You cannot start getting ready for next season until you have picked up the pieces from the last one. Just ask Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, who has spent much of his between seasons time trying to figure out what happened to his highly regarded defense that largely disappeared in Cleveland’s season-ending 45-14 Wild Card loss to Houston last year.
That loss came just three games after the Browns rolled to a 36-22 victory over that same Houston team. Both games were played in Houston, so the venue should not have been a factor.
“No excuse for it,” said Schwartz, speaking at the Browns’ organized team activities session at the team’s facility in suburban Cleveland. “There were a couple times in there that even as a play caller, I started pressing. The game started getting away from us a little bit and I started pressing, and a lot of times it just makes it worse.”
Through virtually the whole season the Browns’ defense was rated as the best, or not far off the best, of any defense in the NFL. That made the unit’s collapse in Houston even more baffling.
“It just seemed like the guys played a little bit out of character instead of just doing their job with physical toughness,” Schwartz said. “Hopefully that is a great learning experience for us the next time we are in that situation. I think the message is, when you get in those games it is who can be themselves the best? And I think that was not us.”
Since that loss to Houston in the Wild Card game the Browns hired former Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel as a coaching and personnel consultant, a hiring that has Schwartz excited.
“I’ve been very vocal about the respect I have for Vrabes, and the relationship that we have,” Schwartz said. “And I think it is awesome to have different sounding boards, having guys with experience in different things. And I know he has been a big help to (head coach Kevin Stefanski).
Jameis Winston, the Browns’ new backup quarterback took part in the OTA’s. That made him a popular speaker for the media, and, not surprisingly, the topic quickly turned toward quarterback Deshaun Watson, who is still on a limited program as he continues to rehab
from off-season surgery on his right shoulder. Much of the media’s questions to Winston were about Watson.
“I wanted to come here because the opportunity was here for me to serve and to give to my teammates,” Winston said. “And him (Watson) being one of the best quarterbacks in this league, being a quarterback that I have had seen him grow as a number one draft pick and just see his ascension as a player.”
Winston said he has been impressed by Watson.
“I’ve been so impressed with how he’s continued to stay locked in and focused,” Winston said. “I think we as a unit we have done a great job of allowing him to get the reps, the mental reps that he deserves. Our conversation has been, ‘Hey man, continue to do what you are doing because you’re doing an amazing job at it.”
Watson and Winston will both be working under Ken Dorsey, the Browns’ new offensive coordinator.
“I’m just happy that we’re able to communicate, and that’s very important to me because this is a new offense for me,” said Winston about working with Dorsey. “So, us communicating, me continuing to learn, and him being tough on us and challenging us to get better, challenging us to be quicker and faster has truly been a blessing.”
Watson is still following his post-surgery program, but Dorsey said he sees daily progress in Watson’s throwing, “as he gets more and more comfortable, and part of that is the mental side of things, too. So I think there is a lot of that involved with it as well, but you see him continue each day, ramping it up a little bit more and more. He threw the ball down the sideline, a vertical throw today. That is one I have not seen from him a lot because we have not pushed him to do that. So that was good to see.”