Opening statement:
"Another good day. Another good day of practice. Another good day of meetings. Have to continue to stack those things together."
On if Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is as good on coaches film as he is on TV:
"He has [been], and they asked me last year when he was coming out – I did some work on him, too – and was very impressed with him on his tape coming out. He has done some really, really good things. On top of his very good abilities, I think he is very well coached. (Chiefs Head Coach) Andy (Reid) has a very good history of how he helps those guys and how he goes about the philosophy of how he develops his quarterbacks and stuff. The fact that they did not throw him to the wolves too early, he had a lot of good practice repetitions and stuff. When he did get in there towards the end of the year last year – we went back and took a look at that game, too; real games and preseason games last year we have taken a look. He is having a good year, and we are going to have to do our job."
On the last time QB Baker Mayfield and Mahomes were on the field at the same time:
"I have no idea. Are you going to tell me?"
On Mayfield and Mahomes combining for more than 1,700 passing yards their last meeting:
"Oh my gosh. I will have to… I don't want to say it, but typically, I talk about cutting my wrists on those kinds of things, but setting defenses back a 1,000 years."
On challenges facing a player like Mahomes, along with the personnel surrounding him:
"Really it to goes to his abilities are good, but it is all the other stuff around him. I have been on the field with over the years with lots of guy with big arms that could really sling it and fling it. He fits into that [prototype], but they have done a good job of surrounding him with people that take a short play and turn it into a long play or take a space play and turn it into a miss for the defense. Andy has always done a very good job with formation things to create those open areas spots for an athlete to make you miss. We have to do a good job in space defensively on the plays that they will create."
On how much college offensive schemes have translated to the NFL:
"There is a mixture. I briefly alluded to it yesterday. Andy, I think, was ahead in our league many years ago. From the time he first went to Kansas City, he was starting to do that with the people he had there with (Redskins QB) Alex (Smith). He was already doing some of this stuff there. I do not know if you know of a name of (former Nevada Head Coach and Chiefs consultant) Chris Ault, who he brought in there that was doing this and really invented a lot of the stuff that was going on that spread in the last 15 years in college football. He was in there on that staff. Andy has been doing this for quite a while, and it was not just because of Patrick. They were doing it with Alex, too. It is not foreign to them. There are a few things that are designed just strictly for Patrick and that kind of stuff. There were a few things that way that maybe he copied and pasted and brought from Texas Tech to do it a few more times, but he has been doing it."
On if he wants to see changes in the offense:
"What I want to see is for us to as a team – it is not just one particular area – we all have to be on the same page on how we blend things together and keep the game together. When the offense separates the score, defensively, it changes on what we have to do. When it is a tight, close tough game, it changes things for the offense of what we are doing, too, and the special teams from a field position battle and a field position providing field position. All of that stuff has to work together. In all honesty, we all have to play better – every single phase of our team and play a team game."
On offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens in his new role:
"He has done great. What I say is this – you will be off and running with this too when I say it – calling plays is not that hard. Executing plays is hard. We are calling what we have been practicing. Getting practice, saying the play and going through it and all of that stuff, the difficult part is executing. He has been a part of that his whole life. He is a former quarterback, too. It is not that hard. Executing is hard. Transitioning it is hard to the environment that you are in be it weather or be it imposing competition because a guy is physically more dominant than you. All of those things have to mix into the play calling part of it, and it has been good. I think the players have really practiced well on that side of the ball. They are paying attention to him, and it has been pretty fun."
On if there are opportunities to incorporate plays similar to Oklahoma's offense:
"They are already here. They are already here. It was here for (QB) Tyrod (Taylor). We were already doing those things so it is what it is."
On if he will make important situational football decisions for the Browns offense:
"We will be in it together. There was a big part of practice today about that. We will all be in it together on that. I even have some more specific reporting things that are going to be going on and some specific meetings tomorrow about that. We will be looking to do everything we can to extend plays, extend series and defend series. It will not just be from one side of the ball. It will be coming from all three phases."
On Chiefs RB Kareem Hunt:
"He is a really good football player. We see and several of us that have been together on the defensive staff for several years – there are a few of us that have been together for quite a while – we see some similarities there – I will go ahead and smile when I say that – he does some (Raiders RB) Marshawn Lynch things when Marshawn was in Buffalo really young in his career. We see some of the similarities there on how not only is he a good space player and I think he has improved each year that he has been in the league with Andy and those guys – he has improved his pass part of the game, too – but his run awareness and his open field type stuff, he is a powerful young man. We are going to have to do a good job tackling him in space. We dedicated quite a bit of what we are doing in practice to those areas that we see him being elite right now. I can say the word elite. He is a very good tackle breaker."
On if WR Rashard Higgins and DB E.J. Gaines are expected to play this week:
"We will see. It is a day-by-day process on that, and one of the things that we are and myself being in included is we are alert to seeing how they do day by day. Just because they are back today does not mean until Sunday that we get to Sunday [if they will play]. We have to see that progress in them. They are passing the steps that we set up for them. Each day is a step so we will see."
On defensive coordinators adjusting to the NFL offenses this year with their blitz percentages as it relates to high point totals across the league:
"How am I doing? What am I doing?"
On having a blitz percentage of approximately 41 percent:
"Yep (laughter). I will say [cha-ching]. That was right. That is exactly what they told me upstairs. I have a report that they give to me on that."
On if defensive coordinators adjusting their blitz percentages is a response to NFL rule changes:
"I would say this – an easy way for me to answer that would be yes, yes and yes. There are rule changes that are involved with that. There are concept changes that are going on with that with how people are opening up a little bit. The league is wanting as many points as possible, and how defenses no matter where you are at if you can't one on one and not pressure as much and affect the timing that is going on in the quarterback's head, then you have to bring another one. You have to bring another one. You have to bring another one so that the quarterback is blocking someone that is not blocked. That is how you affect the timing of a play. That has been kind of in my background of how I learned defense from (former NFL coaches) Buddy Ryan, George Allen, all of the people and Dick LeBeau and other people that have been on staffs with me that I have had a chance to learn from. That is starting to do more in the league that way. I am starting to see other people copy that, yes."
On clarifying yesterday's comment on being offered four jobs without an interview that he did not accept and if those were NFL jobs:
"Here is the deal, I probably never should have said that because I put other people on the spot. Those things were easy for me to do because if it is not right it is not right. I just chose not to do that and chose to keep doing what I was doing and got raise every time I stayed wherever I stayed. It just is what it is."
On RB Duke Johnson Jr.'s usage and if he will be more involved in the offense on Sunday:
"We have talked about that as a staff. Again, I push that to Freddie on how he is going to go about doing that, but we have talked about it and that is with everybody – guys in the special teams, guys on defense, guys on offense. I have been really impressed with how they have been practicing and the things they have been doing."
