Included below are select quotes from interviews with the following Browns players during today's media availability:
- WR Corey Coleman
- QB Robert Griffin III (full transcript)
- LB Christian Kirksey
- WR Terrelle Pryor Sr.
WR Corey Coleman:
On how excited he is to play with QB Robert Griffin III:
"It is exciting. We are happy our brother is back, and I know he is happy, too. We are excited for him."
On how Griffin has looked in practice:
"He looks really good. He is really taking to coaching. He is doing everything he needs to do to prepare himself to have a great game."
On if Griffin can give the offense a spark:
"I feel like he can help us out. We all had a really good practice this week so we are excited to see and play. He is excited, too. He has done a hell of a job being the leader that he is and communicating and just making sure that he has not missed a beat since he left."
On what Griffin's mobility brings to the Browns offense:
"He can run. He is super fast, super athletic. The play is always alive so another thing they preach about, if he is around there moving around, be alive, especially for the receivers because you never know when he can take it and while he is scrambling look down field and chuck it 80 yards. He has a really strong arm."
On the chemistry he showed with Griffin early in the season and if that can be revived:
"Right, we have been connecting really good out there. If it is something small like I did not get my depth or he did not make the proper read, we talk about it and we are real mature about it. He has done an unbelievable job stepping right back in and taking over the leadership role and stuff."
QB Robert Griffin III:
On how he learned from Head Coach Hue Jackson that he would start:
"We just sat down and talked. He made the decision, and I am excited about it. I am excited to get a chance to go out and play this beautiful game with these guys. We had a nice little audition today for snow and cold. You guys got out of there really fast (laughter). It is a good feeling. There is still a lot of work to be done getting ready for this game and then just going out and trying to play the best we can and execute our offense."
On Jackson's message was about his opportunity:
"Every opportunity that you get in life only lasts as long as the lifetime of the opportunity. Coach has said that not just to me but to everybody since we first got here. It is nothing [new]. He did not give me any special message or anything like that. He just told me, 'Hey, I feel like you give us the best chance to win, and let's go do this.'"
On Jackson saying that he has a variety of throws he can make, including a 'snowball' and if that was a joke or serious:
"(Laughter) Yeah, everybody's gameplan for bad weather games is different. Some coaches believe you just stick with your gameplan, some believe you run the ball more and we will find out what we do and what the conditions are on Sunday. I am glad that he thinks I have a variety of throws (laughter). I want to give him confidence that he can call whatever he wants."
On starting his first home game with the Browns:
"It is special. As soon as I signed here, all the rave was about how awesome the Dawg Pound is, and we are going to need them there. I know it is going to be cold and it is going to be snowing. We want them to come out and support us. We know we have not done very much to make them excited, but we plan on doing that not only this game but for the next three afterwards. Right now, all we have is Cincy and all I have personally is this opportunity with this team. I am excited about it."
On how well he has connected with and reestablished chemistry with the Browns WR corps this week:
"It is just about trust. You have to trust that they are going to be where they are supposed to be. Our receivers have a great leader in (WR) Andrew Hawkins. He is always on them. He is basically raising all of our rookies and teaching them how to be pros. It is really cool to see that dynamic. I trust that when they are in their meetings they are doing everything they possibly can to catch every single thing that is thrown their way, and I am trying to do everything I possibly can to get them the ball. I trust that they will be where they are supposed to be and will make plays."
On if he will wear a glove on his throwing hand during Sunday's game:
"No."
On if he will wear a glove on his non-throwing hand:
"I will on my left hand (laughter). Come on now (laughter)."
On his hoodie with the phrase 'No pressure. No diamonds' and where he first heard the term:
"It is not anything that I coined, per say. It is not an original. Growing up with my Baylor family, (former Baylor head coach) Coach (Art) Briles, Coach Kaz Kazadi and all of the strength coaches down there, they were trying to change the culture and we would have these chants that we did at the end of our workouts, whether we were doing abs or running. 'No pressure, no diamonds' was one of them because for a long time at Baylor, there was no pressure on anybody to get anything and there was no opportunity to get a diamond, which we looked at as a bowl ring or a championship because no one had set that standard. We used that motto to kind of build our way to what we became to say that in December you want to have pressure on you to win. You want to have the opportunity to get a diamond, and that is where it came from and to the Heisman speech. That was all directed back at all my brothers at Baylor that helped me get to where I was at and that trophy culminated that. That is where it comes from. No pressure, no diamonds.'"
On if he has come to embrace that phrase during his NFL career:
"I have. I definitely have, and it is nothing that I force on anybody, but it speaks volumes to what we are going through here, too. We are trying to change the culture, and we want to get late in the season next year and have an opportunity to make a run for a championship."
On how he personally views the term 'pressure' and pressures on him:
"Oh no, none at all. You can't wear a no pressure, no diamonds shirt and then say you feel pressure (laughter)."
On if it is the pressure to get back his form of 2012:
"No, not at all. I am just trying to do everything I can here with this team to try to help us win games, and that is the bottom line. It is not about next year. It is not about the next game. It is about this game, and it is going to be a challenge. I am putting it all on the line for my team coming back from the injury that I suffered, and I know they are doing the same thing for me. There are guys in here that are all banged up, and they will go out there on Sunday and they are going to ball out. There is no pressure as far as those other things. You can't focus on those big picture things. You have to focus on the little things that is, re-IDing the protections, getting us in the right run plays and making the throws, and everything else will fall into place."
On learning the preciousness of each opportunity to start, given this will be his second in two seasons:
"You definitely realize that. It is a blessing. It is a blessing to have a team in your corner. It is a blessing to have brothers that are going to go to battle with you. It is a blessing to have coaches that are in your corner. It is all about being in the right situation at the right time. My job is to make sure that this is the right situation and the right time. I am very appreciative. It is a blessing to play in this league. It is an honor. You want to go out and have legendary Sundays."
On still having a chance to show that he can be the Browns' QB of the future:
"My job is to go out there and make them believe that. Every single day that you come into the building, you have to show the coaches, show the organization that you are going to do what it takes to be that guy. That has not changed just because they named me starter or just because you are playing. It is an everyday thing. It is not just a Sunday thing. That has always been my focus is just to come in here and show my teammates that I can do this for them. If we all do our job equally, we can go out there and win football games, and that is the bottom line."
On the fact that this upcoming Sunday will mark 364 days since the Browns last win and how much the desire to win has been in the conversation:
"It is every day, and nobody wants to go winless. We only can do something about it on Sundays because that is when it counts, but every day leading up to Sunday we are working our tails off to make sure that we can put a good product out there. Everybody in this locker room is singularly focused on this game and giving ourselves an opportunity to get that elusive win that we have been chasing."
On if he proved something to himself over the last couple weeks of practice in terms of being ready to play:
"Yeah, I had to go out and throw the ball and be able to make all the checks. It is one thing to sit on the side and do mental reps, and it is another thing to step in there and actually make the calls. I just had to show that to myself that I am on top of it. All the work with the guys after practice and the extra meeting time has paid off. That is really what I had to show myself like we talked about. As far as getting hit, that is just something that will be in the game and we will see what happens."
On changes along the Browns OL and blocking for his athleticism:
"My job is to make it easy on those guys. Get the ball out in the right timing and then when plays break down, get out of the pocket. That is basically what it comes down to. It is not about just doing your job or just blocking the guy for this amount of time. We talk about perfecting your job, being the best at what you do. No matter how many guys have been in there or how many combinations it has been, I am confident in those guys that are in front of me because I know how hard they work. I know what they are about. I know what drives them. We are all so focused on getting that win. I know that those guys are going to block their tails off."
On if he tells OL what he personally likes to do in certain situations:
"No, I am not sure anybody ever does that. The game of football is a natural thing. That is why it is beautiful. Like I said, it is hard to get 11 guys to do the same thing at the same time so I can't tell them 'Hey, I am going to break this way or that way. I am going to do this or that.' You just feel it, a natural feel of the game. I just ask them to block as long as you can (laughter). It will help us make plays. Receivers will get open, the line will block, and we can go from there."
On if he will be wearing special cleats this Sunday:
"Yeah, yeah. I will have some 'Family of Three' cleats for the My Cause, My Cleats. I will take a nice little picture of it for y'all and get them out to you. My foundation was set up a year ago. We help underprivileged kids, military families and people who have been victims of domestic abuse. I really want to get that cause out there and put on for those people."
On what he saw on tape from the Philadelphia game:
"Just missed opportunities. We can't have those from my part. I'm excited to get back out there and really help this team move the ball down the field, score points and win a game. That is really what it comes down to."
LB Christian Kirksey:
On the Bengals success on offense in the first game this season and what the Browns have to do to make sure that they cannot repeat such success:
"We just have to play better. Simple as that. They had some big plays on us that they just had some athletes that just made some plays, and that happens. That is football. We just have to eliminate those from happening. Eliminate the big plays, and I think we will be fine and just come out knowing that they are going to try to run the ball. Their tight end is back, (Bengals TE Tyler) Eifert so we know that they are going to try to get him the ball. We just have to make sure that (Bengals QB) Andy Dalton does not become a spark by running the ball, passing the ball because he can do both. A lot of people do not see his athletic ability like that, but he is an athletic quarterback and we just have to make sure we eliminate him from making those plays."
On if he will be wearing special cleats for the My Cleats, My Cause:
"Yeah, I actually am. I am going to do two different associations, and one of them is going to be for lupus and the other is apoplectic stroke. I am excited about that. That is pretty cool that the league is allowing it to happen another week since we were on bye week. I am looking forward to it. It should be fun."
On goals he and the Browns defense have set for the last four games:
"Just to eliminate the big plays. That is for one. Get running backs under 100 yards a game. That is personally for me that I would like our team to do and just go out with a win. That is the most that you can ask of these guys and start the second half fast because that has been a problem for us in the past. We just want to start the second half fast, start the game fast, and we will be fine."
On Bengals RB Jeremy Hill having big games against the Browns and how to stop him:
"Do the same thing that we have been doing with him. Just play him physical. He is a good running back, and we have to respect his game so we just have to not allow him to be a spark and just make sure we hold him."
WR Terrelle Pryor Sr.:
On if he can gauge how excited QB Robert Griffin III is to return to the field this week:
"Yeah, he is really excited. He has not played in, what? 11 weeks? 12 weeks? Something like that. Anybody that know Robert, he loves the game and he works extremely hard so that is the type of stuff that you like to see in your quarterback and you also can see that he is exited. It is good to have him back and we are excited to play on Sunday with him."
On QB-WR chemistry and if the Browns WR corps has good chemistry with Griffin now:
"The chemistry is good. It is tough to say because a lot of times, a lot of receivers they are with their quarterbacks for a long time and they are with their quarterbacks in – which we were, we were with him in spring and working with him, but then we had this long period where we did not so it is like kind of that stuff goes away. You hope that you keep on building it during the week and as the week goes on. Today's practice was pretty good. He threw the ball pretty darn good so it is just a process and just continuing to get better and keep on working on that stuff to give us the best chance, and I think we have a great chance for Sunday."
On if the Browns talk about the fact that it has been 364 days since the Browns last win:
"No, I just think we have to go game by game because things that happen all this past 12 weeks were that we did not execute and we beat ourselves for the most part. If we can execute and not turn the ball over and get some turnovers on defense, we may be able to pull this one out Sunday."
