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Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images
Head Coach Hue Jackson:
On if DB Jabrill Peppers will be ready for his regular workload on Sunday:“Yeah, I think so.” On how close DL Myles Garrett is to being 100 percent healthy:“Very close, very close. He has obviously made the progress over the last two weeks. He hasn’t had any setbacks after the games, and I think he has felt better after the games. Hopefully, he can play more this week. I think that is the goal.”
On Garrett seeming to be ‘really affected’ by losing:“I think it affects us all (laughter). Yeah, nobody, as I have said before, comes here to lose. I have come here from the beginning – we want to win. Losing is unacceptable for us, for our fans, for everybody involved. Nobody has come here to lose. We came here to win. That is what we are chasing, and we are going to keep chasing that.”
On Garrett’s performance against Houston:“Did some good things. Did some really good things. I think he is getting better. He is in that window – when you start back playing again, you can see him starting to truly get back into get back to where he was before – the speed, the quickness, the hand placement and the movement in his body. He is doing some good things, and he just has to continue to get better. I think we all know there is a whole ‘nother level for him in there. I think he will keep pushing and keep working at it.”
On what DB Jason McCourty has meant to the defense, as well as the locker room:“He is a veteran player who knows how to play and knows how to play within (defensive coordinator) Coach (Gregg) Williams’ system. He is somebody in the locker room that we can depend on with the younger guys. He has had great leadership that way. He has been a great teammate. Obviously, he has made some huge plays for us this year. Obviously, the biggest one was last week – the interception and taking it back for a touchdown. There was a stat that said he was running one of the fastest times this past week scoring that touchdown. That says a lot about him. It says a lot about a guy that is taking care of his body, working hard every day and giving this organization and this football team everything he has.”
On McCourty matching up with opposing teams’ No. 1 WRs:“We feel very comfortable putting him on those guys. He has held his own. There is a play or two he wishes he had back, but I think he has done a good job for us this year.”
On McCourty to be in his physical shape at age 30:“He does a good job in the offseason of preparing and taking care of his body. He knows that to do during the season. He understands his process and how to go about it to every week be at his best. That is what you see from him. That is what you see from a guy that has been in the league as long as he has. He knows how to get himself to gameday and ready to play at that top level, and he has done that.”
On if McCourty has ‘eased the sting’ of the Browns releasing DB Joe Haden:“I am not going to go back to that one, but for him being on our team, it has meant a lot to me personally in just the way he has played and conducted himself, he is a pro. He is a good get for us.”
On DL Danny Shelton celebrating a tackle when the team was trailing at Houston:“That is an emotional outburst. That doesn’t bother me. I want our guys in the game to enjoy themselves when they are making good plays. I think that is part of it, too. I don’t think because a guy made a tackle for a loss he should sulk or be mad about that. That is a good thing. I am OK with celebrating after you make a play. We just want to make more of them and have more celebrations, but the biggest celebration we want to have is in the locker room after the game, after a win, a team win, where the Cleveland Browns have won. I think that is the ultimate for us all, but I have no problem with our guys celebrating and having emotion and playing with passion that way. That is a good thing.”
On if celebrating while losing celebrates the individual instead of the team:“I think it celebrates the unit because it is not just him; it is that unit that helped him make that play. This game is played with emotion and passion, and I think that is fine.”
On DB Briean Boddy-Calhoun’s development from his rookie year to his second year:“He has played a lot of different spots for us. He is kind of coming into his own in his second year. He has played corner, he has played nickel and he has played safety. He is kind of a chess match piece for us that we can move around. A very intelligent player, he has done a lot of different things for us as I just mentioned, and he will continue to do that. I am looking for that interception that gets returned back for a touchdown like his first year. I think he is getting close to it. He is working extremely hard and good things are going to happen for that young man.”
On the Browns defense’s struggles in the red zone:“I think I have said it numerous times, sometimes there has been communication, and sometimes there has been some fundamental things. When those things pop up, then all of the sudden those are the opportunities that the offense has. We have to do it better. We have put a huge emphasis on it over the last couple weeks, and we will continue to do so. It is something that we have to continue to do better. I know Coach Williams is looking high and low between calls and what can we do better. It is not like we are playing a blind eye to it. We understand we have to get it solved. We don’t want teams to score. On offense, we have to do a better job of scoring and not turning the ball over down there. It is an issue on our football team, but it is something we are addressing.”
On if WR Kenny Britt can ‘salvage the season’ and what the team needs from Britt the remainder of the season, returning from injury:“Obviously, there are 10 games left so yes, he can. It starts this week. He needs to go out and make plays for the football team, create separation for the quarterback so the quarterback feels comfortable letting the ball go and be a steadying influence among that group as we go forward, and I think he can do that. He has to go do it – he knows it – on a consistent basis. It is one week opportunity. Here is his résumé this weekend. We will go from there and keep moving forward.”
On if Britt will have extra motivation facing the team that drafted him and if that motivation is real:“I think it is. I think you are always excited to play against the team that drafted you or somewhere that you have worked before, just because you want everybody to know that you are doing well, that you have left them rather you have improved and you have put yourself in a better situation, a better opportunity for yourself. I’m sure there is a little bit of that in there for him and (DB) Jason (McCourty), but I just think more so than anything, they want their teammates to play well and have an opportunity to win a game.”
On if OL Joe Thomas will be ready to play Sunday:“Yes, he will be.”
On Titans QB Marcus Mariota’s development:“He is a young player who started off, what some people would say slow, not very slow, but he has come on. He is a catalyst for what they do on offense. The offense is built to his strengths. It is tailored to what he does. He is a pocket passer. He is a passer who can throw the ball on the move. He is a runner with the football. They have really displayed his strengths. He is doing a good job for their football team. Obviously, I’m sure they want to win more games. That is what they are trying to accomplish like any team is, but he is the catalyst for where they are right now as a football team.”
On if Mariota has developed as a pocket passer despite his reputation for being a dual-threat QB:“Because he can run, people think of him that way, but he can play in the pocket just like any of these other quarterbacks can. He has made huge throws out of the pocket. This last week, he didn’t move around much. He can do it. That is what makes him a little special because he can do all three things on the football field.”
On if Kizer has had a great week of practice:“He has. He is excited.”
On noticing any differences in Kizer this week:“I think I see difference. I see more focus, not that he wasn’t focused before but just the little things that you have to do every play. Like I said, the pressure of doing that play in and play out being 100 percent being exact is something that every quarterback has to deal with. Hopefully, the breather made him understand, ‘OK, when I am in that mode when things all of a sudden feels a little pressure to me, I now know how to deal with that better because I have been in games. I know what that is like. I know when it is well, and I know when it is not going as well. When it is not going as well, can I flip that switch and get it back to where it needs to be?’ He has been good in practice. He has had a good week in meetings. What he needs to do is go do it on the field on Sunday.”
On if he has encouraged Kizer to talk to veteran QBs around the league:“When you are a quarterback and a draft pick, you have a group of guys that you do converse with and talk to. I think what is important is you have to be very careful with some of the things that get said to you. A lot of those guys aren’t here and don’t know what you are doing every day. Everybody needs a support team to help them through things. That probably benefits him more than anything. I’m sure there are situations that happen in the game that he can reach out to guys because he does have a host of guys he can talk to, but I think that he gets it that the basis of everything that he does starts with his belief system and what we are trying to accomplish here and how we go about doing things here. I think that is something that you continue to work at every day. Trying to understand it from A to Z and being able to go out there in those pressure moments and be able to regurgitate and do it in that way. That is where he is.”
On if he has been too aggressive trying to score TDs in the red zone:“No.”
On if he would be accepting of three points and being more conservative in the red zone compared to a turnover:“I’m accepting of three if that is what it takes. As I said the other day, if that is what it takes to keep us out of harm’s way, I will run the ball every play, but I don’t know how many football games you are going to win like that. I know there are defenses that won’t let you do that, too. We have had our opportunities. It would be different if the plays that are called are not there.”
On the plays in the red zone not being executed:“No doubt, but why are we not? That is the underlying issue that we are all working through – me as a coach, them as players that we work through each and every week. I think our guys can do these things because I see us do it on a practice field. The disappointing part is we haven’t been able to do it in a game. I will make that judgment as we go of kind of where are we. You don’t want to take a quarterback and make him afraid to make a play, but at the same time, you have to be team-protecting, too. That is my battle. I have to be able to help them that way. I will do everything that I can, but at the same time, they understand that at that position you have to make plays. You just have to make them. If I didn’t think we could make them, then I wouldn’t call them. I’m not just calling plays for the heck of it. I’m calling plays that I think give us a chance to be successful. For whatever reason, that hasn’t happened. That happens sometimes.”