OL John Greco:
On losing QB Robert Griffin III in Week 1:
"It is unfortunate. I said earlier, he was trying to make a play for us. It just kind of a bad luck thing. We have to do better to keep him clean so he doesn't have to take unnecessary hits. That is the NFL. We just wish him a speedy recovery, and hopefully, he can get back as soon as possible, but I have all the faith in the world that (QB) Josh (McCown) is going to be able to lead us to some wins."
On if being familiar with McCown makes the transition easier:
"Yeah, absolutely. He has played forever. He is proven. He has won us games and he is leader. He is just as willing as Robert to lead us to victories. We are not hanging our heads. We know that we have a guy that is going to come in and compete and be able to lead this offense. If you ask everyone on offense in the locker room, everyone is going to say that they can do their part a little better to help out, and that is what we are going to do going into this second week."
On if the Browns are hoping for some good luck at the QB position after some misfortune:
"Yeah, that is the thing. It is just the way it goes. There are some other teams that are down in their quarterbacks right now, too. We just have to be able to fight out of it and turn a negative into a positive. I think we are going to be able to do that with Josh."
On McCown's success against Baltimore last season:
"I think just having Josh taking snaps now gives us a lot of confidence, not just because of that. Until you just said that, I had forgotten about those stats. You feel comfortable with him back there, and it is not like a guy that is taking his first NFL snap coming up. We have a proven leader, a veteran. I am confident with his abilities."
QB Cody Kessler:
On if his snap count will increase:
"I'm not sure. Obviously, (QB) Josh (McCown) is going to get all of the first team snaps. When we go with the twos and go the scout team, I will be able to jump in and get some more reps. My mindset has never changed. I always prepared myself as a starter no matter where I was at on the depth chart, and that is the way you have to go about it. You cannot go in thinking, 'I am not going to play. I can take this rep off.' You have to go in the same way I did last week. Going into Philadelphia, I prepared myself as if I was going to play a game."
On his preseason:
"There were some ups and downs, but I think the best part for me was just a learning process being able to get in and get the reps I could in some live game action. For me, obviously being a perfectionist, I want to go out there and produce right away. At the same time, I have to be smart about it and just learn from it. There were some things that I could have done and there are some things that I can learn from moving forward to when I actually get live game reps, whenever that may be. I can learn from that. It is good tape to watch to be able to say, 'OK, I did well on this play or I did bad on this one. I can work on this and get better at that.'"
On is he has caught up to the speed of the NFL:
"I think the playbook has gotten a lot easier for me, obviously, being in the system longer which helps slow down everything when you get in-game reps. It is a different speed. It is a different speed, and obviously, I have not played in a regular season game yet, but going to practice and sometimes with the scout team going against the ones, I think has helped me out tremendously the last couple of weeks, getting to go against the first team defense and their speed and how they react to things. For me, that is just going to come with more experience and more reps, but I take it as a challenge. People get discouraged or think if it doesn't go as well as they want it to right away, and I see it as a challenge. I keep fighting back and I keep working hard. I am going to do everything I can to prepare myself."
On if he could notice a difference of speed from college to the NFL on film:
"Yeah, it is the same thing obviously when you go from high school to college and pros. It is a lot faster here. The transition is a lot more here, but that just comes with being prepared. Something that is really cool for me is I learn from Josh and (QB) Robert (Griffin III) is the more you understand the defense, the more you understand your own offense and where to go with the ball, the game slows down. You are ahead of the play. You know how it going to happen. That is how it was for me at SC (Southern California). When I first got there, I was learning the playbook, getting into the system and things seemed so fast. The more you get into the system, the more you master the offense and you know what defense you are going to go against. It slows down because you know what to do with the ball. There is no hesitation. I think that is something I keep striving for here and growing."
On his mental approach being one play away from entering the game:
"You have to keep preparing as a starter. You can never predict what is going to happen or what is going to happen in different games or different situations. I have always told myself whenever that time does come, whether it is this year, early, late, next year, whenever it may be, I just want to be prepared and be ready. If it is happening a lot faster than I thought or what was expected, then I want to continue to prepare. This week, I have already started on Baltimore and getting things going ahead and sitting with Josh and watching film and learning from him. For me, I really respect this game and respect the quarterback position. It is something that I really want to focus on is mastering the position, being able to go out and play flawless. Not that there is not going to be mistakes and things are not going to go right every play but as long as you can eliminate those bad plays and have more productive ones, there are a lot of guys that do that in the NFL and they are in a successful position. That is something I respect and I want to be."
On if the Browns explained the team's vision and future for him when he was drafted:
"No, I got here and the message was 'Compete.' That is what we want from all of our guys. We want you to go out and compete and push the guy next to you and compete against your position group and compete against the defense and everyone on the field. That is kind of the way that I have always gone about it. I have always taken the same mindset every day. I am going to go out there and put what I can do on film. If it is a bad day, I want to learn from that. If it is a good day, I want to grow off of it. It has always kept me level-headed throughout the process. You cannot get too high or too low and emotional as a quarterback."
On young QBs having success in the NFL in Week and if that encourages him:
"Yeah, I think it is awesome to see guys have success, especially guys from my draft class. That is cool to see. Everyone is different and everyone has their own process. Everyone has their own cards dealt to them. I think the biggest thing is just taking advantage of the opportunity when it comes. That's good for them. I'm always rooting for guys, other quarterbacks in the league that we go against or guys that I knew playing through college and going to the NFL and seeing them have success, just knowing them on a personal level. My situation is completely different than everyone else. You have to kind of take your own preparation, your own way of going about things and when you do get that chance, you have to make the most of it. That is kind of what this game is. It is about opportunities. You may get one, you may get 20, you may never get one, but whenever it does come and if it does, you just want to be ready and be prepared."
On if he had a different perspective watching the Eagles game from the sideline:
"That was my biggest thing because I never had a game experience so I watched (QB) Josh (McCown) and what he was watching on the sideline. I watched (QB) Robert (Griffin III) when he was out there, when he came off, sits next to (associate head coach-offense) Pep (Hamilton), go over what play look at the defense see this see that. I wanted to see how they did things and the process of it because those are guys that have had success in the NFL, and I want to learn from them. At the same time, I'm going to have my own process, but it is kind of cool to see an actual live game and how Robert went about it and how he did things, how he came off and his demeanor and everything, which is something that I want to be ready to go when I get a chance."
On if he had to stay out of huddles and in-game conversations because he was inactive:
"No, I tried to stay in tune as much as possible. I had an earpiece. I stayed out of the way. I didn't want to jump in or get in the way of anybody, but I just kind of watched. I processed everything and then learn from it. Try to get every play call and went through in my head, if I was in what would I do on this or what is the defense, what is the coverage, what you try to watch from the sideline. Obviously it is a lot different when you are on the field."
On if he wore a headset the whole game:
"I had an earpiece in."
On if he can't truly know how ready he is to play until he gets into a game:
"Yeah, exactly, and that will show how much you prepared. For me it's you want to have the mental side of it going into a game. OK, I know they are going to do on this. I know their top three coverages. I know what they do on third down, what they do in the red zone. That is the mental side of it is getting prepared and knowing your opponent, knowing your offense knowing your gameplan and knowing everything, but then you have to perform it when you get out there. It is a lot different sitting in the film room, watching it and saying, 'OK, this is what they do on that' instead of being live in the game series and saying, 'OK, what are they doing? They are moving around.' For me, the mental side of it is the biggest thing for preparation when you are a backup or a third string or whatever it may be because you may not get as many reps. You try to get the mental side of it and know everything and know their gameplan and know your own gameplan. It is a different ball game when you actually get live reps, but I think the more you prepare the more chance you have to be successful.
On if he crossed paths with QB Kevin Hogan prior to Hogan joining the Browns:
"Yeah, I played against Kevin obviously numerous times when he was at Stanford. We went to the Manning Camp a couple times together so I got to get to know him outside of just playing against each other in a game. We went to the Senior Bowl together and did the whole Combine and everything. Kevin has been great. We picked up where we left off and we are helping each other and working with each other after practice competing and stuff. It has been going really well."
On how much McCown has helped him develop:
"He has helped out a ton. He really has. Just for me, just studying him at practice, whether it is even just walking into the huddle, not even how he is doing the play, just walking into the huddle talking in the huddle, talking to guys around after the play whatever it may be, and then obviously getting reps, but he has been great. He has been in the league now for 15 years. It is his 15th year playing football and he still takes the time to help me out and really stop in between things. Just last week he called me out. We were doing scout team and he called me out there and he said, 'Hey, watch how I do this.' I watched him, and he's like, 'Alright now go in there,' and I ran in there and did it and then he was just kind of rooting me on and helping me out. It is really cool to have a guy that is such a great player and a vet like that really reach out to a rookie and then help you out and want to take the time to see you get better."
On how long a 15-year career in the NFL truly is like and what he was doing 15 years ago:
"Yeah, we were talking about that the other day. I was in I think third grade when he started his journey. It is just funny. It is funny how you get to know someone that has been doing it for so long that you have watched before. I remember watching him. I watched football all the time. I remember watching him playing games and here I am in the same locker room and kind of using him as my mentor I guess in a way and helping me out, which is really cool how things work out. I could not be more blessed or more honored to learn from a great guy."
WR Terrelle Pryor:
On how QB Robert Griffin III will handle another injury:
"He is a strong-minded guy so he is going to have to deal with that, especially on the emotional side and come back strong just like he has done before. He has been great up to this point. It is tough for him. I saw when he took the hit, I knew it was tough for him. You could see it in his eyes that he was uncomfortable."
On his work with QB Josh McCown:
"Josh is awesome. Just like Robert, I cannot wait to be out there with Josh. He will be out there slinging it. If you go back and watch the games last year, any game that Josh played in even back when he was playing in Chicago, he threw (Cardinals WR) Larry Fitzgerald's first touchdown back when he was in Arizona. Josh has been in this league a long time. Just like Robert, I am very excited to play with Josh. He can do it. He can lead us and give us a great opportunity to beat the Ravens. That is what we need."
