TEs coach Drew Petzing (7.31.21)

On TE Austin Hooper saying he felt his best football until the appendicitis hit and how much the Browns are looking forward to Hooper being in his second year with the team and looking to take the next step:

“It is funny he says that. I was really impressed with the entire year. We went back and looked at it in the offseason, and I thought he played at a really high level and was a huge part of our success on offense. It is funny to hear him say that. I know he holds himself to a very high standard. Anytime you can get a player like that and get him out on the field for 17 games, you are going to be better off than if he was out. Really looking forward to that.”

On TE David Njoku’s state of mind entering training camp:

“He has been great. The funny thing is I know there has been a lot of noise on the outside, my experience with him really from the day I got here has been very positive. In terms of the way the kid works, he prepares and the product he puts on the field, it has been awesome. He is a lot of fun to be around and a lot of fun to coach.”

On Njoku contributing significantly in the second half of the year and if Njoku is currently No. 2 on the depth chart:

“That question gets asked a lot. We are almost in a room of three No. 1s. I think I have said that before. When you have three guys of that level of talent and they all do different things well, it is our jobs as coaches to put them in a position to go out and be a part of our success. I think they were last year, and they will certainly continue to be this year as we get going.”

On the ability for all three TEs to play every position and how rare that is in the NFL:

“Without going through the entire league right now, I would say it is very rare. It is definitely a luxury that we do not take for granted. It is something we try to highlight as often as possible. It creates a ton of issues for the defense because no matter where that guy lines up, there is no tells and he can do all of the jobs. It certainly gives us a lot of advantages on offense we feel like.”

On measuring Hooper’s contributions to the Browns offense last season despite having lower reception totals than previous years:

“That is a stat that for us means – I do not want to say nothing – very little. Our focus is on your contribution to the end product, and that is having one more point than the defense when the game ends. That can be in run blocking, that can be in route running and that can be in contested catch situations and third down. There are just so many aspects that go into that that we feel like he excels at and excelled for us last year that we were so excited about getting everybody back this season.”

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