Q. In talking about the win in Detroit, one of the things you said about is was, “Sometimes staying in the fight is probably the biggest asset in your hip pocket, and so that’s what IQ. I mean when I say there is growth there.” What are some examples of what you mean by “staying in the fight,” and how does that lend itself to growth within a team?
A. I think it’s big for an individual and a collective to be able to absorb negativity and move on. And play the next down, and play it with attention to detail, with urgency, with the spirit as if the negativity didn’t happen. And certainly we had some good plays in that game. We had some negative plays in that game, but the ability to fight on. When we picked up that defensive pass interference penalty on fourth down, when we had seemingly won the game. The collective’s ability to move on. Kyle Dugger’s ability to move on. Duggar made a big play in the tight red zone in the back of the end zone, for example. I just think there’s so much growth in that. I think you either get hardened by the journey or you don’t, and certainly our ability to come out of the other side of some of that negativity is something that we could put in our back pocket moving forward. Because certainly, there are going to be some challenges that are similar to that.
Q. Another thing you often mention is that you don’t ask guys to be patient, but instead to continue to work while they wait. How do you communicate that message so that it’s not just words, and how is it usually received?
A. Thankfully and unfortunately, there are so many examples of it routinely. You’ve just got to do a good job of pointing it out so that they can reference it. Dylan Cook is just simply the latest example of it, but it’s going on all around us. At times we pretend like it doesn’t exist, because it doesn’t help us to acknowledge it. We’ve got capable people, everyone is a professional, everyone is working and waiting for their opportunity to show their capabilities. Jack Sawyer played a lot last week. We didn’t even talk a whole lot about it. I just think that in the course of this journey, there’s an attrition component to this thing that creates those opportunities. And if we’re smart as leaders, we point that out in an effort to educate, to ready the next man for his opportunity, because it’s coming. It’s not if, it’s when. As we say in this business, there’s a 100 percent injury rate in this thing. And so people are going to have opportunities.
Q. What kind of freedom does Aaron Rodgers have when it comes to game management, such as using timeouts to avoid delay of game penalties, hustling the offense to the line of scrimmage, things like that?
A. All of the above in that area. He’s just been playing too long not to give him the keys to that. He is very good at it, arguably one of the best of all time. We benefit as a collective from that expertise and experience, and so why minimize it? I do not.
Q. After the Monday night win vs. Miami, Aaron Rodgers was complimenting a bunch of unsung teammates he referred to as “castoffs,” one of whom was Kenneth Gainwell. Do you find that “castoffs” in general and Gainwell in particular are fueled by an I-get-no-respect attitude, and does it make them more willing to contribute in a lot of different ways?
A. I think sometimes they do. I think it’s low-hanging fruit, it’s the Rodney Dangerfield, “I get no respect.” But largely, it’s a component of this business. You don’t get to the National Football League without having a great deal of success in your football past and a belief in self. And I think it represents everyone from the first-team All-Pro player to the backup. There are certainly levels to it, but largely when you sit back and you look at it through an outside lens, you’ve got a bunch of very capable and confident men waiting for their opportunity to show what they’re capable of. And Kenny Gainwell and others are examples of it. What we’re seeing from him is not surprising for us. But you know, Saquon Barkley cast a large shadow, particularly with how he was playing in 2024. And so it makes you think about other capable men in this business globally who are just waiting for an opportunity to show what they’re capable of. They might be behind someone who’s having an MVP-like season, or an All-Pro-like season, but that doesn’t diminish their capabilities.
Q. In response to a question about the offense making up for the absence of DK Metcalf, the first name out of your mouth as someone with an opportunity was Roman Wilson. Did you mention him on purpose to pose a challenge to him?
A. You’re absolutely right. He has absorbed some professional negativity. He has had to take a step back and certainly that hurts. But forget the emotional component of it. He and I have had conversations about what it is tangible that he’s going to do to ready himself for his next opportunity. He’s been in a great mind-set. He has had great days of work, and so he’s going to have an opportunity to display that readiness. And that’s what this thing is about, this thing called football justice. You’re always working. It’s always 8 pounds in a 5-pound bag. Regardless of present circumstances, you better be leaning in on the work and waiting. And certainly he has done that.
Q. During your Tuesday news conference, you referred to Cleveland’s defense as “the No. 1 unit in the AFC North.” Was that painful to say out loud?
A. There’s a lot of things that are painful in life that also happen to be true. We need to live in truth. Certainly it hurts. Certainly we’ve got a couple of units that want to be that unit, and I’m sure Baltimore does and Cincinnati does as well. But stats don’t lie. Video doesn’t lie. That is the No. 1 unit in the AFC North, offensively or defensively, and they have got the hardware to prove it. I’m sure they’ve got the eventual Defensive Player of the Year (Myles Garrett), and I’m sure they’ve got the eventual Defensive Rookie of the Year (Mason Graham) both in their front seven. They’ve got a Pro Bowl corner in Denzel Ward. They’ve got a lot of guys who are homegrown there, guys like Grant Delpit who they drafted in the second round several years ago, and they’ve done nothing but mature within that program. And so they’ve got all the signs of a top-notch unit. They’ve got real good stability in year two with Jim Schwartz’s schematics. They’ve got top-notch players at every level, and they’ve got guys who are homegrown, who have grown up within that system and in that program. And so certainly it can be hurtful, but it’s the truth. And I think the first component to the recipe to beating them is to acknowledge truth.
Q. Is there such a thing as a check-list on the assignment to minimizing Myles Garrett’s impact on a game, and if so, what would it include?
A. There certainly is, and first and foremost it’s to minimize and limit one-dimensional passing circumstances. If you’re in a bunch of third-and-10s, you’ve got a problem. I think we converted 4 third-and-10-pluses last week in Detroit. We can’t live that life in Cleveland. You can’t. When you call somebody a game-wrecker, those are the plays that game-wreckers really impact. Guys like Myles Garrett, guys obviously like T.J. Watt, guys like Maxx Crosby – their highlight reels are comprised of third-and-10-plus moments when people are trying to push the ball down the field. And so first and foremost, we’ve got to limit those opportunities. Secondarily, we’ve got to be real solid schematically in terms of allocating an appropriate number of people, and it’s not an easy task. They play him on the left side. They play him on the right side. Sometimes they get him in five-down linemen, and he’s a hybrid player and a rover player. They move him around. They do all the things they need to do to give him a chance to win. And certainly we’ve got to work to quell that schematically. And then lastly, we need the effort and talents of our men. Everybody puts two people on them, and those two people have got to be on their game, because he routinely beats two people. And so there’s a checklist, and we better adhere to it, but thankfully, we’re familiar with it. We live that life day-to-day in a training camp-like setting, because if you don’t handle that checklist in a training camp-like setting, T.J. will destroy your practice. And so our offense certainly has experience at dealing with those animals, and we better call upon it this weekend.
Q. “Divisions are won on the road in those hostile environments in those opposing cities.” You said that on Tuesday, and your players have been repeating it during the week. What difference would it really make if this team clinches the AFC North because the Ravens lost to the Packers as opposed to the Steelers beating the Browns?
A. You know, we don’t care. We don’t care what happens in that game and in stadiums that we’re not in. We like to exercise a certain amount of control, and that’s what we do in the stadiums that we’re in. We don’t want to crawl in on our belly. We want to kick the front door in. It’s a mind-set. It’s a lifestyle. And we choose to live it.
Q. Cleveland will be starting rookie QB Shedeur Sanders today. What are some of the typical ways NFL defenses use to make a rookie quarterback uncomfortable?
A. They flat get after him in one-dimensional passing circumstances. I certainly know Kevin Stefanski, and have known him a long time. We worked together in Minnesota in 2006, and he grew up in this thing around the likes of Brad Childress and Andy Reid and others. And so he certainly has a good foundation. He’s going to work to minimize those opportunities. We better be good against the screen, for example. They’re going to work to keep Sanders out of harm’s way from those one-dimensional passing circumstances, play behind their running game, etc. And so it’s chess, not checkers, but I’m excited about playing it.
Q. Tommy Rees was given play-calling duties around the midpoint of this season. What is his play-calling style, and is it a good fit for a rookie quarterback?
A. I don’t know. To be quite honest with you, I haven’t seen a dramatic difference. Sometimes organizations and coaches give the outside world their pound of flesh, and behind the scenes they go about doing business as usual. I don’t see a lot of difference in what it is they’re doing, than what I usually see schematically or strategically from the Cleveland Browns. But if it quelled the masses, if it got the posse off them for a few weeks, then good for them.
Q. This is one of the rare games where there is a specific short-term goal dangling right there. It’s not about positioning or any of those down-the-road things that are talked about. For the Steelers today, it’s win this game, win the AFC North to make the playoffs and host a game on Wild Card Weekend. Do players respond to that?
A. I believe that they do, but it’s my job to make them understand the significance of every weekend. This is not baseball when you’ve got 160-plus games. It’s not basketball when you’ve got 80-plus games. There is scarcity in what we do. You get one shot weekly to establish your positioning. You don’t know which week is going to be significant. It could be the bounce of the ball in September or December. I work my tail off to make sure that the group understands and respects that so that we step into the stadium each and every time. You don’t want to be the group that’s saying, “Woulda, coulda, shoulda,” in terms of urgency and understanding the importance of these opportunities. And I feel like our group has heeded that approach. We’ve played each and every week with great urgency and understanding of that, and I think that’s why we’re in the position that we’re in. But certainly when you’re at the doorstep, it whets your appetite. We’re humans. The clarity of it all is a real thing, but I like to think that we display urgency and understanding each and every week.
