During the 2013 season when Byron Storer served as the assistant linebackers coach for the San Diego Chargers, his father approached him to share some news.
Storer's grandfather had opened a bus company in 1952 that is now a fourth-generation bus family business. His father was opening a new branch in San Francisco called Storer San Francisco and wanted Storer to help him with the new branch. Storer took time over the course of the season to consider leaving the NFL to join the family business; and after the Chargers were knocked out of the playoffs, he joined his father in San Francisco.
He made Storer start as a shop assistant and then moved up to be a safety officer. Storer received his license and earned a SPAB (School Pupil Activity Bus) certificate. He then became a commuter shuttle contract manager for Apple and Google before being promoted to the operations manager and general manager. Over the course of four years, Storer said he learned how to manage people.
"I really had no experience whatsoever in the bus business besides washing buses. So, it was a learning experience," Storer said. "And the cool thing about the bus business is that the bus business is exactly like coaching in the fact that it's all about the drivers. Coaching is all about the players. Bus business is all about the drivers."
After about two years in the bus business, Storer realized his passion was in coaching. He had stayed in touch with Rich Bisaccia over the years – after he had played for Bisaccia with the Buccaneers from 2007-09 and coached under him at the Buccaneers and Chargers – and when an opportunity to join Jon Gruden's staff with the Raiders in 2018 presented itself, Storer jumped back to the NFL.
He has used his experience in the bus business and his four years with the Raiders, as well as his 10 years coaching under Bisaccia, to grow as a coach. Now, Storer has taken the next step in his coaching career as the new special teams coordinator for the Browns, his first coordinator position in his NFL career.
"The building blocks are here, the foundation of players is here," Storer said. "I'm really excited about the players. There's guys that I am going to work with that I'm pretty excited about, and it's Andre Szmyt and Rex Sunahara and guys like Winston Reid and Nate (Nathaniel) Watson and Easton Mascarenas-Arnold, Donovan McMillon, Chris Edmonds, Adin Huntington, Malachi Corley and Gage Larvadain."
As Storer and the Browns look to re-establish the success of special teams units, Storer believes a strong foundation of techniques and fundamentals will provide them the base to build off of in each phase of special teams. Once players are back at CrossCountry Mortgage Campus, they will begin with coverage and drill that phase. Then they will move on to punt protection and finally return phases. He plans to rely on drill work to start the process and allow his players to master the techniques and fundamentals needed.
For now, Storer and assistant special teams coach Keith Tandy are continuing to self-scout ahead of free agency and the draft. They are also using the offseason to develop their scheme for different phases, such as in the return game. Storer said his ultimate goal with all phases of special teams is to put his players in positions to succeed.
"I feel very confident that we can come up with any and all different types of return calls and blocking schemes and all that stuff, because we do a great job of studying throughout the league what other people do, what other people have success with," Storer said. "That's part of right now when you're doing self-scout, you're doing free agency, you're doing the draft, but you're also taking a look at the top five units at every phase. So, you're also getting ideas for how you can improve the return game by watching those people that did it really well this year."
Storer also sees opportunities with the dynamic kickoff rule. Now two seasons into implementation, Storer views the rule as new phase of the game that is introducing room for more strategy, creativity and innovation to create levels of coverage. He holds a philosophy of playing smart and limiting their opponents in that phase of the game.
And while all phases of special teams play substantial roles over the course of the game, Storer believes punt coverage and punt protection are the most significant.
"It all starts with punt in the fact that it's, to me, the most important phase there is," Storer said. "And that's kind of where I start with my players, too, is like, where are they going to play on our punt team? Are these guys going to be guards, tackles, wings, personal protectors? Can they play outside? Because if they can't play on punt, I'm probably not going to be fighting for them on game day. That's the truth."
