Linebackers Coach Jason Tarver (8.3.22)
On the Browns LB room:
“Excited. Yesterday was the first day in pads. They did a great job protecting the team but using our hands and shedding blocks so that was good. We have some position-flexible guys. What has been fun is to watch them learn all positions and really work together and then guys growing up. A lot of times what happens is… This is really the first offseason for (LB) Jeremiah (Owusu-Koramoah), and for (LB) Tony Fields (II), and it is cool to watch them grow and build their learning process. They really have to learn how they learn, and we are in the middle of that right now. That is a really cool process to watch how it goes.”
On Owusu-Koramoah being healthy and able to participate in training camp this year:
“Jeremiah is such a feel player, and the same thing happened with (LB) Jacob Phillips two years ago. He was in and out, in and out. When that happens, you kind of have to rebuild everything. Like Jeremiah, when he came off, some of the things, and then you saw what happened when we went to play the purple team down there. He kind of got healthy and got going, right? Now, it is more consistent. He is such a feel player that he will feel things and you ask him, ‘What did you feel?’ and now he can continue to feel and get better every day. He did that really well in the run game, for example, yesterday in practice.”
On if Owusu Koramoah’s ability to feel things instinctually was something the Browns observed in college:
“He does that naturally so when he feels things, you ask him, ‘Why?’ because he sees lots. Sometimes it makes him jump where he should not, and sometimes it makes him jump exactly perfect and it is very cool, and then you can correct him. With him, when he knows the calls, he stays in his process and then he is saying, ‘OK, here is the call,’ and now he does something, and it is like, ‘Hey, why did you do that? What did you feel?’ ‘Oh, I felt this.’ ‘OK,’ so ‘On this call, you need to make sure you stay here because everybody is over here.’ ‘OK. I got you, Coach,’ and then he has it. That is really cool, and that is how we win as a defense.”
On what more the Browns can add to Owusu-Koramoah’s role in Year 2:
“Everything is a process, and we want to know not only what we want to do schematically to attack the offense; we want to know when a player is ready to have more. (Pro Football Hall of Fame) Coach (Bill) Walsh said it all of the time when I was a young coach, ‘Know your personnel and then use the personnel to the best of their ability.’ That is the line that we push. We are further along than we were. As they grow into those positions, we will just keep growing them. With a young man like Jeremiah, he can cover, he can rush and he can do a lot of things so we will make sure we can make it easy and he can go.”
On LB Anthony Walker Jr. returning to the Browns this season, including the leadership Walker provides:
“With everything, you can’t say enough about him. He is the same person every day. He is intelligent. He is smart. He wants to win. He cares about the team. He is the ultimate pro. He knows his job. When I ask something real quick and somebody beats him in the meeting to the answer, he is fired up about it, and he is going to make sure he wins the next time. That is great. We need that competition because everything is a competition. Love him. What has been cool is he is helping all of the time he is out here watching, and just if he sees something, I put him on different tasks but he sees everything anyway. I’m like, ‘Hey, Anthony, when you see that, go tell him,’ because it means a lot coming from player to player because they hear my little scratchy voice all the time (laughter). When it comes from another player, it is really cool.”
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