Brendan Gulick reports all the latest on the Browns from the practice facility in Berea on November 2, 2023.
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00:10 Well, hi everybody, Brendan Gulick with you live in Berea and
00:13 welcome to the Cleveland Browns practice report.
00:16 Part of our continuing coverage with Browns Digest,
00:19 Fan Nation's channel on the SI Media Group Fan Nation Network.
00:23 It was a good day here in Berea.
00:25 We had a chance to hear from all three coordinators as typically is the case on
00:29 Thursdays.
00:30 We talked with four players in the locker room at the podium as well.
00:33 Denzel Ward, Amari Cooper, Joel Batonio, and Deshaun Watson spoke to the media
00:39 here this afternoon.
00:39 Of course, that is still the conversation around this team,
00:43 not internally, but among Browns fans.
00:46 And frankly, the big conversation nationally around Cleveland football
00:49 still is, when will Deshaun Watson be out on the field?
00:53 And I asked him today a question I thought he gave a thoughtful answer to.
00:58 Essentially said, hey, Deshaun, what is ultimately going to be
01:03 pulling the trigger to say yes, it's time to go play?
01:07 Is it you?
01:08 Is it Kevin Stefanski?
01:09 Is it the medical staff?
01:11 He's talked a lot about the cohesion,
01:13 where they're all working together to try to get this done.
01:15 But ultimately, what is going to be the final decision that lets him get on
01:20 the field?
01:21 Here's what he had to say.
01:23 >> Man, we all got to be on the same page.
01:25 I'm telling you guys that I was ready in the Apple Street.
01:27 That was my decision.
01:28 And I wasn't ready.
01:31 So I tried to jump the gun a little bit, and it didn't go our way.
01:35 So at the end of the day, you gotta listen to the experts and
01:39 all the things that they did.
01:40 It's my first time dealing with it, so of course I know my body.
01:43 So I'm keeping track of everything that I'm doing and
01:46 letting them know what's going on and what's good and what's not good.
01:49 So I think we're all being on the same page and we're all put right on time.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:57 >> So I interpret that as Deshaun, the first time around,
01:59 basically took matters into his own hands and said, yeah, I'm ready.
02:03 And ultimately he wasn't.
02:05 And so maybe this time it's a little bit more in the hands of the medical team to
02:10 clear him through whatever tests or hurdles he has to clear from their
02:14 perspective, while also, I would assume, taking into account his feedback of,
02:20 hey, here's how I'm feeling.
02:22 Today was really good.
02:22 Maybe today wasn't so good.
02:23 Whatever that might be for him.
02:25 But the reality is he's back at practice.
02:28 He was throwing inside yesterday.
02:30 The team is outside today practicing where it's 45 degrees and
02:34 cloudy here in Berea and it is a little bit breezy.
02:37 It might be a little bit colder right now than it's supposed to be this weekend
02:41 in terms of overall temperature.
02:43 But the forecast on Sunday afternoon has a high of 51.
02:47 And right now it sounds like anywhere between 10 to 20 mile an hour winds
02:51 steadily, so that could make it feel really cold on Sunday when
02:55 the Cardinals come to town to play against Cleveland.
02:58 In the meantime, as DeSean tries to work his way back and
03:01 still doesn't quite yet know if it's going to be on Sunday or not.
03:05 Amari Cooper was asked on how he and his teammates are kind of dealing with maybe
03:09 the little bit of frustration around not knowing exactly for
03:13 sure who's gonna play quarterback this upcoming weekend.
03:17 >> I mean, it's a challenge just like any other challenge that's presented to us.
03:21 Obviously, that I got to any situation that's presented to us, but
03:25 yes, it's hard.
03:26 I mean, we know that Ford is our guy.
03:28 We know that he's a playmaker and all those things.
03:32 So we would love to have him out there every chance that we get.
03:35 But unfortunately, the pitch doesn't always come without waiting.
03:39 We know that he's all part of the game and we're just waiting on him to get up.
03:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]
03:45 >> Everybody's waiting on him to get healthy, that's for sure.
03:47 And the Browns are looking forward to having Watson back out there just as soon
03:51 as he possibly can do that.
03:53 On the flip side, when we had a chance to talk with the coordinators,
03:57 Jim Schwartz talked quite a bit about a number of different parts of his defense.
04:02 He was, I thought, pretty thoughtful today in reflecting on his team's,
04:07 not just effort, but actual output, especially as it pertained to this
04:12 past weekend in Seattle, and acknowledging that, gee,
04:16 after the first three series, he said we had a lot of fires we needed to put out.
04:21 And then for the next seven series, punt, punt, interception, punt, punt,
04:25 interception, punt.
04:26 It's like, man, I don't know if you can really play a whole lot better than we did
04:30 during the middle of the game, but have to find ways to start faster and
04:34 be steadier throughout the course of the game.
04:37 He also made this comment about Moe Hurst and
04:39 the big man coming up with a nice tip at the line of scrimmage, of course.
04:43 One of the big highlights of the game, he tipped the ball to himself, and
04:46 then had the wherewithal and the athleticism to come up with the interception.
04:49 >> We sort of sandwiched really good play with really poor play.
04:55 We started off the first three series and we had a lot of fires to put out.
05:00 We made a few adjustments and we sort of found our stride and
05:04 we went seven series of playing about as good a defense as you can play,
05:07 like punt, punt, interception, punt, punt, interception, punt.
05:10 And then it was just so
05:11 disappointing to leave it there at the end of the game.
05:14 Our offense needed us the most right there after an interception.
05:17 They needed us the most and we didn't get the job done.
05:20 So we feel a tremendous responsibility for that.
05:24 But the more plays we can make like Moe made, and
05:28 an interesting thing with that, he had never practiced that position.
05:33 We had some injuries with Zadaris and some other guys and
05:38 we had sort of mix and matched our defensive line guys.
05:43 And he went in and I mean, most of you had gotten mental reps on that blitz, but
05:49 went in and executed it really well and then athletically made a really good catch.
05:53 But we need more of that, we need more of that middle of the game.
05:59 We can't be a feast or famine defense.
06:02 That's not a way to play defense and our run game was feast and famine too.
06:08 We played most of our snaps really good in the run game, but
06:13 then we give up three big plays in the run game.
06:15 And that's not gonna get it done.
06:16 That's not where we wanna be.
06:18 That's not where we need to go to take this team where we wanna go.
06:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]
06:25 >> I think part of what has made this defense so good this year is that they've
06:29 been able to avoid some of those really big mistakes magnifying for the most part.
06:35 And obviously, Jim acknowledged the fact that you can go out and
06:38 play really good stretches for a while.
06:41 But if you give up three huge chunk plays on the ground the way they did and
06:46 a couple through the air, ultimately that can be what does you in.
06:49 And so the Browns have to figure out a way to avoid that moving forward here.
06:54 An Arizona team that's coming to town that obviously hasn't had a great season,
06:59 if you look at their record, they're one and seven.
07:00 In fact, they're one of only two teams in the league with one win.
07:04 So it doesn't seem like the Browns are playing against a team that's very good.
07:08 But I think you might, if you peel back the layers a little bit,
07:13 you might find that they're actually not too bad.
07:15 Arizona has been right there in just about every game.
07:22 They've at least had the lead in all but one game they've played this year.
07:26 And obviously their one win came against the Dallas Cowboys.
07:29 They've had some really narrow losses.
07:31 And they played Baltimore pretty tough last week, especially in the first half.
07:35 So a Cardinals team that certainly isn't clicking, but
07:39 they don't appear to be all that far away.
07:42 And one of their big weapons is at tight end,
07:44 Trey McBride coming off of a ten catch game.
07:48 That's a single game record for an Arizona tight end.
07:51 So we'll keep our eye on how the Browns are gonna try to defend McBride and
07:55 the tight end, regardless of who plays quarterback.
07:58 Kyler Murray, maybe, maybe not.
08:01 We'll see what happens.
08:02 All we know for sure is that Josh Dobbs is not playing,
08:05 because Josh Dobbs is now in Minnesota.
08:07 So that'll be the continued storyline for
08:09 the Cardinals as the week unfolds there as well.
08:13 Let's wrap up our practice support today with a little note from Alex Van Pelt.
08:17 Obviously, the NFL trade deadline was a couple days ago, right?
08:20 And the Browns were not particularly active in the sense that they
08:25 didn't get several deals done.
08:28 The biggest one was Donovan Peoples-Jones.
08:30 I know Cleveland was looking at a few other options.
08:33 They made some calls and ultimately things just didn't work.
08:36 But Donovan Peoples-Jones is on his way to Detroit.
08:40 And so Alex Van Pelt spoke highly of his time with DPJ, wished him well,
08:46 and was also asked about whether or not this might be an opportunity for
08:50 someone like Cedric Tillman to crack the lineup.
08:53 >> Who is our new starting receiver?
08:54 We're gonna play by committee out there.
08:56 We'll see who lines up out there first, but big shoes to fill.
08:59 I mean, just hats off to Donovan.
09:02 I'm sorry to see him leave, obviously, as a player and a person, but
09:05 excited for his opportunity.
09:07 We'll have to have a couple guys fill those shoes, but-
09:10 >> Is this an opportunity for Tillman?
09:13 >> Yeah, I think he's one of the guys that definitely will be in the mix there.
09:16 He'll find his way, it'll get him more involved than he has been in the past.
09:21 Marquis will be in there, we'll roll guys through that spot.
09:24 [BLANK_AUDIO]
09:27 >> And so AVP and the offense rolls along and tries to figure out a way to crack
09:32 this Cardinals defense that again for being one in seven.
09:36 Somewhat surprisingly with that mark,
09:39 they've been extremely productive in generating negative plays.
09:43 A lot of sacks, a lot of tackles for loss among the upper level teams in the NFL in
09:48 both of those regards here so far in 2023.
09:52 So some work to be done there for sure.
09:55 And it's not just one or two players,
09:56 they've got a lot of guys that are coming up with negative plays defensively.
10:00 So the Browns have their work cut out for
10:02 themselves as they continue their preparations for a Sunday home game against
10:06 Arizona.
10:07 Of course, that game is at one o'clock and we're looking forward to being done at
10:10 the stadium to bring you all the live coverage we can from the Browns and
10:13 the Cardinals.
10:14 In the meantime, the facility will be open for us once again tomorrow at roughly 1020
10:19 tomorrow morning, passing game coordinator Chad O'Shea will take the podium.
10:23 And then safeties coach Ephraim Banda will supposed to be talking to us after
10:29 Chad wraps up.
10:30 The team will then practice right around 1130.
10:33 And then Kevin Stefanski as he always does on Fridays,
10:35 will have a few minutes with us to basically say, hey,
10:38 here's how things went for the course of the week.
10:40 Answer a few questions and turn his attention to the Cardinals this weekend.
10:45 For all the latest news and information on the Cleveland Browns,
10:47 we've got you covered over on BrownsDigest.com,
10:50 as well as on this YouTube channel.
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10:58 I'm Brendan Gulick live in Berea.
11:00 We'll see you again real soon over in Browns Digest.
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