Opening statement:
"Another good day. They were chirpy. Moving around pretty good. Competing really well. It was a really solid practice. I thought we got a lot done today, just like every day. There has not been that many step backs in any point in time. We have to continue on in the meetings this afternoon. Talking about a lot of different things that we are all on the same page. Probably will be indoors tomorrow. We will see with the weather rolling through here. It was a good day, a very good day. Was pleased to see how focused they were."
On how many gifts he has received from the Steelers this week:
"None personally. I have just heard some things from family and that kind of stuff. There are several guys on that staff that we have been on several staffs together with, too, and a couple of players over there I have had the chance to coach. It is what it is. We have to go ahead and do our job. It is about how we focus to do our job. That is just one of the other window dressing things that goes on out there."
On Ravens OLB Terrell Suggs' sustained success during his long career:
"I tremendously respect him not only as a payer but as a person, too. Here is another guy, and I do not know if you guys can remember back that far, that people wanted to say, 'Was he really fast enough to play? Where do you draft him?' All of that stuff? He plays above and beyond measurables all of the time, although he has great measurables, too. I just shake my head about people wondering whether he could play as well at the NFL as he did in college. He was so powerful and doing so many things. He was on our list where I was at the time. I would have loved to have had the opportunity to coach a guy like that. He has set a great example there. Been going there for so long that I think somebody said upstairs that he is going to have a chance this week to where he is the all-time most games played by a player in Ravens history. I think he passes (Pro Football Hall of Fame LB) Ray Lewis, someone said. That does not come by accident. It comes by being prepared every single second of every day, staying healthy and doing your job. He has been remarkable in his career."
On preparing the Browns defense to play a more 'old-fashioned' Ravens offense and running game:
"People have criticized me for a long time about being old fashioned. That is OK. That is a compliment on being able to move throughout the years and as the game changes and how you adapt to what is actually being done with the athletes of the day and the game of the day. They have done a very good job of adapting to how to take care of the players they are coaching but still keep that old-fashioned demeanor, that old fashioned toughness. It has always been something that when you get ready to play the Ravens, no matter what division you were in, that was part of it. Back when I was at the Titans and then all of a sudden playing against them, that was a part of our persona going against each other all of the time. They have continued that throughout all of the processes. I think (Ravens Head Coach) John (Harbaugh) and his staff have done a great job of getting that done."
On adjusting the Browns defense to play a Ravens offense with a higher rushing propensity:
"It is about defending every blade of grass, whether it be in run or it be in pass. It is about field position. It is about doing what you have to do on defense to play the game the way it is supposed to be, three downs and out. They do a great job of taking it to the four downs. You will see them do a lot of fourth down stuff because they are so powerful on the line of scrimmage. We have to be in the same mindset on the line of scrimmage. Really in the last several weeks as you have seen all of the different fourth downs that we have gone for, we have that confidence here in our offensive line and we have that confidence here in our defensive line and that kind of stuff, too. It will be a dog fight."
On if there are aspects of the team that are unfinished after the past seven weeks:
"We have a long ways to go as far as the maturity of the team because this team will continue to grow. There is a good young team in there. We will continue to grow. This is the next step in the process of taking every single second of every single day seriously when you step inside of the building, when you step inside of the white lines and when you are doing your job at this level. It is an honor to be at this level in your career in time to be able to make a living. There have been a lot of guys who have broken the ground for us for hundreds, fifties, twenties and tens of years ago of setting the game up to the way it is. We have to go in and finish this game strong. It is about playing every game we step inside of the white lines a certain way. That is how this young team is learning how to do that. I think it is going to continue to improve as long as that mindset stays there."
On if any extra practice time was allotted to special teams work following a blocked punt and missed PAT last week and the state of the Browns special teams units:
"Every second of every day… Part of the game is playing the total game chemistry. Offensively, when you turn the ball over, defense has to step up. Special teams something happens, defense has to step up. All of a sudden, defensively you let something go, offense has to step up. When you play the three folds of the game, we always have play each other, and we always have to have each other's back and continue to help each other grow in that area. Then selectively, yeah, we have our hands full this week. I think they are extremely well coached in the special teams. We have to play very solid. Each and every week, it is that way, but this week we have even more emphasized how we have to win our battle in that one on one and as a team in special teams in that area to fight for field position, to fight for points and all of those things that can be caused because of a special teams situation. I know our guys understand that, but the things that happen in what we call sudden change or adversity, we have situational awareness of what the opponent moves into if they make a big play that way and how we have to come and get each other's back, help rebound as a team and keep it in a winning fashion."
On the Browns development since the last meeting with the Ravens:
"I think that would be something for you to ask them. Winning cures a lot of ills. Winning promotes confidence. I have said this before in other things on fine motor skills, faster reactions, faster speed and more power. All of those things can be innovated through your body when your mind is confident, your mind is ready to go and your mind has no doubt that this is the direction that you have to propel yourself. When you see 11 guys doing that together, you are doing it together as a team. Wining promotes all of that. We have to continue to do it that way."
On how success at the end of this season can carry into next season:
"You hope that it dominoes step by step by step by step. How everybody fits together, that will be something that we will talk about in the offseason because right now our focus has to be on the Ravens. We have to be it that way."
On the Browns helping WR Breshad Perriman's development this season after a slower start to his career with the Ravens:
"I take a lot of pride in that. I really do. Seriously, I have taken pride in that for years and years and years. When all of a sudden someone says, 'Well, Gregg got a chance to do that. How come they play for him and they did not play for us?' I take that personal. It has not been successful all of the time, but there have been a lot of those types of people that we have had the chance to touch and help grow. Give the young man credit. He gets the credit for understanding to come in here to interview correctly. He works so hard. It brings a smile to my face, you ask me another question about him because if you would have seen how he practiced today, he shifted gears a few times out there at practice when other people maybe not have gone as fast or as hard as he did. It caused people to kind of open wide eyes by look how hard he is working today. That goes a long way. Now, when your number gets called in the ballgame and you produce when your number gets called, everybody likes you even better and you do even more. His teammates have accepted that, too."
On the Browns defense preparing for the Ravens' play-action passes:
"Play-action effectiveness comes from run effectiveness. If you can't run the ball effectively, then what is play-action? It is nothing because no one takes the fake. In that respect, you have to understand what your scheme responsibility is. Is it being in coverage or run? The people in coverage, it can't be this simple – it goes back to the old days of football all the way back in its oldest days. If you are supposed to cover somebody, stay back there and cover them. Do not let your eyes tell you a lie. When their eyes start looking in the wrong place is when that gets caught. Their effectiveness in the run game makes you possibly put your eyes in the wrong place. We have to over-coach do not put your eyes there."
On a Bengals player complimenting Mayfield's pre-snap anticipation:
"All good quarterbacks do that and he is not just the normal rookie. You are right. All good quarterbacks should have an understanding of where the ball is going to be going before the ball is snapped. Then there will be a few times that you get caught off guard, but he has a very quick reset, too. I think you guys have seen how fast he can reset if he guessed wrong before the snap because everybody is guessing. You do not know until the ball is snapped. We do a really good job with that defensively on calls and resets or change of minds and that type of stuff. It does not take Baker very long to reset and change his mind to get on to the next thing and on to the next part of the read of the play. That shows you how smart he is."
On the dangers of a QB relying too much on his pre-snap read and not adjusting after the snap:
"That is all part of being wrong at the point of attack and sometimes you are, but then also, you have to do your job well enough so that the person that is at the point of attack makes it and wins or deflects the ball out of the way and causes it to be another second down or third down, and get on to the next play."
On if LB Genard Avery went through a lull during the middle of the season:
"No, that was one of those thing I told you guys I was smiling. I just send messages joking around. He is a kid that can take a joke. I love the young man, and it is a good thing you could not be able to print everything I have say to him every day. All the different ways I say the things to him. I was on him so hard today. The other players were joking behind the scenes today about trying to pick up his slack because I was on him so hard just joking with him, too, but also causing a little bit more focus in some ways because he has some very, very good skills. Then when you turn him loose, he can wreck things up really good. I think that you will see that possibly some people got away from doing not quite as many double teams to him last week, and he was able to cause them to hurt."
On if Avery will play more off of the line of scrimmage as his career progresses:
"The big thing is playing him in the best place we can play him. The more that he knows, the more different places he will play, but he is pretty good at the position he is doing right now. I think you guys have seen me more fend to that package. I used to use that package a lot of other places when I had a guy like that but did not have a guy like that last year. This year, we do so we morphed in to that hybrid linebacker/defensive end position where we really use him a lot. That is because we adapt to the players here not to what I like to call – the players here."
On if he has studied a lot about the mind and body:
"Yes, [it is one of] my passions, too. Second time around, I married a shrink so I gave her a full-time job of trying to keep up with my mind I guess (laughter). That is one of my passions to do that, and I'd love to do all extra studying on those things because it helps not only me. It helps other people."
On if studies books on the mind and body:
"Books everything. Books and medicine. Had a chance to also too one of the things if you guys ever get a chance in South L.A. to go to brain treatment center out there. It is a phenomenal place out there that does a lot of things with our military. They have more records about what is going on with everybody's brains and stuff and anybody in the National Football League thought. I had a chance to go out there and spend some time with them and do a lot of different studies with them while I was out there in my downtime."
