QB Robert Griffin III:
On OL Cameron Erving's progress at C:
"Cam is doing great. He played a little center in college. He's a big, physical guy, athletic. He's picking it up pretty quickly. He's got a couple of vets along his side to help him out along the way. It's been a great transition. I'm really happy with having him as my center."
On 'spreading the joy to the neighborhood' in reference to throwing balls over the fence when under pressure:
"*(Laughter) *I'm just being coachable. You have to practice the way you play. Sliding, throwing the ball away, all of those things, keeping us in positive down-and-distances, those are important. It seems funny, throwing the ball over the fence, but it's just a part of the process. You have to take everything into account."
On if it was intentional to throw it over the fence:
"I'm just throwing it away. Coach asked me to work on those things. If he says throw it away, I'm going to throw that thing as far as I can – all the way away."
On his confidence running, given his previous knee injuries:
"I feel great, and it's a blessing to come off of two knee surgeries like that and be able to run around out there like a kid. It's just a blessing. Thank God for allowing me to heal. Thankful to the trainers who helped me get back to this point and build upon that. It's been a blessing."
On having fun at practice and if it is a different kind of fun now:
"You can never take the fun out of the game. You have to enjoy the process. You just have to go out there and be yourself. You can't be anybody else. You can only be yourself. I like to have fun. I like to encourage guys. God blessed me with the ability to run a little bit. At quarterback, you don't get to do that too often so I have to get my conditioning in by chasing after guys, catching balls and just having a good time with them. I think it goes a long way with the guys. A lot of times we get a bad rep at quarterback of just sitting back there and not doing anything all day. I'm just trying to show them that I'm trying to work just as hard as they are."
On his goals when working out at O Athletik in Houston:
"I wanted to get leaner, be more explosive. I personally play a different brand of football. I wanted to make sure I maximize that. Then coming here with (Head Coach) Hue (Jackson) and (associate head coach-offense) Pep (Hamilton), being able to play the game from the quarterback position like you have to in the NFL, I felt like if I could get to be more lean and more explosive, it would make that process easier, as well. That's really what we focused on and to make sure when I came back to the team that I was eventually going to sign with that anything they would put me through was going to be easier than what I was doing. Coop (O Athletik's James Cooper) and those guys, they can get after you. It was a lot of fun working with Coop and Coach (Terry) Shea, I enjoyed that process."
On working with Shea:
"I also did a lot of great footwork stuff with Coach Shea and another quarterback coach I had. I'll leave him unnamed. He's probably out in the mountains somewhere with a long beard. It was great. It was a great process. At that time, I was unemployed and looking for a job. We really just tried to key in on all the things that I felt like I needed to improve upon and go from there."
On any lessons or things learned during his NFL career that can be applied to his opportunity now:
"In a short amount of time, in about four years, I've been through a lot of things in the NFL that a lot of guys don't experience in their entire time. I just try to draw upon those experiences and go out, have fun, play the game, master the process, trust the process and the results will come."
Wednesday marked the second day of the team's mandatory veterans' minicamp.
On if he has a sense of what it would take to win the starting QB job:
"Consistency every day. Go out and prove that you're the best guy for the job. That's everybody's task out there on the field from every position. Nothing is guaranteed. There's no entitlement in any part of this game. In the NFL, it's a blessing to play. When you get a chance to go out there, put on that helmet, put on that jersey that says 'Cleveland Browns,' then you have got to make the most out of every opportunity. You just go out there, be consistent, and not consistently good, not consistently average, be consistently great. Everything else will fall into place."
On his comfort with the offense during offseason workouts:
"The more time that you put into the system, and just being around Coach Jackson and Pep and the guys, at the beginning, we're just trying to figure it all out. Now, I think everyone feels a lot more comfortable with what we're doing, and we just have to continue to master it. That is our job when we're gone is to continue to master the system. When we get back got training camp, we can hit the ground rolling."
On if he has changed and is a new person after his four years in the NFL:
"You can't let life happenings change who you are. It can grow you as an individual. Adversity is an opportunity for your character to be tested, but you can't let it change who you are. I'm a person who believes people are genuinely good. Maybe I'm a fool, I don't know. I just think people are genuinely good until they prove you wrong, and you have to take that approach with everything that you do. As a football player, as a man, you just get up every morning and try to live for others. I enjoy that, and that will never change."
On how the situation at Baylor resonates with him:
"It's a tough situation, unfortunate situation for everybody involved. It's been heartbreaking, to be honest with you. That's pretty much all I can say about it. Baylor is in my prayers and my family's prayers. We wish the best for them."
On if he has been conscious of previous perceptions new teammates may have had of him when he joined the Browns and if it is a part of why he works so hard, given a teammate's comment that he is working hard:
"I'm not actively trying to do that. I think when you hear rumors, whatever. Guys are going to make their own judgement on you by what they see. The worst thing you can do is try to come in and be someone that you're not. When you ask me, 'Am I the same guy?' You have to be. What we say is guys' 'B.S. meters' go off really fast. If you're B.S.-ing them, they will know you're B.S.-ing them. I haven't actively tried to do that, but it means something to me that teammates said that because you just try to be who you are. People will see through what's a rumor and what are just things that happen in the NFL, compared to who you really are. I think that's the best thing you can do is be who you are, show them that what you might have heard maybe some of it's true, but if he went up here and said all that stuff is true, then I would be like, 'Aw dang,' but a lot of the stuff can be extremely false. You can come in here and prove to them who you really are, and that's what the blessing of a new opportunity with a new team and new organization has blessed me with – a chance to just go out, be myself and let guys make their own determination about who I am."
On if he is more relaxed after his departure from Washington and that he has a fresh opportunity with the Browns:
"It's just a blessing. Some guys love free agency, some guys don't. I hated free agency. I didn't know where I was going to be. It was an uncomfortable feeling not knowing if you're going to get a chance to play football again. When the Browns came calling, and everyone else did, I had a decision to make. It was a blessing to be able to come here. You just have to be able to make the most of your opportunity. There's a calming feeling when you know about what you're doing and how to get it done. Having the four years of experience in the league, through all the ups and downs gives me that sense of calmness, that sense of peace to know that all I have to do is go out there and play the game that we love."
On if sliding and throwing away are areas he felt he needed to improve prior to joining the Browns:
"Every day, I approach it the same way, back in Washington and here, at practice – you have to practice like it's a game. I think those are two of the things I didn't practice enough. I didn't practice throwing the ball away enough. I didn't practice sliding enough. That's why I slid last week, and that's why you see me breaking windows out there on the field (laughter)."
On what will be asked of him as a passer in the Browns offense:
"Coach said something extremely powerful today. He said, 'This is our offense. It's not Hue's offense. It's not Robert's offense. It's not (OL) Joe Thomas' offense. It's our offense.' You have to play within that system. I think that's the beauty of it. Whether he asks me to play form the pocket, play from the perimeter, run the ball, hand the ball off, whatever it is, throw it 40 times, throw it 20 times, play within the system and then use your God-given ability when the play breaks down to make everything right. I think that has been the focus. Play within the system. When it's not there, make something happen, or throw it away."
On leaving the note in his locker when he left Washington:
"My guy said, 'You can't change who you are.' If you're a person that's going to do good and try your hardest and give it everything that you have, you can't have a minor setback change that. I actually got that from a guy who's here with me (strength and conditioning/skills development) Joe Kim, who also came from Washington last year. He would give me inspirational quotes, and that one just stuck the best with me. I left it up there and someone stole it. One of my teammates stole it actually after I walked out of the locker room. It's just a really powerful statement to say that you got to persevere, you got to be who you are and don't let anything ever change that. Learn from your mistakes, but don't ever let anything change who you are at the core of who you are."
On if he feels wounded from things he hears about his time in Washington:
"No, I don't get wounded by it because I know the truth. At the end of the day, I'm blessed with a new opportunity to be here. I can't worry about what's going on back there. I don't worry about it. I don't see what comes out. I don't read the articles. That's not my focus. My focus is being a Cleveland Brown, changing the culture here and giving this city something to be proud of. I can't do that if I am focused on the past so I'm moving forward, I've been moved forward and focusing on this team."
On if he will work with Tom House after minicamp:
"Yeah, I'll work with Tom and continue to master the fundamentals, make it consistent so when we come to training camp I'm taking the same drop on the same throw every single time. Then mastering our system – the terminology, the verbiage, the kind of throws that we are going to be throwing in this offense and just make sure all that happens."
On if it would make a difference for his confidence if he was named the starting QB after minicamp:
"I think the guys when you step out there every day, they see how you work. They see your work ethic. They see your leadership ability and they buy into those things. They don't buy into who's the starter, who's not the starter. I don't focus on that. That's coach's decision. There's nothing that I can do, aside from going out there and ball out, that's going to change his mind. That's my plan to go out there, ball out, have fun and prove to the guys that I'm the guy that they should follow."