TE Austin Hooper (12.8.21)

On how much the Browns offense has to change if the typical number of TEs are not available, including potentially not having both TEs Harrison Bryant and David Njoku:

“That is a valid question. It is no secret we love running trio and we love being in bigger sets. It has been an advantageous personnel group for us throughout the year. That is the NFL this time of year. Some guys go down. With this state of affairs with things the past couple of years, this is something that has to be an adjustment, as well. It is the beauty of it – next man up. We all have to do what we have to do. (G) Blake (Hance) and we have extra linemen come in and give us good jumbo looks and do things like that when we want to get into those types of deals. It is just next guy up. We have to keep rolling.”

On if opposing defenses have figured the Browns offense out, given the team’s point production in recent weeks:

“I think it just comes down to execution. We just have to execute at a higher level. That is me, and that is everybody. I really think it is more of that than defenses calling out our plays. I have been around defenders who have done that before. I would not say teams that we have played have necessarily had a beat on us all of the game. There are some tendencies that we do have, just like every other team has. That is the beauty of where we are. Take a loot at yourself, do some self-scout and realize where we are and what things can we disguise a little better. It is the National Football League. The defenders are really smart, and sometimes they guess right. Probably most of the time, we have been able to run our offense the way we want.”

On why Head Coach Kevin Stefanski and the Browns offense like 13 personnel so much:

“It just forces a defense to show their hand. Do they want to put big people in there? Do they want to stay base? Do they want to go small? With that drastic change of personnel, it forces the defense and the coordinator to put personnel to match that. Based off of what they do personnel wise, we have a counter off of it.”

On confidence the Browns can gain momentum and win consecutive games down the final stretch of the season following the bye week:

“I think just being around here. It is the latest bye week I have ever had. To be honest with you, just the past couple of games, it just looked like we were out of gas. It was the latest bye week I have ever had and the latest bye week a lot of these coaches have ever had. I have never had a December bye week. It was good to just unplug and rest. There is a lot of ailments that people are going through that never hear the light of day. Having that was just awesome to get your legs back under you and get some juice back there. We can run and feel good. Just being out there feeling good again out there on the football field alone helps.”

On the Browns strong performance following the bye week last year and if the team can make adjustments to do the same this season:

“Absolutely. I definitely think just being in the building the past couple of days and just seeing – I obviously can’t go really too deep into it with you guys here – it has been awesome seeing the stuff that we have done through self-scout, seeing where we are, seeing things we do really well, seeing areas of improvement and having a clear plan and clear vision of what we need to do to get to where we want to be.”