Pass Game Coordinator Ephraim Banda (8.4.26)
When we last talked to you in the spring, you were unsure of the rookie safety. Have you figured out what you want to do with him?
“It’ll follow very similar to what we did with Ronnie (Hickman), in terms of making sure he has a good, clear understanding of playing free and strong first, right and left. Obviously, when you have an injury in the spring for a rookie, that’s tough — he doesn’t get all those reps. He can walk through all he wants, which he did a great job of that, but he needs to be consistent in those areas before we talk about doing anything else. So, do we have a plan? Absolutely. Is he following it the best he can? He is. He’s done a great job so far.”
On Saturday, we saw him with one of those punch-outs that caused one of interceptions. To see Eman (Emmanuel McNeil-Warren) make a play like that early in camp — how important is that for a rookie, to make those kinds of plays early and gain confidence?
“For sure, the confidence for himself — he can remind himself, which he’s a confident young man, that he belongs here, and he does. He’s special. He really is. But also the confidence it brings to his teammates — when they see a young guy make a play like that, in our meetings, which you guys obviously aren’t in, they get excited for that. I don’t care if you’re the quarterback who threw it or the safety playing next to him — anytime you can see that, it gives a lot of confidence to us. Again, I really am proud of where he is right now. I think our support staff, our development staff, has done a great job with him behind the scenes so he can have the best opportunity in camp to play well.”
Does his ranginess and height lend himself more to free safety, if it was one or the other?
“That’s a great question. Too early to tell, I’ll say that, but I do see a lot of similarities. I don’t want to compare too much, but when I recruited Grant (Delpit) in college, I saw a lot of the same things I see in him — in a sense that he’s got a lot of position flexibility in terms of what he can do, playing man coverage and winning with his arm and length, playing in the second level. But then the range we all saw in college. Jason Campbell did a great job with him; he’s one of the best evaluators in college football, and he saw a guy who could do a lot, got him, and obviously it’s turned into a good situation, early, but we’ll see.”
Speaking of Grant, how does it feel to have Grant wrapped up in the fold and feeling pretty good about himself heading into the season?
“Well, it brings me a big smile, as you can tell. It definitely is nice that he’s ready to go, and he’s worked really hard in the offseason. You can tell he came in in shape, came in mentally ready. As a coach, I definitely sleep better at night knowing he’s going to be a Cleveland Brown. He’s earned it. This man really loves this place. He really does. When you talk about Cleveland’s not for everyone, but it is for some — it is for him. He loves being a Brown. He loves playing safety here. He wants to go down as one of the best, and hopefully one day his picture sits in one of these rafters. As a coach, I’m excited to see it. I’m happy for him. He’s earned it. He’s done everything right. He’s done everything I’ve asked. We’ve had ups, we’ve had downs. We’ve done it together. It’s beautiful to see.”
It’s a young team, but for Denzel (Ward) and Grant, for those guys to be the ones who got those extensions, some of the veterans, especially on the defensive side — how much have you seen Grant evolve into a leader, and how do you expect that role to grow on the team?
“Well, I think he said ‘the ‘Bron and the Bronny’s? That was his deal, that was kind of his thing. When I heard him say that, I was kind of excited. His mentality — he’s the ‘Bron, and they’re the Bronny’s — and I love that. I love when he sees it that way and feels that way. I think he’s done a great job in that space and trying to become that guy now, because he is. By no means is he old, but he’s in his prime right now, and he’s in a good spot mentally. He’s got to do everything the way that I want it done so that I can point at Eman (Emmanuel McNeil-Warren) and Chri (Christopher Edmonds) and Ron (Ronnie Hickman) and all the guys in the room. So I’m proud of him. I’m proud of where he is right now in terms of his ‘Bron’ status on this team in terms of who he is, and I hope that it continues. I think it will.”
Have you seen how Ronnie (Hickman) deal with the contract stuff? He gets the tender, here’s here for one-year signs it, it’s a contract year for him. How have you seen him approach that?
“One thing about Ronnie is that he approaches everything, no matter the situation, the same way. His consistency is elite. His ability to stay focused on what’s in front of him is elite. If I bring him something that’s in the future, he’s like, ‘Not right now, coach’ — I don’t care what it is, it could just be what we’re eating for lunch — he is so focused on right now. I’m happy for him. Obviously, he wants to have more and get more, which is great — I think everyone desires that in life. And we’re going to do everything we can to make sure he has a great year. I will say this: I love coaching players in contract years. Makes my job a little easier.”
You have an additional title as pass game coordinator. So what can we expect? Maybe some tweaking of that part of the defense under Rudy (Mike Rutenberg)?
“I see what you did. Here’s what I’ll say: my job is to support Rudy in every way possible. My job is to see things and bring him answers to game-plan situations and how we approach and attack teams. At the end of the day, I will say this, we will always do things collectively like we have — whether it’s me working with Coach Lentz or the coordinator, it doesn’t matter. That will always stay the same. In terms of the tweaks and changes., we don’t want to reveal too many trade secrets, but I like where we’re headed. I like what we’re doing. I like the things we’ve added, whether Rudy’s brought them or us — things that we had ideas on, in terms of myself, Coach Lynch, and Coach Tarver in the back end. Rudy’s been very open to those things and how we can make it better, and I’m excited to see where it all goes. It’s heading in the right place, and I’m looking forward to seeing what it looks like actually in games.”
There seems to be not a revolving door, but new veteran corners coming every day. To me, that suggests a concern about depth, so you size up your depth, particularly at corner, I know you’re the safeties coach, but beyond the starters, are you looking for somebody to emerge?
“I’ll say this, in this league, I don’t care where you’re at — college, high school, you’re always looking for a number two, number three corner. I don’t think there’s a football team in camp right now that’s not sitting there wondering who that’s going to be. If you have that guy, shoot, lucky dogs. But I think you’re always trying to find the right piece, you’re always trying to see who’s next in that situation, because it’s such an important spot. To your question, I will say this — it’s been very good to see the competition between a lot of those guys. It’s been awesome. Going into it, you don’t know, it’s all on paper. But to go out here and see these guys competing and really working, whether it’s Lo (D’Angelo Ross), all the guys, TA (Tre Avery), everyone’s kind of jumped into different spots and done a really good job. I’m excited to see the actual game situations, to see those guys. It’s been good to see in practice. I wouldn’t say there’s anyone who’s been great or not — I think it’s still early. But I will say this: they’ve competed, they’ve worked really hard, and they’re going to make it very hard on personnel when it comes to that decision.”
I’ve heard a couple guys say that there’s more disguise in this year’s defense with Rudy. Do you see that there’s more of an emphasis on that than you guys ran last year?
“Yeah, I think there will be a component to that for sure. Rudy really wants to make it hard on quarterbacks, and when it comes to the back-end piece and disguise, he’s a savant — he’s really good in that area. His ability to sit there and say, ‘Okay, does this look like that?’ And if it doesn’t, a really good 20-year quarterback who gets paid $240 million will say, ‘Yep, that’s not it,’ or ‘Yep, I’m not too sure.’ So he does a great job in that area, and he’s really pressed us. It’s something we’ve had to work really hard on. Shoot, we had a conversation about an hour ago about it in our meeting room, and we’re going to continue to press it, continue to work on it, and I think it’s going to benefit us at the end of the day. I think it lends a lot into the ball is oxygen — I think when we talk about those things, I think those two things go hand in hand.”
What are the reviews from your guys on KC Concepcion and Denzel Boston, and what those guys are bringing to the offense?
“I’ll say that, like right now, even in a walkthrough, Denzel’s in the corner — I’m like, yep, he’s over here. Even KC. They’ve done a great job. It’s fun — they’ve brought a really good, youthful energy. It’s helped us in the back end. That speed and their strength and their ability to go get the ball, their twitchiness. You feel it, and it’s good. It’s good to feel that, good to see that. I think they’re going to help us. They’ve been great. Their energy has been awesome. Their attitude’s been great. Their development’s been really fun to watch.”
And for the defensive guys who’ve been barking on the field, how have you seen them speaking on that mentality and you guys developing this?
“It’s just an attack-mode mentality, that’s all it is. It’s not necessarily demonstrative or anything bad; at the end of the day, it’s a mentality of attack, it’s a mentality of competing, and that’s all those guys are trying to do out there. Todd (Monken) said it — he enjoys it. It’s been fun. It’s been fun to see our offense get after it, the edge that Todd and his staff and our staff have done a really good job of that. It’s been really good to get that, and I think it’s going to really prepare us for the season.”
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