On how he is feeling:
"Better. Just been rehabbing it the past few days and doing treatment numerous times a day, and it is feeling better."
On if he will practice today:
"Yeah, I'm going to practice. I'm going to get a little practice in today, here and there and just see how it feels and then throw. I got to throw yesterday a little bit. It is just a little sore but it is just day to day. The best part about it is it is improving. It feels a lot better."
On the biggest factor when throwing:
"It is just sore. It is more so uncomfortable than anything. I have been rehabbing two to three times a day the last few days and spent a lot of time in there and ice and doing a lot of movement stuff. It is definitely feeling a lot better than it was obviously on gameday and the last few days."
On clarification his injury is his chest not his shoulder:
"Yes, it is chest/rib area. There are not a whole lot of movements that make it too sore, but throwing is obviously one of them. Just continue to make it feel better. I'm going to get some throws in today and get some work in today and see where it goes."
On stating he heard something when he hit the ground:
"Yeah, at first, I thought it was my shoulder the way I landed. Like I said, I heard a weird noise and didn't know what it was so I didn't want to move my shoulder because I didn't know exactly what it was. Then, I started feeling pain in the chest/rib area and kind of got shortness of breath. It was really uncomfortable. Luckily, there is no break. It is just a very uncomfortable feeling. I tried to go back in. I fought with the trainers to go back in, but the smart move was to stay out."
On if he will be ready to start on Sunday:
"I'm taking it day to day right now. That is the plan. That is my goal is obviously is to be ready to go on Sunday. I have to get through practice first and go day to day and just see how it feels getting the full reps, throw the pads on and see how it feels."
On mentioning pain when he throws:
"It doesn't necessarily hurt. It is just a little uncomfortable. That is obviously getting better. It is better than it was. It feels a lot better than it was a couple days ago, the past few days. I'm just continuing to rehab it and eliminate that pain and do whatever I can to speed up the recovery."
On his rehab process:
"Just different movements, movements that are uncomfortable maybe just kind of rep those and do different things and continue to keep the shoulder loose, too, in that area and a ton of ice."
On if it affects his left or right side:
"Left side."
On if he will need to wear a flak jacket:
"I'm not sure. That will be obviously up to the trainers. My main goal, my main focus is just getting ready to play Sunday. Whether I get a ton of reps today or how uncomfortable it feels, I still want to stay in this mentally and get as many mental reps as I can if I'm not in there."
On his position among the Browns QBs if healthy, given QB Josh McCown is returning to practice:
"My plan is the same as it has always been – just continue to prepare. That is obviously (Head) Coach (Hue) Jackson's decision. He makes the call on all of those, but I'm going to continue to keep the same process and continue to prepare like I have the last few weeks."
On the Browns' TD drive prior to his injury:
"For me, it was getting more comfortable. Like I said after the game, just starting to feel more and more comfortable the more reps I get in game situations. It was unfortunate. I was very upset because we were moving the ball really well on that drive and getting into a rhythm. Unfortunately, obviously, I had to come out. I'm just getting more comfortable with the offense, getting more comfortable with (WRs) Terrelle (Pryor Sr.) and Hawk (Andrew Hawkins) and the other receivers and running backs in there and getting more into the rhythm of the game."
On if he talked with OL Spencer Drango about working harder to get open:
"(Laugher) Yeah, they covered it well. We were hoping to get man (coverage) on that play, and he was excited all week so it is unfortunate. Good job by Hawk. We practiced all week with getting Drango the ball. Obviously, they covered it well and played zone. Hawk did a great job of coming back to the ball and helping me out."
On the distance of the pass to Drango on Sunday, if he was open:
"I'm not sure. Depends on how fast he got out, I guess, but you don't want to get it to him not too deep, make it harder, just get it to him pretty quick. They had a great call for that and it didn't work out."
On his relationship with Titans QB Marcus Mariota and competing against him Sunday:
"I never got to play against him in college, unfortunately, but I got to know him over stuff like the Manning Camps in Louisiana and different quarterback camps and stuff like that. He is awesome. We became good friends, and we talked throughout the season. His last year, we got to talk a lot and everything, but it will be exciting. He played in the Pac-12, and I played in the Pac-12 so it is going to be an exciting game. He is a great quarterback. He is a great player. He can put up a lot of points so you have to be very effective on offense."
On not playing against Mariota in the Pac-12:
"We switch. When they are not a Pac-12 South team, we switch every two years so my sophomore year and junior year, we played Oregon State both years instead of Oregon, and then when we did play Oregon my senior year, he was already gone. When we played against him, I was not the starter yet. My redshirt freshman year when (Bears QB and former USC QB) Matt Barkley was still there we played against them, but I was not playing."
On how much more the hits hurt in the NFL compared to the Pac-12:
"It depends. Obviously, there are some hits like that one that you can't do anything about. He made a great play on it and definitely was in some pain. Yeah, the guys in the NFL are bigger, faster, stronger. You have to continue to protect yourself and be smart with the football and try to eliminate some of those hits.
On what happened on the play against the Patriots when Kessler got hurt:
"They called the right defense at the right time. We were hoping to get man on that and hoping he was going to be man on the back, but he ran through. The one thing that we did not want them to do, they called, and he made a great play."
On if he has always been this tough and if he has received inspiration from QB Josh McCown:
"I talked to Josh after, and what made me so upset was I watched him a couple weeks ago, refuses to come out. I was trying to do that, I was trying to go back in and begging them to let me go back in, but at the same time, they were saying, 'You have to think longevity.' You don't want to go in and make it worse and be out longer and continue to get hit there or something happen in a game where it gets worse. I had to accept that. Unfortunately I did not get to go back in, but that one hurt me really bad not being able to go back in there."
On giving consideration to resting this week to allow more time for a full recovery:
"I'm just day to day like Coach said. My goal, obviously, completely is to come back this week. I want to be back on the field as fast as I can and get ready to play, but that will be Coach's decision and the decision of the trainers to see where I'm at and obviously today at practice I will get to get some reps in there and throw and see how it feels getting full-speed reps and throwing the football."
On his reaction if Jackson renamed McCown the starting QB:
"I just continue to work, continue to learn from Josh, continue to try to get better each week and not change anything. Keep my same process and the way I was the first two weeks. Continue to stay prepared and not get satisfied with anything and just continue to keep working harder and trying to get better."
On if the Browns training staff can quantify the injury:
"I think it is just more so how I feel. That is kind of what they have been measuring or asking me is day to day, how sore is it and how does it feel each day. It has been better, which is a good thing. It has gotten better each day, and that is something that I want to keep doing is keep improving until we get to Sunday."
On if he has a gut feeling now if he will play Sunday:
"Obviously, that is what my mindset is, but it is hard to say with the game being a couple days away. That is my main goal is to do as much rehab and treatment as necessary and get back as fast as I can."
On if he was pleasantly surprised about how he felt on Monday:
"Yeah, it still hurt. Sunday night after the game was pretty painful. Monday was a little better, and I got to do some treatment that day. Throughout the day Monday, it started feeling better. It is still pretty painful, but it has gotten progressively better each day, which is a positive."
On if the Browns may have been able to keep the momentum if he wasn't injured, given the team responded to tie the game:
"Yeah, I think that is what upset me the most, like I said, is we were getting in a rhythm there on offense and moving the ball. Obviously, they are a great offense and (Patriots QB) Tom Brady is a great quarterback. There are a lot of things offensively that we would have to continue to fight through when we got the ball and keep putting points up, but that is something that you don't know for sure because of the situation that happened. Where we were at that point in the game and having that long drive establishing the pass game and being able to move the ball was something that was a positive. Obviously, I would have loved to stay in the game and continue to build off of that, but unfortunately, I had to come out."
