Special Teams Coordinator Byron Storer (3.4.26)
Opening Statement:
“Okay, well, hey, I just want to say first off is, I’m so excited to be here in Cleveland. Every coach I’ve talked to that I’ve come around has spoken extremely highly of Cleveland and their experience here. They ranked it as one of their top spots, and that’s no BS. And the Browns organization, I’m truly honored and privileged to be part of this organization and a coach in this organization. I’m really excited about the players. There’s guys that I am going to work with that I’m pretty excited about, and it’s Andre Szmyt and Rex Sunahara and guys like Winston Reid and Nate (Nathaniel) Watson and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, Donovan McMillon, Chris Edmonds, Adin Huntington, Malachi Corley and Gage Larvadain. And I don’t think I’m forgetting any of them, but those are some of the guys I’m pumped up about. The coaching staff – I get a chance to learn from a lot of new faces. I don’t have a lot of experience with the guys on staff, so it’s an opportunity for me to learn from those guys, so that pumps me up. And then I also want to mention my assistant, Keith Tandy. I’m super excited to work with Keith. He played for seven years in the NFL and he’s going on his seventh-year coaching, so I’m pretty excited about him and having him with me. He’s a huge resource for me. He’s been in multiple different systems. So I’m fired up about Keith and then the fan base. Now, I’ve been around town a little bit and learning the areas and I get a feeling from the people I’ve talked to that the fan base here is pretty special. And I’m coming from the Green Bay Packers, and the fans are pretty special there, too. But this is a different feel for me. I think the Dawg Pound now is pretty strong here. I can feel it already. But, you know, really the next thing I want to say is just thank you to Todd Monken, Andrew Berry, the Haslam family. For them to have the trust and faith in me to run their special teams, that means a lot to me. And lastly, but not least, I also want to thank my wife, Ashley, and my three daughters, Benny, Lulu and Gal for their unconditional love and support. So with that, any questions you have for me, I’ll take them at this time.”
What do you see as the immediate pressing needs for you guys, to get special teams turned around here so it can be an asset to the rest of the team?
“You know, I thought about that question, so I’m glad you asked it. The building blocks are here, the foundation of players is here. So, like I said, those players that I named off, I’m really excited about. And I think that really, for me, it’s about building a really strong foundation of techniques and fundamentals. Like, we’re going to master the basics. We’re going to be fundamentally and technically sound, and then we’ll build from there. So it goes by phase now. We’ll start with coverage, and we’ll drill that down, and then we’ll go to punt protection, drill that down, return phases, drill that down. So it’s just gonna be a lot of drill work to start and mastering techniques and fundamentals and then going from there. But in terms of the players, I believe, like when I went through the interview process, I got fired up about the players that we have here. And then we’re going to, obviously going to add more as we go through free agency and in the draft. So for me, it’s about mastering the basics, yeah.”
What kind of impact has Rich (Bisaccia) had on you? You’ve been with him since all the way back as a player in Tampa. Just how has he sort of molded you as a coach in your philosophy towards coaching?
“Oh, yeah, Rich, it starts and ends with Rich. Now, I spent 10 years as a coach for Rich, as his assistant, and I spent three years as a player for Rich. So everything I really know starts with Rich. And one thing about Rich is that he is a master at making connections with players, and he is the best leader of men that I’ve ever been around. So first and foremost, he taught me how to be a leader and how to connect with players, because it’s all about the players. And the other thing about Rich is Rich now, when I first got with him, he does everything by hand – now, he drew all of his stuff. And the first way I helped him was just put all of his stuff on the computer. And then that was the first thing I did. Just, you know, helping him get his scouting report on computer, playbook on computer. And as I went through that, I read all of his notes. You know, I took copious amount of notes in his meetings, and I transferred all that into a playbook and scouting report. And then as I got further along the line with Rich, he let me run drills and run meetings and then put a practice plan together, put an install plan together, evaluate players. And so, I think it all came to a head really, in 2021, when he became the interim head coach. That’s when I really got a chance to see what this job really is because he was the head coach now, so I took on a lot of responsibility from Rich during that time, in terms of getting in front of the team, presenting the keys to victory, putting the plan together, scripting practice, coaching every day, making the corrections in the meeting room. So I feel like that experience with Rich in 2021, and then Matt LaFleur did a great job too, of giving the opportunity to get in front of the team and presenting in front of the team some of the things. We did a ball meeting every week. So he gave me the opportunity to get in front of the guys. And then, you know, being with Rich for over 10 years, little things would come up. I think last year, he had kidney stones on a Friday, and we found out at like 5 a.m. It’s like we didn’t blink an eye. Just hopped in there and ran the meeting and got ready for practice. And then Rich, who’s a stud, made it back for practice. So really, everything I know is from Rich, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
Byron, when he (Rich) left Green Bay, I mean, did you know that was coming down and would you ever think about maybe bringing him here as like a senior assistant to you or anything like that?
“Well, that’s the first thing I asked him after he resigned from Green Bay. I said, ‘Does that mean I get to bring you in as my consultant?’ No, I think Rich actually took a job at Clemson, if I’m not mistaken. He did mention it to me. And it was kind of after I had already got the job in Cleveland and he kind of said, ‘I’m thinking about retiring.’ He’s like, ‘what do you think?’ And I just said, ‘You know, what, Coach? Going through the process here in Cleveland and, getting to know Todd Monken, Andrew Berry and Cleveland’s where I want to be.’ And so, he did let me know about that, but I didn’t know for sure if he was going to do it or not. You know, it was kind of like in passing, like, this is what I’m thinking. But he went back to work. So, I thought, he’s going to go back and running back another year, so. But I wish Rich all the best. We stay in touch. We talk all the time. And so, I always have him as a guy that I can call at any point in time to ask questions.”
How can a special teams coach now help a kicker or a punter when they get into a slump, when you haven’t done that?
“Okay, so I’m not a kicking coach, I’ll tell you guys that first and foremost. But one thing I like to do is I really study the player, okay? Study the player and I ask him a ton of questions. And we get together and decide, okay, this is what it should look like. This is what it should look like. And it’s from him telling me, this is what it should look like. This is how I should… this is the contact I’m looking for; this is the finish I’m looking for. This is how I should hold the ball or this is how my foot should be, my angle, my approach, angles, all those different things. He tells me what’s good, okay, how it should look when things are…when he gets the results that he wants. And then I hold him to that standard. So that’s what I do. I’m not opposed to them – a lot of these guys already have kicking coaches already, so if they want to talk to their kicking coach, I have no problem with that.”
Just reading your bio, I was curious about those handful of years you stepped away from coaching and went back to your family business. Like, how did that change your life and taking that sort of sabbatical. And when you came back, how was it different?
“Okay, so my story was, you know, I talked to Dan (Murphy) about this earlier. I said, I don’t want to get too long winded with this if I have to talk about it. But so I played three years, okay, and my career ended – two knee injuries. And so I went up to Rich Bisaccia’s office and I said, ‘Hey Coach, just want to let you know, thank you for the opportunity. It’s probably the reason why I’m here is because of you. I’m going to go to business school, you know, I might go work for the family business.’ And Rich said, ‘Hold on, hold on. What do you think about coaching?’ So I got straight into like… in Tampa Bay, I finished playing the year that I was on IR, I started writing the write ups on players. So I wouldn’t go on the field and coach at all, but I do like evaluations of our opponents and give them to Rich and he would give them to the players. So I went into that, got a coaching job the next year in 2010. And then I had gone four years coaching. But you have to understand, like, I come from a fourth-generation bus family. My great grandfather started a bus company in 1952. So, none of my family coaches, okay. So in my vision of, like, what I was going to do with my life, coaching was never what I saw for myself. And so my dad came to me in the 2013 season, we had a good year. I was with the San Diego Chargers coaching on defense, actually, as an assistant linebackers coach under Joe Barry and John Pagano. Mike McCoy was the head coach. And my dad came to me and said, I’m opening a brand new branch of the business in San Francisco. And it had been based in Modesto, California forever – I’m opening this new branch to the business. Do you want to come help me? And so, I thought about it all throughout the season. And then, you know, we ended up getting knocked out in the division round of playoffs by the Denver Broncos. And so, I ended up saying, okay, I’m gonna do it. So I went and did it. And my dad made me start as a shop assistant. I moved to a safety officer. I got my license, I got a SPAB (School Pupil Activity Bus) certificate. I became a commuter shuttle contract manager for Apple and Google. I became the operations manager and the general manager in four years’ time. And I really had no experience whatsoever in the bus business besides washing buses. So, it was a learning experience. And the cool thing about the bus business is that the bus business is exactly like coaching in the fact that it’s all about the drivers. Coaching is all about the players. Bus business is all about the drivers. So, it was a good transition in that way, but it was a total learning experience and a lesson in real world managing of people, all different kinds of people, single mothers and guys who have multiple jobs. And so, it was a really big learning experience that I cherished, and I’m really glad I did it. And how I got back was Rich. Coach (Jon) Gruden got the job at the (Las Vegas) Raiders. Coach Gruden went to Rich and said, you can have any assistant you want. Who do you want? And Rich said, Byron Storer, so that’s how I got back in. And ultimately, after about one or two years in the bus business, I knew that I wanted to be a coach and so I’d always stayed in touch with Rich. And so, when the opportunity presented itself, I had to have a really tough conversation with my dad, you know, because once you get in the family business, it’s hard to get out, but hopefully I made the right decision.”
The Browns return game has been kind of dormant for years. Without studying why that was and without studying your players, how would you answer how you can revive the return game?
“Really, I think that the most important thing for me is putting players in positions to succeed. And I think that whoever our returner is, I want to play to their strengths and also the strengths of our personnel that’s available to us. So depending on who we have available to us on game day, I’m going to play to our strengths in that way. So without getting the logistics of who’s going to be back there. If we have a guy that, you know, the two guys that I have, that we have now back there, Malachi Corley and Dylan Sampson, I feel pretty good about those guys, we’re going to get vertical and then we have Gage Larvidan, who’s our punt returner, or was last year. He’s got a full year of experience now, so I expect him to get better, you know, and so there’s things that are here that we have to work with. And if a competition presents itself and people get beat out, then that’s probably what’s best for the team.”
How much is it about the returner? Because we focus so much on him versus the guys around him and the scheme?
“Oh, yeah. The scheme is big. But when I talk about personnel wise, if you don’t have a ton of speed out there to work with, then you may end up having to be more of a rush unit, you know what I’m saying? But if you have smaller guys that can run now, you got to maybe be more of a return team. So, it just depends on what you have to work with that dictates how good you could be at something. But in terms of scheme and strategy of it all, I feel very confident that we can come up with any and all different types of return calls and blocking schemes and all that stuff, because we do a great job of studying throughout the league what other people do, what other people have success with. That’s part of right now when you’re doing self-scout, you’re doing free agency, you’re doing the draft, but you’re also taking a look at the top five units at every phase. So you’re also getting ideas for how you can improve the return game by watching those people that did it really well this year.”
Without any real connections to the guys on the staff. How did you get the job? How did you get your foot in the door. Or was it through Rich?
“Honest to God, I have never met Todd. Before I got here, I never met Todd Monken in my life, never met Andrew Berry in my life. As far as I know, they did not talk to Rich. I don’t know for sure. I think maybe Todd called Rich later down the line once I had interviewed. But I don’t know exactly how it all came about, how they got my name. Because when you get in this profession and for as long as I’ve been an assistant, I kind of convinced myself, like, maybe it’s more about who you know versus what you know. You know what I’m saying? So that was kind of in my mind, like, ‘oh, I need to make sure’…you put a lot of pressure on yourself to make sure you make connections with all these different people, and people are coming up in the coaching world. But I was able to get an interview with two guys that I had never met in my life, and then they did…I want to say to them, the interview process that I had here was, I believe, second to none. I don’t think I’ll ever go through another interview process like I did here. I spent half a day with Coach Monken. I spent a couple of hours with Andrew Berry and his staff. They went through the entire process. They called me afterward, they said they thought I did a good job, but they had more interviews to do, and at the end of the day, they ended up picking me. I really do respect the due diligence that they did. They called a lot of people, too. I got multiple text messages like, ‘hey, the Cleveland Browns reached out to me about you. Hey, the Cleveland Browns reached out.’ I mean, it’s pretty impressive that they’re going out there and looking for coaches and doing their due diligence versus just hiring in their buddies. You know what I’m saying?”
The new kickoff rule, we’re sort of two years into this thing, and there were some tweaks from year one to year two. Just how have you kind of seen that impact the game and change? And how have you guys sort of approached that in the past in some unique ways. Do you think it maybe is most successful?
“Yeah, I love the play. I really do. The kickoff return is back and that’s good for special teams coaches. The first year that we had it was 2024, I spent like all summer drawing up all these different blocking schemes that I thought were possible. So it’s like really a great opportunity for creativity on both sides because the objective on kickoff is how do I create levels of coverage? Because when you had kickoff coverage in the past, like as you ran down the field, there are naturally created levels of coverage. So now you have to find a way to create levels of coverage from five yards apart. And then on the reverse side of things, now the action happens so much faster. So we had to come up with all these different types of blocks. We named them different things. We’re basically creating a whole new phase of the game. So long story short is that I think that there is a lot of opportunity for strategy and for creativity and innovation in this play. And so, we’re going to explore all those options and we’re not going to give our opponents anything and we’re going to play smart. So that’s really my philosophy when it comes to that phase.”
Do you think that exercise that you did in spending that whole summer drawing up all the blocking schemes for that – do you think in this interview process that was a big selling point for you?
“You know, when you spend that summer coming up with these out of the box thinking, some of it is just, you realize it’s not going to work. But there is a, you know, maybe 5 to 10% of it that is possible to make happen. But you know, early on what we did is just, and this is how Rich felt too, is keep it simple, so that the players can feel good about getting their blocks and the returner can feel good about where he’s going to hit the hole. But I mean, I think it did teach me a lot about what all the different things you could possibly do. But you know, is all of it practical? Probably not. And I didn’t bring it up in the interview process.”
With Corey Bororquez being a free agent, do you have to prepare that you might have a young punter next year? What’s that like?
“Yeah, we’re still going through the process. Like you said, we’re looking at free agents, draft, doing self scouts. So we’re totally doing a complete evaluation of the roster and looking at what’s out there. And so we’re still going through that process. The thing that I would say is that we’re exploring all options, but I do want to say, though for Corey, that I respect the four years that he’s been here and what he’s done here for the Cleveland Browns. And as I go through this building and I ask people about him, there’s nothing but good things that they’ve said about him. So I really respect the player.”
Byron, if you could choose to be number one in one of your units, would it be in coverage or return?
“I’d say it all starts with punt. It all starts with punt. And so, it’s really punt protection and punt coverage. That’s where you start. So it’s going to be coverage, but also protection. I think you’re asking about coverage or return game, right? So I guess it would be coverage.”
Why do you say it all starts with punt?
“It all starts with punt in the fact that it’s, to me, the most important phase there is. And that’s kind of where I start with my players, too, is like, where are they going to play on our punt team? Are these guys going to be guards, tackles, wings, personal protectors? Can they play outside? Because if they can’t play on punt, I’m probably not going to be fighting for them on game day. That’s the truth.”
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