Offensive Coordinator Travis Switzer (10.22.26)
How much of a problem is their defensive line? Not just Jeffery Simmons, but their entire defensive line, compared to the other defensive lines you guys have faced already this season?
“Yeah, I mean, I think they’re up there with the best D-lines that we’ve seen this season. Jacksonville, Baltimore, the two that come to mind there. But, and then 98 (Jeffery Simmons), I mean, Simmons is certainly as good of an interior player as there is in the league. So, we’re going to have to be on top of it and trust our techniques and execute.”
Have you guys identified anything that you can do to try to start a little faster, or what’s been going on?
“Yeah, I think it just comes down to the execution of things. I mean, certainly we look at, as a staff, what are we doing early in games? Hey, maybe can we find an early, an easy completion, which we did try to do early in the game last week. But hey, how can we maybe make it a little bit easier on everybody early? But then the bottom line is, we just need to execute better earlier in the games and get into a rhythm, and that’s really what it comes down to. No matter what tempo you’re playing at, no matter what we’re calling, we just need to go out there and communicate, execute, and that’s going to take care of it.”
Taking care of the ball is always a premium, but particularly given the formula you guys have been wanting to mitigate, how important is it to maintain possession of the ball?
“Yeah, it’s like the first bullet point that we put up, you could say keys to victory, every game for the rest of the year, and bullet point number one is going to be taking care of the ball. So, yeah, I think it starts with that, and I do think that there were times when that was at the front of our mind early in the game, which is good. You just got to find that balance of aggressiveness and taking care of the ball.”
So, when you watch film with Deshaun (Watson), do you look at some throws and go, ‘Okay, this might be a tight window throw, but we want you to try to make this throw,’ versus, ‘You made the right read and went on to somebody else?’
“Yeah, I mean, there’s all kinds of conversations. When you watch the game with a quarterback, it’s almost like watching it with a coach. It’s, ‘Hey, what did we see here?’ If it was a window that we thought he could have thrown, like, ‘Hey, what spooked you here?’ And you kind of talk through those things. It’s really a conversation, because at the end of the day, he’s out there and he’s got to see it. So, we want to tell him what we’re thinking, but we also want to see and hear what he’s thinking and what he’s seeing. So, it’s really a back and forth, and that’s with any player, but especially the quarterback position.”
Just the fact that he’s right now tied for the NFL lead with four fourth quarter game-winning drives, what does that say about him as a quarterback, and how do you feel about what he’s accomplished in that quarter?
“It’s been awesome to see Deshaun, obviously with him, but all of our guys believe and continue to play. That was something, especially going into last week, we talked about it with him all week, ‘Hey, this is going to be a dogfight and we’re just going to keep chopping wood and we’re going to keep playing, and we’re going to keep playing, and we’re going to keep believing and we’ll get it done when we need to.’ And credit to the guys, man, I think they really took that to heart. That was really good to see, because certainly the first half, I mean, holy smokes, we’ve got to be better, but they kept chopping wood, exactly like we talked about. I think that’s really become part of our identity. And yeah, that was really good to see.”
Going back to Simmons, we talked about edge rush for a long time, but how much of a challenge does it give a game wrecker like that on the inside?
“Yeah, it’s a great question. I mean, it all starts, whether it’s an interior guy or an edge guy, how consistently does he line up in one spot? That’s part of it. If it’s an edge guy, a lot of times it’s easier to chip. You just line somebody up over there and you chip if you know where he’s going to be. Interiorly, it can be a little bit more difficult. Can you chip an inside guy? Yes. Can you turn the protection? Yeah. But then there’s layers to that, right? I mean, you have to account for all the pressures and things you may see where you’re not going to be able to turn to them. So, there’s a lot of layers. I think in a lot of ways an inside guy can be a little bit more difficult to scheme for as far as the protection goes.”
Speaking of interior, your interior, how have you seen Austin (Barber) sort of mature into that position and maybe get more comfortable, especially when you’re going up against the caliber guys like a Simmons or a Cam Heyward or somebody like that?
“I think he’s grown every week. And he is very intentional, he’s wired the right way. So, the things that Hop (George Warhop) and Bobby (Johnson) and Sanders (Davis), the O-line guys, have been talking to him about, to emphasize and to get better at, he’s worked hard at those things, and you’ve seen them show up. Is part of that just more comfort, as a guy who hasn’t played inside a ton? Yeah, that might be part of it, too. But, I think he’s just very intentional as far as improving. And then certainly the guys that he’s gone against in there, if you can hold up against those guys, you’re going to have confidence to play against anybody.”
On those tight windows how much, if at all, should a quarterback’s decision-making process change given the flow of the game? Let’s say if it is 10-10 in the third quarter and it’s a tight window throw. How does that affect that decision?
“Yeah, 100% it should. I mean, the situation’s constantly changing in football. I think you asked a question last week about extending plays. I think it’s kind of in the same vein. You’re talking about how aggressive are we at this point in the game, based on what has happened, the score, weather, all the things that might go into that. So, yeah, I think that is a huge piece of how aggressive do we need to be here. Certainly, the last drive of the game, yeah, we’ve got to rip it. We’ve got to get something going here. But yeah, the situation is always impacting your level of aggressiveness as a player. And then, certainly Monk (Todd Monken), the way he calls it in those type of situations.”
Have you seen things from the fourth quarter, specially the last five minutes, that you can pull from to get started earlier maybe in the opening game script in the first half to get the offense going a little bit quicker?
“Yeah, I mean, I wouldn’t say… some of them have been two-minute drives, which we run our two-minute plays at times in the normal course of the game. They’re plays we have a lot of reps at, I think the guys are comfortable with them. So, we do use those in the normal course of the game at times. But as far as what we’ve seen, I think we’ve just seen better execution, I think we’ve seen guys kind of settle into the game and execute better, which is what it comes down to early in games, or at any point if you want to have success.”
When you look at the run game, I think Todd said there were a couple of things that he was encouraged against Baltimore. What did you see that you liked and what you don’t like?
“I think that we’re getting a little bit more familiar with the things that we’re doing, and we tweaked a couple of things, too. Not huge changes, just small aiming points and things like that. And I’ve always been encouraged. I shouldn’t say always. As the season’s gone on, I’ve been more and more encouraged every week just by our demeanor, up front. And then at running back, I think, like I said, obviously we had some different guys in there last week, but they did a great job. We emphasize a few things as far as aiming points and where we’re starting certain runs, and I think that they did that and they ran hard. They stuck their foot in the ground, got vertical and tried to maximize a lot of the runs. So, yeah, I think there was a lot that was encouraging there, and we can certainly be better, and we will, but we’re going to build on some of the things we did last week.”
What kind of a boost can that give you guys to have Quinshon (Judkins) and Dylan (Sampson) back this week?
“Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, it’s obviously our top two backs. So, yeah, those two are a big part of what we do on offense, run and pass. And they’re also, we talked about this last week too, a little bit of a one-two punch, if you will, whatever you want to call it. They have different skill sets that we can utilize for both of them. So, yeah, having those guys back is going to be huge.”
Does Jaleel (McLaughlin) still get some consideration since he ran so hard last week?
“Certainly. Like I said, I think the running backs, and I’ll throw Mike Burton in there too, because we used him some on third down, but the running backs last week, it was very impressive what they were able to do, learning it all in a week. Obviously, Jaleel had been here, but Audric (Estime), and then Mike was in a little bit of a new role. Duce (Staley) did a great job getting those guys ready. So, that was awesome to see last week. Really allowed us to go out there and have a chance and operate.”
Off of that, Audric kind of talked about his experience last week, getting here and everything that went into it. He talked to Duce a little extra. How difficult is that for a guy to come in like that in a week and to kind of pick everything up, drink from a fire hose, if you will, and then go play on Sunday and be one of the feature backs?
“Yeah, I mean, it’s certainly a challenge. What would you love to have? You’d love to be able to teach the offense in waves and installs like you do with everybody and kind of teach them the whole thing, whole-part-whole type learning. You come in for one week and you’re not able to do that. So, you’re trying to piece it together and put things into words for them as much as you can. But it’s a credit to those guys and what they were able to do. Like I said, especially Audric getting brought in when he did, because it is very challenging to do that inside of one week.”
Travis, who’s going to win the Wagon Wheel?
“Go Zips. You kidding me? I mean, what do you expect me to say?”
What would you do to kind of get Quinshon going? Is it getting him outside in a space? Is it trying to lock better with the offensive line? What can you do to kind of get him going a little bit?
“I think it can be a lot of things. We’ve used him in space before, both run and pass. That can certainly be part of it. And it’s also getting into a rhythm on offense so that we’re able to get more bats at the plate, if you will. We’ve got to get into a rhythm so that we’re able to run plays and we can stack some plays, and runs are going to come with that as we go on. But it’s just keeping him consistent, I think with aiming points, and what we’re looking at and where we’re reading, and then just making a decision and being decisive, which he was before he got injured last week. We were seeing that with him, and I think it’s just staying along that same path and staying the course with the same things that he’s been working on all year.”
You guys practiced against this defense and Carson (Schwesinger) all offseason. I know Carson missed a chunk of camp, but practicing against him every day, what did you pick up about him?
“He’s extremely instinctual. I mean, especially for… I mean he’s only in his second year. Some of the things that he would recognize and see are impressive from anybody, let alone somebody who’s only in his second year. So, that would be the first thing I would say, he’s very instinctual. Obviously, he’s very athletic. He recognizes things very quickly. He’s everything you would probably want in an inside backer.”
###
***Visit the Browns Media Center for materials provided by the Browns communications department, including media schedules, press releases, quotes, photos, media guides, rosters, depth charts and more.***