Pass game coordinator/WRs coach Chad O’Shea (10.30.20)

Pass game coordinator/wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea:

On the Browns WRs this week in practice after WR Odell Beckham Jr. went on IR:

“We have had great energy this week as a group. Offensively, I think it has been a really good week of practice. The guys have worked extremely hard. I know that the receivers have really embraced their roles. Every week is different in our gameplan and everyone has a different role every week, and certainly the roles that we have asked of them this week getting ready for the Raiders. They have done an outstanding job of going out and trying to put our team in the best position to win by embracing those roles. They have done a great job. We have had a really good week of practice.”

On Higgins seeming excited to have an expanded role on offense and more opportunities and if he noticed that this week:

“Yeah, I did. I mean, this is somebody that I have spoken about in the past of his overall work ethic and his preparation. What he has done when people are not looking has been outstanding, and he has been a real professional. He has been outstanding in our meetings. He has been outstanding of working very hard when he was not in the role that he is in now. I was not a bit surprised by his performance in this game based off of all the things he has done prior to that moment to put himself in a position to be successful. That was very nice to see and a very good example for our other players that if you prepare and if you continue to work, when you are called upon, you have the opportunity to have success if you do those things.”

On what the Browns are missing with Beckham not in meeting rooms: 

“Odell has been somebody that we have a tremendous amount of respect for. The guys in our room have a very close relationship with him. Everybody knows of (WR) Jarvis’ (Landry) and his relationship. He also has a very strong relationship with other members of our group. He is not there with us now. I think the group has done a great job right now of going and continuing to do the things we do from a work ethic standpoint of putting the team first in everything we do. Certainly, I think that they would and we all want him in the room with this, but they have done such a good job of understanding what the goal is daily, what our goal is with the Raiders this week and kind of staying in the present and working really hard.”

On if Landry has helped rally the WRs this week: 

“Yeah, it is great to have a leader in Jarvis Landry in our room. He certainly is somebody the other guys look to. If he brings energy to the practice field and if he brings an energy to the meeting room and shows the other guys that is what it is going be and that is the standard, that is very beneficial to our group. To have great leaders in our room, specifically the receiver room, is something that is very beneficial to us.”

 

On Landry helping TE Harrison Bryant get aligned on the clock play last week and what that does for the coaching staff to have a player with that type of situational awareness: 

“We always talk about you have to be your very best under pressure and situational football. That was a great example of it just to have the awareness on that play to look over and see the tight end that needs to be aligned in a different way. As a coach, to have those guys out there and know that in the critical situations in the game you can rely and trust those players is awesome. Certainly, we have other players – I thought (QB) Baker (Mayfield) handled himself so well throughout that game in a number of different ways. Especially when the most pressure was on and the most critical situations in the game is when really you have to have the most awareness, and there were a lot of good examples of that in the past game.”

 

On if Landry may feel the need to take on a bigger role without Beckham: 

“I think that what we have asked our players to do is we are going to do this by committee. I do not think one player can replace any other player, regardless of who it is. Jarvis has obviously a very big role in our offense, and there is a lot that has to do with the gameplan, where we are with the team we are playing and what we need to do to play to our strengths in that specific game. I think Jarvis has done a great job this week of knowing what his role is, going onto the practice field and providing that leadership that he has and then also going out and trying to do his job the best he can. Jarvis is always going to do what is asked of him, whatever the role is whether it is obviously a limited role or a bigger role. We trust him to do the right thing. We have a lot of players on this team that we can trust to do the right thing.”

 

On if it has taken Landry a while to cope with Beckham’s season-ending injury, given their close relationship: 

“I think anytime obviously you have a player on your team get injured and then you have a player that you are so close to – we all know the relationship with Jarvis and Odell – that there is a period of time that it takes. I think Jarvis did an outstanding job in the game because he performed very well for us and was a big part of our success in that game of moving on. That is not being disrespectful towards Odell. That is just what we have to do as professionals. He has done the same thing this week. He has come to work like he does every week, and he has done a nice job and worked really hard this week. As much as we all want Odell in the building and the guys respect him, we also know that the task at hand is to put forth the best effort we can on a daily basis and go try to play Raiders, a very good football team, and play the best we can in the game.”

On if he can help put into perspective how good WR Odell Beckham Jr. is as a receiver, how Beckham impacts a defensive coordinator’s gameplan each week and how Beckham handled not receiving as many targets early in the season:

“I really appreciated the way he came to work every day. He was coming off the injury in the offseason, and I thought he did an outstanding job. He worked so extremely hard to get in position to really help the team. From Day 1 working with him, whether it was in the offseason, the virtual program, or when we got to be able to work with him on the field in our training camp, he always did exactly what we asked of him. He really embraced the role that he had, regardless of what it was on that day or in that gameplan. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him in that way because we all are aware of his skillset and his tremendous ability. I always feel like he was trying to do what was best for the team. I thought that was a good example for all of us that despite one’s level of success or ability that at the end of the day what was most important to him is that he put the team first. That is what I saw in him, and I appreciated the way in which he embraced that concept.”

On how good Beckham was in practice and games:

“He is a guy that obviously I always enjoyed watching his pregame warmups and making some of the catches that he did. It is amazing what he can do with his ball skills. Obviously, he impacted the game and still will impact the game just because of what he brings from a vertical passing game and being a threat to the defense. He does so many things very well. Aside from the physical part of it, I was impressed with a lot of the things that he did away from the field to get himself in position to play at a high level. He obviously worked extremely hard, and I think he tried to put the team first.”

On how WR Donovan Peoples-Jones has impressed him and how Peoples-Jones’ role can grow with Beckham out:

“He is another guy like Rashard Higgins who has worked so hard in the classroom and has spent extra time learning the offense. I know we refer to him as reliable, and that is what he is. He is able to play in multiple positions because he can mentally handle that because he works really hard at being able to handle that. That allows other players on the field to utilize their skillsets and their strengths best. When you can move a player around when you have to adjust like we did in the Cincinnati game and now you are faced with moving those parts around, when you have a player who can move around to multiple spots, it allows you to put the guy you need at that spot that is going to be the strongest guy at that spot. He has done an outstanding job in his preparation. He is smart. He works hard. I think he has really done a good job of putting the team first in everything that he has done, also.”

On Higgins’ high-point catch on the game-winning drive:

“I have watched it several times, and as I watch it more and more, it is more impressive. That was a great throw and catch. I will say a lot of the credit goes to Baker. He has worked so hard and he did such an outstanding job dealing with the adversity earlier we had with the injury to Odell and then having some players play in different spots than he was used to having them play. I thought that was what was most impressive about that from Baker is that he trusted a lot of guys on the field that he did not work specifically with in those roles, but he almost had that blind faith and that trust. Certainly, it was so encouraging and rewarding to see those guys make those plays, but it was also a an awesome thing to see a quarterback trust in those guys that they were going to do the right thing, be in the right spot and come through for him. I can’t say enough about Baker and the way he has handled a lot of those things that have come up that might not be perfectly planned or we might have not practiced exactly that way.”

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