Tight ends coach Greg Seamon:
On helping TE David Njoku respond to dropped passes:
"He had a bad day. I was very pleased the next day. He came back and caught everything. He did a nice job. Those things happen. It is not an ongoing issue. We are trying to develop him as a complete tight end. I am really pleased with what he is doing as a blocker and in pass protection. That has gotten a lot better. You do not want to have those days. Occasionally, they happen. It has not been an ongoing consistent issue with him this summer. We will move forward. There are reasons for drops. We have identified them mechanically and the things that you do to fix them, and he has worked hard on that. I feel like that was a day that is in the past, and now, we move forward."
On if Njoku has the work ethic to mentality to handle that adversity:
"He is an extremely hard worker. He is very bright. He has a lot of self-pride. He wants to be great. He has been a champion in other sports. He was a high draft pick. Certainly, he wants to perform at the highest level. His demeanor or his temperament is not an issue at all."
On TE Darren Fells and what he brings to the group as a veteran:
"He is the veteran in there. His traits one, are his size. He is 6-7 and 270 pounds. He is a little older than the other guys and married with kids. As a professional athlete, he has done the international competition, which is difficult. You are away for months at a time. There is a maturity, his experience as an athlete and his professionalism, I think that all of those things are great examples for the guys that we have in the room."
On Fells being a former basketball and having strengths as a blocking TE, when many former basketball players are typically reception oriented:
"That is a fair point. If you have ever seen a picture of him in his basketball uniform, he looked like an enforcer. He would have been able to play with the Bad Boy Pistons back in the day. I just think that it is a part of his personality. He is a tough individual. He understands that every athlete has strengths, and his strength literally is his size, strength, length and his mind. He is really smart. He has studied hard to learn how to play the game, even entering into it at a late stage. He is very accomplished. It is a little different for an ex-basketball player to be known as a blocker, but he has built that career for himself and he is good at it."
Linebackers coach Blake Williams:
On LB Mychal Kendricks and his performance since returning to the field:
"Excellent. I think the first day that he was out there just so happen to be the first day we were in pads. The first series we were out there, the siren goes off and he made a couple of plays, tackles either running 30 yards across the field like a flash and making a tackle or downhill immediately on the next play for a TFL (tackle for loss). All of his teammates are going 'whoa, whoa.' That is always kind of good to see. It has been a good process for him. Obviously, he is still picking up the language and big concepts, but we have a tight-knit family in that room so everyone is working together and kind of teaching the ropes."
On having four starting-caliber LBs and three starting LB positions and that creating opportunities for the LBs:
"No doubt, and part of that – I know Coach Hue (Jackson) has said it, as well – it is going out of necessity. It was the necessity of the situation, as well. (Defensive coordinator) Greg (Williams) runs the personnel and how we are we are out,. but if you go back and look at it last year, I think it was about one out of every nine snaps we actually had four linebackers on the field. The snaps are good to go around when you look at it that way with so many different hybrid packages we have. Also, it is a violent game, and we know at this level it is a long season. Case and point last year. Knock on wood, you hope they can all play 100 percent of the snaps and stay healthy, but you have guys that go down for a week here, two weeks here so you always need that. Throughout the course of a game, having those guys all up and rolling gives you the chance to yes be able to mix and match and get guys off in certain special packages and certain things. If you just do the math and look at it, the amount of reps that are played by linebackers in the game, it is very easy to get four guys starter reps in our multiple system when you count the reps up at the end of the game."
On the Browns LBs struggling to cover opposing TEs last season:
"I know some other people have asked me that, too. I would semi-disagree with that. The tight ends are catching the ball, but not every defense is the linebacker responsible for the tight end. There are a number of those times that nobody is responsible for the tight end. It is a soft-zone defense and where the tight end happens to be running the ball to is where we are forcing the tight end to catch the ball. You want to be smart when the ball is on the 5-yard line, and you have to be a little tighter to that and get that guy because that is a catch-touchdown. When it is man to man, now you have a situation. If you kind of go back and watch especially some of the more known across the league good tight ends that we had in the games, when we were in man to man (LB) Christian Kirksey was finding that guy. If that guy was lined up out wide, the (Titans TE) Delanie Walkers' and those types of things, then his stats doing that as an isolated matchup player were honestly off the charts. We continue to try to develop the rest of the strong safeties in those roles and the rest of linebackers in those roles. At times you, do not have (LB) Jamie Collins (Sr.). The perfect world is they have two tight ends out there that can both play. Jamie you have one; Christian you have the other. That can kind of get you sometimes as well, too. It is no doubt something that we have addressed in the linebacker room, something that they take great pride in and something we have to be better at this year. The more man to man we are able to play, the more you are going to see that be the case and the less to have the tight ends that we have here to practice against every day because it gives you a good understanding of where you are at because these guys can flat out run."
