Brendan Gulick and Spencer German share the latest Browns news from the team facility in Berea as Cleveland prepares to open the playoffs against AFC South champion Houston on Saturday.
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00:09 Well, Cleveland, this is what you've been waiting for.
00:11 Playoff football has finally arrived on the shores of Lake Erie.
00:15 The Cleveland Browns are the number five seed in the AFC playoffs
00:18 starting this weekend.
00:20 And as Kevin Stefanski told us just a little bit ago,
00:23 they're pretty glad they're the first game out of the gate
00:25 because they don't want to have to sit around and wait any longer
00:27 than they have to.
00:28 Brendan Gulick, Spencer German, with you.
00:30 Part of our Browns practice report here on Browns Digest.
00:33 If you're just new to the channel, thanks for hanging out.
00:35 You can check us out, brownsdigest.com.
00:37 We've got all the latest news and info on the team,
00:39 certainly as we gear up for what we hope is a long playoff run.
00:42 Could be one game, could be five weeks, who knows.
00:45 But certainly this team is good enough, Spencer, to make a deep run,
00:48 and there's a lot of reasons why this is a fun group to follow.
00:52 There's so much to believe in right now if you're a Cleveland fan.
00:55 And I think the best news here is that the Browns are reasonably healthy.
01:00 There aren't really any huge surprises at this point in the week
01:03 and at this point in the season.
01:06 Yeah, you know, Joe Flacco I saw earlier had the quote about just what it takes
01:10 to have that playoff mentality, and it's a lot of this like one game at a time
01:15 sort of structure to the week.
01:17 As you approach it, you're not thinking ahead of like,
01:19 "Oh, we got this game on this day or that game on that day."
01:22 And I found that ironic because I feel like we've been talking about
01:26 that mentality with this team for, I don't know, 10 weeks now.
01:30 Every week?
01:31 Yeah, it's been almost just the mantra, their coat of arms, if you will.
01:36 Like that's just kind of how they've always-- how they've done things all season.
01:39 And it really has felt like ever since the Deshaun injury after Week 10
01:44 that this team has almost treated every game from that stretch on
01:48 like a playoff game, knowing everyone's counting them out,
01:51 nobody thinks they have a shot, and they've continued to prove people wrong,
01:54 and now you're on this great run with Flacco.
01:57 So it kind of just feels like we know the stakes are a little higher,
02:01 and you can feel in the air here in Northeast Ohio there's a palpability to it.
02:05 But it almost just feels like business as usual from inside the building
02:09 and from our perspective because this is just kind of how this team's lived
02:12 all season.
02:14 And there's no reason to think that it can't continue to work either.
02:17 It's one thing if you kind of limp into the playoffs and you feel like,
02:21 "Ah, this isn't going to go anywhere. The bottom's falling out of this
02:25 for whatever reason. Great run, but not going to happen."
02:28 The Browns have won regularly in spite of all of this adversity all year.
02:33 And so you go into the postseason with a roster that frankly couldn't look
02:38 much different than what you had in training camp,
02:42 and now you kind of gear up for season number two,
02:45 and as currently constructed, this feels like a team that can make a deep run.
02:51 And I think there's a lot of people around the nation now starting to realize,
02:54 "You know what? Don't count out the Cleveland Browns because if they play
02:57 defense like that, and with this resurgence we've seen from Joe Flacco,
03:01 absolutely that team is capable of making a Super Bowl run."
03:05 They beat the top seed in both conferences.
03:07 I think the defense is the biggest thing you kind of hang your hat on going into.
03:11 And it's the old cliche, defense wins championships.
03:14 And on some level I think that's evolved over time.
03:17 Offense obviously matters a lot now more than ever in the NFL,
03:21 and these teams that can put up a lot of points generally are making deep runs
03:24 in the playoffs. But if you have a defense that can also slow them down,
03:27 you give yourself a chance. And we see also in the biggest games,
03:32 sometimes that defense does matter when you need to stop in a big moment.
03:35 And so I think the fact that they have that, I think the fact that they have--
03:39 I'm trying to say his name, using it for other words--
03:42 the fact that they have Joe Flacco, who's playing some of the best football
03:46 of his life, and is just on this ridiculous tear.
03:50 300+ games and four straight, never been done in the Browns history.
03:54 I mean, you feel confident about that, and you feel confident about the fact
03:58 that it's a guy who has done it on that stage and at this level before
04:03 in the postseason, has a Super Bowl MVP, has a Super Bowl ring.
04:07 So that's obviously a big factor. And then I think the third thing,
04:10 Brendan, just kind of goes back to what we talked about at the top,
04:12 just the mentality of this team. The fact that they have dealt with
04:17 so many injuries this year, so much adversity, so many people counting them out,
04:21 and they just stay so sort of mild-mannered, level-headed about it.
04:26 It's that next man up thing, and that's such a cliche.
04:29 But in this season in particular, for these Cleveland Browns,
04:33 they have lived that to a T. And it's worked to a T.
04:36 It's a testament to the coaching staff and what they've done,
04:38 but it's remarkable.
04:40 And that's where I think you hit the nail on the head there.
04:43 How often you see teams that make runs that kind of take on the personality
04:48 of their coaching staff. And Kevin Stefanski is about as monotonous,
04:53 even-keeled as anybody in the league. You rarely see him crack a smile
04:57 on the sideline. It happens from time to time, but it's not a regular thing.
05:01 He's not a super animated, boisterous, look-at-me coach.
05:06 He's pretty locked in and focused on right here, right now,
05:10 and he doesn't ride that roller coaster too much.
05:13 And so the combination of his personality and some veteran guys
05:16 that are able to just be where their feet are, it's made for a fun group to follow,
05:22 while on the other side, on defense, you see guys taking on Jim Schwartz's
05:27 personality. It is a little bit more animated. It is more fun.
05:31 They're playing with a ton of swag, and they know they're really good.
05:34 And so now you're going to bring that mentality down to Houston
05:39 against a team that, yes, you beat on Christmas Eve.
05:44 Amari Cooper had a terrific performance in that game,
05:47 one of the all-time great performances in Cleveland Browns history.
05:51 It's going to be hard to replicate that on any given game,
05:53 let alone against the same team, right?
05:55 But the obvious discussion here around Houston is that, obviously,
05:59 they have C.J. Stroud playing in this game, where they didn't the last time around.
06:03 And trying to figure out truly how much difference he makes,
06:07 he's made enough of a difference to take a team that had the No. 2 overall pick
06:11 last year to be a division champion and go to the playoffs.
06:14 And for people in the state of Ohio, they know C.J. is the real deal.
06:17 Well, and real quick on the personality thing, I think what's interesting about it too
06:20 is they kind of balance each other out in that way.
06:23 There's been criticisms of Stefanski the last couple years,
06:26 like, "Oh, he's not animated enough."
06:28 So to have Jim Schwartz now kind of alongside to kind of give you that,
06:31 I think it's been like the perfect storm.
06:33 And that's, again, credit to Stefanski for making the right choice
06:36 in his defensive coordinator selection last offseason.
06:39 But yeah, with the presence of Stroud, it certainly changes the game plan a little bit
06:44 because you know that that guy is playing out of his mind right now,
06:48 pretty much a shoe-in-to-win offensive rookie of the year.
06:51 He's been so phenomenal, and we know him well just from his days at Ohio State,
06:54 obviously, but we know what he's capable of.
06:58 I think the biggest thing going into this game that I look at, though,
07:01 that gives me some confidence is, yes, it's C.J. Stroud.
07:05 He's been great, but I count on--we mentioned his name--
07:09 like Jim Schwartz and that defense.
07:11 Is he really going to let a rookie quarterback derail their postseason run
07:16 before it really gets started?
07:18 So I think that should give Browns fans confidence.
07:20 But yeah, it changes the game plan a little bit.
07:22 It changes the math a little bit.
07:24 As much as it maybe gives you a little bit more fear about this one,
07:28 I don't know that Browns fans should be going into this game feeling
07:31 overly concerned or overly worried.
07:34 I think if anything, it makes that plan fit a little bit more level,
07:37 which is kind of seen in the Vegas line being one and a half in favor of the Browns.
07:40 But at the same time, I think you go in with some confidence
07:43 that you can get the job done.
07:45 I think we should wrap up with a little Browns news,
07:48 just the idea that Grant Delpit may or may not be available.
07:51 Stavanski was a bit noncommittal on that,
07:54 where he did acknowledge that it was unlikely that Dustin Hopkins
07:58 would be available this weekend,
08:00 so probably continue to see Riley kicking for Cleveland.
08:05 In terms of what I saw at practice for the 10 minutes of stretching
08:09 and 10 minutes or so of some individual drills,
08:13 there were a whole bunch of guys not out there today--Miles Garrett not out there,
08:16 Joel Batonio, David Njoku, Kareem Hunt,
08:19 Pierce Strong, Mario Cooper, and several others that were not on the practice field.
08:25 At this point, reps are important, but I think there's nothing more important
08:29 than making sure that Saturday at 4.30 when that ball goes in the air,
08:32 you are as healthy and ready as possible.
08:35 I think for a lot of those guys, that's kind of normal practice,
08:38 start of the work week, start of the week of practice.
08:41 They kind of do sit and get a little bit of extra rest,
08:44 so nothing concerning there.
08:45 I am a little worried, I will say, about Dustin Hopkins.
08:47 Riley Patterson has been fine, but a guy who has been so important to this season,
08:53 we just put up a piece over on the site, brownsdigest.com,
08:57 about the accolades for the season, and we did a team MVP and all this.
09:02 Just for the heck of it, I picked Dustin Hopkins
09:05 because he single-handedly won you three games this year,
09:09 and that Colts game was a big one that he helped you win
09:12 with the number of field goals he made and a bunch from 50 yards.
09:16 It stinks for him because he was on track to obviously top Jim Brown
09:20 for the most points in the season, and now he comes a little bit short of that.
09:23 But, yeah, I think you can probably get past this round without him,
09:27 but you want to see him hopefully return at some point during the postseason
09:31 and just give you that extra boost and special teams knowing,
09:33 hey, if we've got to go out and make a big kick,
09:35 we believe that this guy is going to get the job done.
09:38 One last injury note, I did verify this.
09:41 Last week when Anthony Walker was put on injured reserve,
09:45 he had missed the previous three games without going on IR,
09:49 and I wanted to verify it is not something that can be retroactively applied.
09:55 So once you go on IR, that's when the clock starts.
09:58 So essentially, by the letter of the law, if the Browns made the Super Bowl,
10:04 Anthony Walker could come back, but he would not be allowed to come back
10:08 prior to that even though he hasn't played the last couple weeks.
10:11 There's a chance. You never know. You want to walk on the field, that's for sure.
10:14 That's for sure.
10:15 Well, we've got plenty more coming throughout the rest of the week,
10:17 and certainly hope you'll join us on BrownsDigest.com
10:20 and here on our YouTube channel.
10:22 Please subscribe to this video so that we can continue to provide coverage for you
10:25 just like this all season.
10:26 For Spencer German, I'm Brendan Gulick.
10:28 We'll see you soon back in Berea.
10:30 Tomorrow, the coordinators talk.
10:31 We'll have Kevin Stefanski again on Thursday before the team travels on Friday.
10:35 Open locker rooms as well so you can hear from some of the players.
10:38 We've got you covered here with Browns Digest.
10:40 guest.
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