Quarterbacks Coach Drew Petzing (12.2.22)

 

On helping QB Deshaun Watson knock off the rust after not playing in a regular season game for nearly two years:

“I think a lot of that is what we have been going through the last couple of weeks he has been in the building and certainly this week in practice where he is getting a lot of the reps and trying to get extra reps with some of the guys to just build that trust and build that feeling where he knows how guys are coming in out of breaks and where they are going to be in the route. Some of that is just conversation. ‘Hey, what are you thinking at the top of this route?’ Or ‘What are you going to do versus this coverage?’ The more he can do that and has done that, I think it is going to help knock some of that off. Certainly, trying to push that over the last couple of weeks has been big.”

 

On Watson listening to how Browns offensive players were talking with QB Jacoby Brissett and learning from and building upon those conversations:

“I think it is huge. It is a big part of the passing game because there is a large portion of the passing game that is done with anticipation and trust. You are not going to see every break and you are not going to know exactly where that ball needs to be thrown if you haven’t had those conversations. On any given route, to understand, ‘Look, this is the way we may see it in the quarterback room, but if they see it in a completely different way or are planning something different, we need to know that.’ That stuff needs to get ironed out during the week. Those conversations are really important so that guys can throw with anticipation, maybe before a guy even gets out of his break or before he sets his route up, just because we have had the conversation and maybe got a rep of it during practice.”

 

On if he could tell Watson was mentally locked in during the suspension when returning to meetings and practice:

“Yeah, I think you also saw it in the way that he attacked the playbook and his preparation during the offseason and during the early parts of training camp. Definitely was impressed with where he was mentally when he came back. Felt like even though we were not working with him and he wasn’t’ getting the stuff day to day in the meeting rooms that he still took a step and that he was doing a lot of work on his own to make sure that when he jumped back kin, it was going to be as smooth of a transition as possible.”

 

On how important it is that Watson has already been through some of the gameday operations playing at Jacksonville in the preseason:

“I think it is really important. I think it was a valuable experience for him, for (Head Coach) Kevin (Stefanski) and for all of us. As you just said, hearing his voice for the first time, breaking the huddle with these guys and looking at the right color on the jersey, all of those things it is the first time you have done that so having done that prior to playing in a regular season game I think is really important so I think he got a lot out of that.”

 

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