Opening statement:
"A good tempo day. A young team bounces back fast, and they did. Their bodies are sore [coming back] a day earlier. This is normally a day that they are continuing to get their bodies back and jumping on an opponent on a normal Tuesday. We did all of that yesterday. They came in today with a very good mindset, a very good practice, very good competition, excellent execution. (QB) Baker (Mayfield) had a really live arm today, too. All of those guys practiced well."
On how often he relies on his past experience as a head coach:
"I was a high school coach, too. I think some of the best coaches in the country are high school coaches. They take people who do not even know how to spell football and teach them how to play football. More importantly when you talk about that is that I think the things that I have learned through life are that you have to be a life coach first and then a football coach second. These guys have responded very well to that. We all should be able to improve not only as a player but as a coach, as a reporter in day-to-day experiences in life. It always helps that way if you are trying to grow as a person. I have been trying to do that in every aspect of whatever function or whatever responsibility I have been in."
On his coaching experience helping him as he did not have to be as concerned as learning the day-to-day tasks of a NFL head coach:
"I talk to and I believe that I have been a mentor to an awful lot of people. I think I teased you guys early on that on Father's Day – how many phone calls or texts do you get? I get 500 or 600 every year. Now, over 2,000 NFL players that I have coached. On Father's Day, I get tons and tons. My phone just blows up. Believing in the responsibility factor and understanding that as we grow through experience and being around a lot of different people, sometimes we labor over things that are not very important. Just focus on the things that are important and that is the routine of accountability for these guys and the function of every single day being that way. Say what you mean but mean what you say in respect to everybody is accountable not just a player but a coach or a trainer. Everybody is. That was the big calming part of it."
On DL Larry Ogunjobi playing through injury on Sunday:
"He really played solid. There really was not anything where we worried about or we could see him possibly compensating for it. It was not that way. He is sore. Gave him a day off today. He is sore, but he will be fine."
On if he ever imagined being a NFL head coach when coaching high school football earlier in his career:
"I should not be telling this one, but there is a really good story and Sports Illustrated ran with this a long time ago when I did not get the head high school job back where I grew up. I told everybody in there when I was leaving town that I would never leave town. I wanted to be a head high school coach, wanted to coach college and wanted to coach in the NFL, and they laughed at me. Twenty-six years later, everybody who was on that committee had to come back in town and take a picture of the Super Bowl trophy with me."
On his persistence to become a NFL head coach:
"I have ways felt like that: why should we put a cap on anybody's dreams? Why can't you do things if you put your mind to it? That has been a pretty good example for other people. I see that all of the time. You can't believe how many guys – well, you guys can – when you take a look at the backgrounds on some of these young men and the things that they have overcome in life to get to where they get the opportunity to be right here. It is not just ability. There is an awful lot of other discipline, concentration and focus issues that they have to be able to do to get an opportunity to be at this level and to play at this level. It is the same circumstance with me."
On Broncos OLBs Von Miller and Bradley Chubb as a duo:
"Pretty good. We have played (Texans DEs) J.J. Watt and (Jadaveon) Clowney. We have been playing lots of those types of people this year. Both of those guys have the opportunity or the challenge offensively of where you are dedicating an extra person in protection or where you try to schematically help yourself, but then individually, you have to be able to win. We have seen that this year. It will pose another big challenge. We have a lot of respect for them. We have to do our job."
On if limiting Watt and Clowney gives a blueprint for defending Miller and Chubb this week:
"I think it would cause everybody to probably take a look at we semi-know what we are doing. We should be able to continue to do those types of things but you have to be able to go execute now. It is not just on one particular play or one particular game. You have to be able to build off of it."
On his pre-draft evaluation of Bradley Chubb:
"Really liked him a lot. One of the things that we had on him and that really I had was a lot of inside information on him because the guy that was training him during all of the time of preparation and everything was a guy that was my D line coach for a long time. I had some great first-hand understanding of everything and would have loved to have been able to have him and (DB Denzel) Ward."
On if it was a tough decision for the Browns on who to select at No. 4 overall:
"It was. One of the things that I joked with you guys about was I did not think that Chubb could play press coverage as well as Ward (laughter). That is what we needed at the time, and we still do."
On DL Emmanuel Ogbah and not necessarily producing high statistics:
"Right, but he has been doing some really good things on knocking some of the things to other people. One of the things that we do all of the time is we give hard hat awards. It is the guys that just have to do the dirty job to go down there and just do their job. Other people might have a point or two better than you or a production number better than you, but you have to do your job to leverage the ball to them or leverage the protection to him. He was one of our hard hat award winners this past week. Those are things that you do."
On if Ogbah has regressed at all this season:
"No, he really has not. He is doing a lot of the things. I think if you track him from all of the tracking services and stuff in scouting is you see all of the different positions that he can play and does play for us. He plays a multiple-position package every week. Have no reservations about how or where he can play."
On how live Mayfield's arm is:
"Today it was off the charts. You will love this, the first thought in my mind was young, young arm, not tired. As we get older, you have to have more rest in between throwing them. From Major League Baseball, all of the things that you do in baseball and stuff in giving those guys rest. He had a live day on Sunday, but (snaps fingers) came back today and it looked like it was even more live today. The first thing I thought was 'young'."
On if the live arm could be a blessing and a curse for Mayfield and the offense:
"I would say this, I always think of it in a positive way because once you start going down that other road is when things start to multiply, domino effect and everything. He is extremely accurate. He is a really good decision maker. He learns from everything. The fact that he is as accurate as he is, it is never going to worry about him forcing the ball into a tight window. The good quarterbacks, some of the times when some of us may judge a throw that, 'Wow, that was not a very good throw' – why? Because it was on his back shoulder? It was on his back shoulder because that is the way that the guy [throws the player open]. (Saints QB) Drew Brees and some of those guys – (Pro Football Hall of Fame QBs) Joe Montana, Warren Moon, (former Broncos and Colts QB) Peyton Manning and all of the guys that I have been with or gone against – will throw the guy open. He is doing that. That is a natural thing. That is not something that can be overly taught at this level. If we have to spend a lot of time trying to teach that at this level, he probably will never ever get it."
On if he can recall a favorite road win as Bills head coach:
"No. Right now, all of those other things, if I probably reflected or had time to reflect, I really do not have time for any of that right now, especially on a short week. This is the most important game right here. To go on to that, it is more about those guys than me anyway."
On what has pleased him the most in his time as head coach of the Browns:
"A feeling of improvement of understanding about how good we can be and the buy-in approach that they understand it is more about us than the opponent and do not get wrapped up in the opponent so much that we do not focus on us enough. I did not say me as an individual because sometimes there are certain players that get awful focused about themselves. You have to get them to buy into us. We have good leadership behind the scenes that buys into any other people that start wandering off into individualism. They have bought into the 'us' part of it. That has been good."
On preparing to play in the elevation in Denver:
"I have done it so long and have been with many different decision-makers that have looked into that. We have looked into it in all different ways. We are going to go out there early enough to where the acclimation factor is beneficial to us. You have to go out there earlier than the 48-hour type of thing, which we will be out there ahead of that and everything. Then otherwise you go on gameday when you do all of the physiological studies and all of that stuff. A young team, it is even better when you are a young team than when you are an older team to get out there and do that. Our guys understand why we are leaving on Thursday and what we are doing with that. Now, you just have to play. I have not had the opportunity to play in that game in Mexico yet, the one that is even higher than Denver. I did have the luxury of playing in the very first game ever in Mexico City back in 1994, I think. We played the Dallas Cowboys at the Houston Oilers in a 10-and-a-half inch rain during the game, a monsoon. We won 6-0. It was not at altitude. It was right there at sea level. That was on big deal. I think that that stadium in Mexico City now is even tougher to play in. Our guys are ready to go on that. A young team helps us."
On producing takeaways this week after not creating as many the past two weeks:
"I'd like for you to help talk to the officials a little bit better so that we can go ahead and keep those (laughter). No, those are just things that came with and when you look at them all of the time and as demanding as we are about that and as focused as we are about that, you see our guys, the attempts are there. We are doing a better job this year than last on the attempts. That is not only in the sacks and trying to cause a fumble and not only in the interceptions, but you see our guys when they are touching the ball or they are attempting to strip the ball out and runs. We just have to continue to do that and never be satisfied until we can score on defense when we get those takeaways, too. We had some the other day that just did not go our way and you just have to keep going."
On if DB Denzel Ward will be able to play against the Broncos:
"Right now, he is still in the protocol, and I will know more about that tomorrow hopefully. It will be tough if he can't practice, but we will see. It is whatever is best for him."
On if the team will practice or just do walkthroughs at the hotel in Denver:
"We will practice. We will go out to the stadium. We will do that, yes, and that is another one of our acclimation factors when we do that yes."
On if he sees the game primarily as a defensive coordinator, although he used to play QB:
"No. That is a very good question too is that I do believe this – the versatility of coaches at this level is when the players see that you have a feel for more than just one particular area. I do believe throughout my career that my understanding of playing on offense but also being an offensive coordinator, special teams coordinator and defensive coordinator, it helps you all of the way. One of the things we do defensively is we paint the picture through the quarterback's eyes, and just because you think we are playing something, we are not playing something. We have also throughout all these years have talked to some of the very top guys ever that have had a chance to coach against to tell me what you think we are doing. I always like letting them talk and show me how much they know when they really do not know much."
