserve more playing time or something like that, and the coach may think otherwise. It is not on us. It is all on the coaches. We are going to do whatever they ask us to do, and we are going to work hard because at the end of the day it is our team. They are the coaches, but we just have to make sure that we stick together as one and basically go with the coaches’ plan.”
On if he wore an Oakley face shield in practice today:
“Yeah, everybody had to.”
On how different it is wearing an Oakley face shield:
“It is alright. It is not as bad as I thought it was. I thought it was going to be kind of harder to breathe, but it is not as bad. I definitely would not want to wear it in a game, though.”
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